Page 40 - July - August 2019 - v3_june_july_2009_Neat

40 Misidentifying Natural Phenomena

Misidentifying Natural

Phenomena as UFOs

(How Many UFOs Have

Natural Explanations)

Continued from Page 39

Weather Balloons: Though frequently
lampooned by ufologists as the most simplistic
of explanations for aerial phenomenon, the fact
is that helium filled weather balloons make
excellent UFOs, especially when seen from
below when their spherical shape can appear
especially disk-like. Further, these balloons can
be quite large, are often coated in a highly
reflective material (giving them a polished or
shiny appearance), and can fly at altitudes as
high as 120,000 feet where winds aloft can push
them along at hundreds of knots, giving them
the illusion of moving at high speeds. More than hanging over Phoenix, Arizona in 1997 (which who has ever seen a jet's landing lights diffused
once I have had to study a fast moving object in does in fact lie near a military training ground by thick fog (or suddenly turned off during a
the sky for some time before determining it to be where evening bombing exercises are frequently steep ascent, making the object appear to
something as innocuous as a child's balloon, so held). abruptly vanish) could easily imagine they are
the weather balloon theory is not only valid, but witnessing something other worldly.
needs to be taken seriously. Swamp Gas: Essentially an accumulation of Additionally, an aircraft flying through thick
Methane gas (usually found in peat bogs, mud clouds on a dark and windy night (when the
Satellites: As more countries join the space race flats, marshes, and swamps or wherever stagnant sound of engines is often masked) could easily
and the demand for improved communications, water coincides with the decay of organic appear as a mysterious, bright object winking on
weather forecasting and aerial surveillance matter) that, under certain conditions, can take and off and changing brightness as it moves
grows, the orbital lanes around our planet are on a mildly luminous appearance and appear to silently through the darkness. In daytime also,
growing increasingly cluttered with a wide array hover just above the ground, swamp gas has had identifying a mysterious object in the sky as an
of fast moving and highly reflective satellites of little success over the years being taken aircraft can also be problematic; when flying at
all sizes and configurations. To give you some seriously by either proponents or opponents of high altitude (where engine noise is often
idea of how cluttered our skies are getting, the the UFO phenomenon as a particularly plausible indiscernible) on a bright and sunny day, the
United States Space Surveillance Network explanation for UFOs, largely due to their small brushed aluminum fuselage and wings of an
(SSN) currently tracks more than 8,000 man- size, general rarity, and lack of movement. Still, aircraft can give off an eerie sheen which, when
made objects orbiting the planet, of which about it is something to take into account, especially if combined with the fact that most aircraft's
seven percent (approximately 560) are one should spot something unusual over the navigation lights are invisible in daytime, can
operational satellites. Florida Everglades or a Louisiana bayou. make it appear to be a silvery object moving
Often trapped in their orbits for years at swiftly across the sky. Also, if approaching
a time, however, these silent sentinels of the Birds, Lens flare, Reflections, and other straight on, an aircraft can appear to be hanging
skies can usually be picked out by anyone with abnormalities: Few people can accept the motionless, at least until it makes a sudden turn,
a pair of binoculars and some patience, so they possibility that something as commonplace as a thereby mimicking the sudden stops and start
are not an uncommon sight. Additionally, as bird could be mistaken for a UFO, but it must be movement often associated with UFOs and
they can often appear to pulsate in intensity (a realized that under certain circumstances—and further enhancing its otherworldly effect.
natural illusion created by atmospheric especially when flying at very high altitudes Further, blimps, helicopters, and VTOL aircraft
inversion layers) and even "wink out" when (some birds have been spotted flying as high as are also frequently mistaken as UFOs due to
their angle to the sun changes, they can 40,000 feet or more)—birds can be highly their unconventional flight characteristics—in
sometimes be mistaken for a UFO. reflective and, especially when wet, even appear particular their ability to hover and then
to glisten like metal, giving them an artificial or suddenly fly away.
Flares: Military aircraft often drop flares while metallic appearance. Additionally, bits of tin foil
conducting night training operations (or, in or panels of corrugated metal driven skyward by (Continued on Page 41)
combat areas, as a means of diverting heat- strong winds and powerful updrafts, falling
seeking anti-aircraft missiles). These flares, chunks of ice broken off from a high altitude THE ‘X’ ZONE
unlike the tiny ones used to mark highway airliner, and other bits of aerial flotsam can also
obstacles or for emergency use, are quite large take on a silvery sheen and appear quite BROADCAST
and will burn brightly for up to a half an hour at luminescent, making them occasional
a time and, when suspended from parachutes, candidates for flying disks. Even cockpit lights NETWORK
can remain airborne for some time. As such, if reflecting off a canopy have been misidentified
dropped in a cluster, they can take on a beaded as high-speed UFOs (especially in the earlier www.XZBN.net
necklace effect that gives them the impression of years of UFO pursuits) making the need to be
either aircraft hovering in formation or, if close careful about what one thinks they are seeing “Searching for Answers,
enough together, can even appear to be a string especially important.
of running lights or "portholes". To a public Demanding the Truth.”
generally unfamiliar with such ordnance and its Aircraft: While it is difficult to imagine that
characteristics, however, the effect can be anyone could mistake a modern airliner or Listen 24/7/365 at
spectacular and even frightening, making flares military jet for an extraterrestrial vehicle
an especially good candidate to be mistaken for nowadays, there are circumstances when an
a UFO. This, in fact, may be the explanation aircraft can appear quite peculiar, especially to a
behind the mysterious lights that were seen highly excitable observer. For example, anyone www.XZBN.net