U.S. officials say a massive surveillance balloon believed to be from China and first seen above Montana is being tracked as it flies over the continental United States.

"The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States right now," Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Thursday. "NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command] continues to track and monitor it closely."

China's foreign ministry has claimed it is a civilian balloon used for meteorological purposes, but U.S. politicians, many on the right, are already demanding President Joe Biden shoot it down

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the surveillance balloon an "irresponsible act" by the People's Republic of China.

Blinken said he made clear to Wang Yi, the director of China's Central Commission for Foreign Affairs, that the balloon's presence is "a clear violation of U.S. sovereignty and international law ... and that the PRC's decision to take this action on the eve of my planned visit is detrimental to the substantive discussions that we were prepared to have.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chinese-balloon-live-updates-moving-eastward-over-central-us-pentagon-says/ar-AA173ZJl

I think this could just be a dry run to see what our reaction is. The next "balloon" might actually be a weapon. It could be nuclear, biological, EMP, or other WMD.

Do you write bad science fiction or action that airs on FOX? If not, you should, it’s the perfect combination of terrible for that network. 

It could be any of those things.

Are you a threat expert? That is exactly what the experts are saying today, some of which are from the Biden administration. No one who has spoken believes it is there on accident.

If they shoot it down, there may not be much to recover.

And how do they know this time that it's the Chinese again? Just because twice in the past, it's been Chinese, it could also be Japanese, but they will never know until after they've recovered it... hopefully in-tact!

High moisture confluence in Japan Sea polar air mass convergence zone captured by hourly radiosonde launches from a ship | Scientific Reports (nature.com)

Just last week, Japan released one weather balloon per hour for 3 days over the Japan Sea in an attempt to find the temperature and humidity of the air that was causing the massive snow this year on Japan's west coast. That's 24 hours x 3 days or 72 weather balloons.

The weather balloon sent back constant information as the balloons rose up into the air.

As the air was blowing east to southeast from over Russia, it could have pushed some of those balloons westward towards Washington or Oregon state.

But until they retrieve it, it sounds penny ante to threaten China without knowing where the balloon came from. And if it is a weather balloon, there is no need to shoot it down either!

FWIW

After I wrote the poll, I saw it may be difficult to capture it without shooting it down. It’s enormous.

They have been following it ever since it was released.

It is being controlled an maneuvered. If Japan launched it they would have told us by now so they could recover it. China admitted it is theirs and they “regret” it.

 
https://www.reuters.com/world/china-expresses-regret-that-civilian-airship-strays-over-us-2023-02-03/