In a message dated 6/2/2006 1:13:30 PM
Pacific Daylight Time, m.castner@comcast.net writes:
The one thing I do see is on the 7th in Nashville we have
a wind speed of
20 and then 10, 10...not sure how this relates to altitude or if it
does,
but it does pick up faster later (or higher?) so this may account for
that
apparent STATIONARY report for a time so in two hours it would have
covered
20 miles. If spotted first in Maysville then Ft. Knox area..., but
again I
get temp, direction, spd, but geo_hgt and press_mb I am lost and don't
know
how it interrelates.
Since the soundings from Nashville at 3 PM on Jan 7, 1948, cut off at
11,000 ft I looked at 3 PM on the days before and after to see what the
general pattern was and to see if they got higher altitude
readings. (I should not have to explain why 3 AM soundings are
IRRELEVANT to what was going on with the winds around Mantell's crash
at 3 PM on Jna 7, as night weather is different from late afternoon for
meteorology reasons I don't need to go into. Of course 3 AM
soundings will be relevant farther back up a Skyhook path to Minn. but
not at NASHVILLE where Seyfert sighted a balloon-like object at
4:30-4:45 PM.)
Yup here it is Nashville on the 5th at 3 PM up to 24,000 ft:
#72327 19480105 159999 10
21100500B 177 28B-9999
40 10
10100000A 220B 18B-9999 50 10
10 85000 1519B 30B-9999 330 130
10 70000 3081B -14B-9999 320 170
10 50000 5690B -172B-9999 320 260
10 40000 7324B -297B-9999 300 280
The last entry means 7,324 meters or about 24,000 ft wind at 3 PM on
Jan 5, 1948, was from azimuth 300 degs or WNW at 28 m/sec or about 63
mph at Nashville. The pattern was the same checking 3 PM on
earlier days when they got 24,000 ft soundings (on the 3rd at 3 PM also
300 degs from WNW at 36 m/sec or 58 mph).
That means that according to Nashville weather data a balloon at 24,000
ft at 3 PM that first week in Jan 1948 should have been blown to the
azimuth 120 degs or ESE.
But astronomer Carl Seyfert saw his balloon at 4:30 PM in the SSE
heading away from him to the SSE or about azimuth 160 degs not 120
degs, then it shifted direction to due W 270, the exact opposite of the
prevailing winds to the E. Also any balloon near Godman then S to
Franklin to where mantell crashed then to Nashville has to be moving to
the SSW or 200 degs azimuth just about on Mantell's 220 heading, not
the winds blowing to 120 degs.
We would need to see if other stations in the Mantell region and along
the Skyhook path might have gotten upper winds above 25,000 ft on Jan
6-7, like Evansville, Lexington, Knoxville, St Louis especially,
etc. NCDC should be able to say who had upper air data on those
dates in the whole region.