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A comment on U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance balloon. Parent comment

Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by rationalist on Saturday February 04, 2023 @04:38PM (#34658626)
What information could the balloon collect that satellite or cars on the ground not collect? Air samples?
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by Vecr on Saturday February 04, 2023 @04:47PM (#34658724)
Possibly an Operation Sea-Spray[0] like biological weapons test? Not sure how they would do it exactly, but possibly some sort of stimulant in the form of an extremely fine powder.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sea-Spray

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by Idk__Throwaway on Saturday February 04, 2023 @06:07PM (#34659392)
Im almost certain that they would have heavily tested and analyzed the balloon and its payload as soon as it got near the US to ensure that there were no unusual emmisions coming from it.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by mysterydip on Saturday February 04, 2023 @06:55PM (#34659841)
Someone in another thread said "I think the purpose for sending the balloon was primarily to analyze the radar and RF environment on approach to U.S. airspace.", which would be something dependent on reference point and not able to be done from satellite or cars.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by mushbino on Sunday February 05, 2023 @12:03AM (#34662086)
They could much more easily do that with an actual commercial aircraft.
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