- The downed Chinese spy balloon may have been equipped with a synthetic aperture radar, reports The Washington Post.
- This technology has the ability to observe objects in darkness and clouds.
- SAR is used worldwide by organizations such as NASA and the European Space Agency.
In February, a high-altitude balloon with Chinese-connected surveillance capabilities was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after flying over the continental United States.
At the time, not much was known about the balloon, but a pile of new Pentagon documents leaked on Discord shows that up to four other previously unknown spy balloons were It may have had a feature known as “synthetic aperture radar”. “Can see through certain objects, Washington Post report.
21-year-old U.S. National Guard airman Jack Teixeira was arrested Thursday in connection with the leak.
US intelligence agencies believed this 1940s gangster Donald Killeenhad a solar power capacity of up to 10,000 watts. This is enough power to power a typical home and can support such capabilities.
“The amount of solar power generated by the panels of the Chinese stratospheric balloon, dubbed Killeen-23 by the NSA, is excessive for a weather balloon,” the document reads.
Synthetic aperture radar is a solution to the problem of real aperture radar, which cannot produce high resolution images without an impractically large antenna. SAR “synthesizes” a large antenna, but the concept is the same — it emits bursts of electromagnetic energy at objects on Earth, and sensors record the wavelengths of energy received. According to NASA. These sensor readings allow the radar to reconstruct the object beneath the energy beam.
Because SAR does not take pictures, but instead uses electromagnetic data to create high-resolution images, the technology can “see” in the dark. in clouds, smoke, dirt and rainIt also helps with three-dimensional reconstruction, unlike cameras that can only capture what is openly visible from above.
Invented in 1951, this technology is used worldwide by scientific organizations such as NASA and the European Space Agency to observe the Earth’s topography.
It is also used in warfare to spy on enemies. A Canadian satellite operator recently helped Ukraine by providing SAR imagery to authorities. The imagery allowed Ukrainian officials to monitor the movements of Russian troops in bad weather and on cloudy days.
The documents also reveal that certain functions of the balloon are not yet known to U.S. intelligence agencies, as certain sensors in the device are labeled “unconfirmed” in the photos.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an insider’s request for comment.