 RADCAT Case Directory Category 9, RADAR Preliminary Rating: 2 |
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Three
Radars Track Blip (Probable IFO)
Nov. 5, 1959
Montauk AFS, Long sland, New York
Nov. 5, 1959
Montauk AFS, Long sland, New York
| Brad
Sparks: Nov. 5, 1959; Montauk AFS, Long Island, New York (BBU) (McDonald list) Dan Wilson: November 5, 1959; Montauk AFS, Long Island, New York (BBU) 7:19 p.m. EST. A blip appeared on radar screens of the 773rd RADRON (SAGE). The target was steadily climbing to a range of 43 miles at an azimuth of 286 degrees. The track was first seen at azimuth 282 degrees at 40 miles. The blip faded out at an altitude of 78,200 feet. The observation was on FPS-20, FPS-6 radars and IFF: UPX-6. The length of observation was 10 minutes. Brad Sparks: The radar site reported this was a weather balloon launched from Idlewild Airport at about 6:00 p.m., or 79 minutes before the radar-only (no visual) sighting began at 7:19, when it was tracked at 68,000 ft. Standard meteorological balloons rise at about 1,000 ft per minute so it is almost an exact match, or actually an exact match if the round-number launch time of 6:00 was really say 6:11 (my understanding is that target times to launch met balloons can be off by up to 1/2 hour or even more -- Jan is the expert on met balloons he can tell you). During the 10 minutes of the radar tracking the object rose 10,200 ft or almost exactly the balloon rise rate of 1,000 ft/min (it's 1,020 ft/min, near perfect match). Its horizontal velocity was only 3 miles in 10 minutes or 18 mph, typical wind velocity. Detailed reports and documents reports/591105montauk_rep.htm (Dan Wilson) reports/591105montauk_rep2.htm (Brad Sparks, Dan Wilson, Martin Shough) |