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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 lettergram on Saturday February 04, 2023 @09:40PM (#34661149)
They also could have had ground penetrating radar. Note the path of the balloon was over the US missile silos

https://geo-matching.com/content/new-approach-to-use-ground-...

Outside the atmosphere you would not be able to do it

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by sandworm101 on Saturday February 04, 2023 @10:25PM (#34661485)
If that thing had a radar strong enough to see through dirt from 50,000ft, it should have also been causing havoc to all sorts of electrical equipment too.
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by Red_Leaves_Flyy on Saturday February 04, 2023 @11:22PM (#34661828)
I know nothing of radar, but could the radar be shaped like routers beam forming? Couldn’t the radar also be switched off over the majority of inconsequential areas?
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by JumpCrisscross on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:13AM (#34662441)
> could the radar be shaped like routers beam forming?

Yes, SAR [1].

[1] https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/backgrounders/what-is-s...

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by 4gotunameagain on Sunday February 05, 2023 @02:51AM (#34662850)
SAR is just a method to virtually increase the aperture of the antenna with a moving platform, it is unrelated to the localisation of the beam
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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by ridgeguy on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:26AM (#34662500)
You could.

The Space Shuttle flew missions with an imaging radar that discovered ancient riverbeds beneath deep sand in the Sahara. At the time, some thought it would have worked equally well to disclose buried military infrastructure.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/shuttle-imaging-radar-a-si...

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Re:U.S. military shoots down suspected Chinese surveillance ... by kefka_p on Sunday February 05, 2023 @01:31AM (#34662522)
Not just silos, going through the Dakotas and Missouri put it fairly close to Ellsworth and Whiteman, as well.
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