UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

Case File Details

The following case is used on The Black Vault with permission from the author/investigator. It can not be reproduced in any way without contacting Mr. William Puckett.

Radar Analysis and Computation Worksheet
Hanford, WA sighting of Large Orange Objects
October 18, 2015
Prepared by William Puckett
UFO Investigator and Meteorologist

Background: 2 Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC) Officers saw bright orange lights for around 50 seconds between 9:52 and 9:57 PM on Oct 18, 2015. The lights were sighted in a southwesterly direction. The lights were larger than yard lights and were about 25 to 30 degrees above the horizon.

The officers were traveling south on Highway 395 between Connell and Mesa, WA.

James Clarkson MUFON Director for Washington State received the sighting report and requested assistance with analysis of radar data. In response to this request I wrote a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requesting aviation radar data for the Pasco, WA (Tri-cities) area.

I received the radar data submission from the FAA about 2 months later (December 18, 2015). The FAA provided the data that I requested.

FIGURE ONE – WITNESS & LOCATIONS OF 2 RADAR SITES.

Notes on Radar Data: The radar data were received for Pasco, WA Traffic Control and a NTAP (National Transportation Analysis Program) was also received. The NTAP included a long range radar from Fossil, Oregon which is about 100 miles south of Pasco, WA and the Pasco, WA Traffic Control radar. (See Figure One to the left).

The closest returns on radar were about 18 miles to the southwest (near Pasco, WA airport). (See Figure Two below.) The interesting thing about the data in Figure Two is that the Pasco radar report listed that returns were “target reports.” This suggests that data were filtered and weather returns, gr0und traffic, birds and radar angels were removed. This suggests that the remaining returns were actual moving aerial targets. All of the primary returns are shown in Figure Two below. A typical “unfiltered” radar map is shown in Figure Three below. The radar map in Figure Three is for Albany, New York. You can see A “conglomerate” of returns and it is difficult to determine real moving targets while Figure Two shows small patterns of returns.

We can’t definitively say for sure if the radar picked up the objects seen by the witnesses, but we can say that radar returns were in the direction (southwest) and at the time (9:50 to 10 PM) that the witnesses saw the objects. The radar returns were around 18 miles from the estimated witness location and near the Pasco radar. (See Figure Four below.) Figure Four shows the area of returns and a zoom in showing the speed and direction of movement of the returns.

The zoom in box to the left is for returns detected from 9:50 to 9:51 PM. For the box to the left there were six radar returns in sequence. The target was moving slowly east, then abruptly changes direction to the south-southwest at a higher speed and then turned east-southeast at original speed (38 MPH). One can’t say for sure if each return represents the same target, but the targets were in sequence with each turn of the radar antenna. The targets were not detected after 9:51 PM.

FIGURE TWO – ALL RETURNS 9:30 TO 10 PM – OCT 18, 2015.

The zoom in box to the right shows returns from 9:54 to 9:55 PM. The box to the right fits more closely with the witness observation time. Again the speed of the target is slow (38 to 48 MPH) and moving to the west-southwest. The target then turned direction to the northwest and nearly increased it’s speed tenfold. Again we can’t say for sure if this is one target, but it fits with the radar antenna rotation sequence. The direction of movement (westerly direction ) fits with what the witnesses saw. The targets were no longer detected after 9:55 PM.

Of course the targets could have been multiple targets, but may have showed up as one target on the radar scope if they were close together. The witnesses observed multiple targets.

There were also returns noted in the same area observed by the witnesses before the sighting time, but the witnesses would not have been in position to observe the returns.

Doppler weather radar data were collected from Portland, Oregon and Spokane, Washington. Both of these radars reach the Pasco, WA area. Some light showers were observed a few hours prior to the sighting. Skies were clear at Pasco Airport at the time of the sighting. The Doppler radar maps did not show anything unusual. The radar sites did show some scattered showers, but the area was well removed from the sighting area. However, Doppler radars are not designed to detect aircraft. The radars have a narrow beam width (one degree) which means that objects will not be detected unless they happen to fly through the narrow beam.

FIGURE THREE – MAP OF ALL PRIMARY RADAR RETURNS ALBANY, NY 9/5/2015.

The discussion below makes the assumption that the object(s) seen by the witnesses were detected by radar:

One of the officers said that his thumb would cover up the object. A thumb has a width of 2 arc degrees. (The moon has a width of 30 arc minutes which is about 25% the size of a thumb in apparent width.) Let’s assume that the object had a width of 1 arc degrees:

Using trigonometry the width of the object would be around 1,650 feet if what the witnesses saw was detected by radar. For comparison purposes the length of a 747 aircraft is 231 feet with a wingspan of 211 feet.

The witnesses thought that the object(s) were at an elevation of 20 to 30 degrees. For computations we will assume that the elevation was 25 degrees. If we assume that the primary radar returns belonged to the object we can say the following:

Using trigonometry if the radar returns represented the object, the elevation would have just over 44,000 feet.

If the returns represent what the witnesses saw the objects would have been quite large and would have been very visible from the Pasco, WA area. The fact that the time of the sighting was late (around 10 PM on a Sunday night before the week) and the fact that the objects were only visible for a short time may have resulted in fewer (in any) witnesses. Also there is a possibility that the objects may have appeared larger to the witnesses due to light scattering in the atmosphere which can make objects appear bigger. This is particularly true if objects are lower on the horizon (25 degrees or lower).

FIGURE FOUR – MAP & ZOOM IN OF AREA OF RADAR RETURNS.

Conclusion and Summary:

2 DOC officers saw 2 large orange objects to the Southwest while returning home from work around 10 PM on October 18, 2015. The officers were near Connell, WA and were returning to the Tri-Cities area. The officers had never before or have since seen the lights.

The lights were near the Hanford Nuclear Facility in Richland, Washington.

Aviation radar data were heavily filtered which eliminates most superfluous returns (birds, weather, ground targets, angels, etc.)
Radar targets were detected in the direction and times when the witnesses saw the objects. The distance was large (around 18 miles).

The radar targets were only visible for 2 periods of time (9:50-9:51 PM & 9:54-9:55 PM) of around one minute. This is consistent with the brief time that the witnesses saw the objects. The radar targets were in a southwesterly direction which is where the witnesses saw the objects.

The targets were moving in a westerly direction at speeds of 38 to 48 MPH and then accelerated to over 300 MPH before vanishing from the scope. The radar detected this from 9:54 to 9:55 PM. This is consistent with the direction of movement reported by the witnesses and closest to the time (9:52 to 9:57 PM).

If the targets represent what the witnesses saw the objects would have flying around 44,000 feet and would have been over 1,500 feet in width.

The witnesses saw multiple targets. Perhaps the targets were so close to one another that the radar only painted one return?

The targets were close to Pasco Airport. One would think that others would have witnessed the objects if the radar targets represented what the witnesses saw due to their large size and proximity to the Pasco area.

Dying Star Betelgeuse Keeps Its Cool ... and Astronomers Are Puzzled — **A direct-sky image of Betelgeuse, a star that is shedding its mass as it nears the end of its life.**
**Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin.**

The bright, red star Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion, has entered the twilight of its life. Like many stars of a similar size that reach the end of the road, Betelgeuse is slowly shedding its mortal coil — by ejecting much of its mass out into space.

This phase of star death is extremely common in the universe — in about 5 billion years, when the sun starts to die, it too will become a "red giant." It will shed much of its mass and swell to such an enormous size that it will engulf Mercury, Venus and Earth. But new observations of Betelgeuse show that scientists still can't explain what causes a red giant's massive expulsion of matter.

"In the next million years, if Betelgeuse lives that long, it is going to shed about a quarter of its current mass, and the problem is we don't understand the basic physics of how that happens," said Graham Harper, an astrophysicist and senior research associate at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "This is a big astrophysical problem." [The Brightest Stars in the Sky: A Starry Countdown]

Earlier this month, at the 227th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS), Harper presented new observations of Betelgeuse that appear to further complicate the story of how these red giant and supergiant stars shed so much mass.

The findings show that the gas moving away from the star is much colder than expected, and so far, scientists can't come up with a mechanism that can eject so much mass from the star, but also generate so little heat. It's a problem of balancing energy in and energy out and right now the accounting doesn't add up.

This collage shows Betelgeuse as it appears in the Orion constellation (left; the star is identified by the marker), a zoom toward Betelgeuse (middle), and the sharpest-ever image of this red supergiant, obtained the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.
**Credit: ESO, P. Kervella, Digitized Sky Survey 2 and A. Fujii**

The flying observatory

NASA's SOFIA instrument is neither a space-based telescope nor a ground-based one. Instead, it's on an airplane.

An observatory that can fly at 45,000 feet has some advantages over ground- and space-based telescopes. At that altitude, SOFIA can get almost entirely above the Earth's atmosphere, which is helpful because studying the cosmos through those protective layers can be like looking through a pair of glasses with the wrong prescription, or a windshield battered by rain. (This distortion may not be obvious to the human eye, but it does arise at the level of precision sought by astronomers).

The distortion is particularly bad when studying infrared light, which is what Harper and colleagues wanted to collect from Betelgeuse's outer layers (the star has now swelled to the point that if it were placed in Earth's solar system, it would extend to the orbit of Jupiter, according to NASA). There's no space-based observatory that gathers the specific wavelengths of light they were after, and gathering data with SOFIA was not only faster but significantly cheaper than launching something into space. Plus, scientists can strap new equipment onboard SOFIA with every flight.

So that's exactly what Graham and his colleagues did — they fitted a custom-made detector onto SOFIA to look at Betelgeuse in a way that had never been done before, and their results were immediately surprising.

A surprisingly cool star

Astronomers group stars into classes according to spectral color and brightness. <a href="http://www.space.com/30885-telling-star-types-apart-infographic.html">Here's how they tell stars apart</a>. — **Astronomers group stars into classes according to spectral color and brightness. Here's how they tell stars apart.**
**Credit: by Karl Tate, Infographics Artist**

Back in the 1980s, according to Harper, scientists came up with an explanation for what caused red giants, as well as red supergiants like Betelgeuse, to shed their mass The theory posited that the energy was created largely by magnetic fields shoving the electrically charged gas (called plasma) out into space. Magnetic field activity in the sun can set off massive explosions, and move around the glowing-hot material on the surface.

The red supergiant theory drew on what scientists know about magnetic fields in the sun, Harper said. With the theory in place, "Everyone got a little bit comfortable," Graham said.

That ended in 1997, when a group of scientists decided to scrutinize Betelgeuse using the Very Large Array (VLA), a massive radio observatory in New Mexico. The new high-resolution observations allowed the researchers to peer into the layers of material coming off Betelgeuse, and measure the temperature therein. They found it to be only about one-third of what the magnetic field model predicted it should be.

Heat is a common byproduct whenever energy is exchanged – consider how friction can make your hands warm when rubbed together, or how a computer heats up while it is on. When objects collide, they can also generate heat. The magnetic field theory of red supergiants predicted that the energy pushing the gas outward would also warm it up, but the observations showed that wasn't the case.

"The basic underlying physics was way off," Graham said. "If you're going to throw out and eject matter, you need to put energy in — and that energy is not heating the plasma at all."

Harper and his colleagues are hunting for answers to the red supergiant problem. But their most recent observations of Betelgeuse with SOFIA — along with some supplemental data from the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii — only seem to complicate the problem further. Their infrared detector aboard SOFIA observed even cooler temperatures than those found in the VLA study. They "[go] way below what we already thought was cold," Graham said. The finding agrees with the VLA observations that "there is much less hot material than we ever would have expected," based on the magnetic field model.

"Magnetic fields are very plausible but we don't know how to make them behave to get the right answer," Harper said, referring to scientists' current inability to come up with a model that matches the observations.

Solar Quiz: How Well Do You Know Our Sun?

Many of us take the sun for granted, giving it little thought until it scorches our skin or gets in our eyes. But our star is a fascinating and complex object, a gigantic fusion reactor that gives us life. How much do you know about the sun?

So what mechanism could put so much energy into the material but not heat it?

In addition to magnetic fields, the explanation could be shockwaves, or great releases of plasma ejected from inside the star. All of these things could add up to explain what scientists are observing.

"So it might be it's a combination of all sorts of things and it's just somehow fooling us in a very bad way," Harper said.

He also cautioned that the results from the SOFIA flight have not yet been repeated. The team is planning another flight for this year to verify their initial result. Once the findings are verified and published, they'll be tossed to the handful of theoreticians grappling with his problem and trying to come up with a solution (and Harper said there are some theoreticians working very hard on this problem).

There are other ways that scientists can try to crack this problem, including studying another nearby red supergiant, Antares. In addition, Harper said he and his would like to observe Betelgeuse and Antares using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in Chile. While ground-based, ALMA is located 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) above sea level, where it can avoid many of the distorting effects of the atmosphere. When the observatory is operating with the full power of its 66 antennas, ALMA will allow astronomers to peer deeper into Betelgeuse's layers, closer to the surface of the star, where they may find clues about what's driving the star's shedding, Harper said.

"As a physicist, I'm really interested in trying to fundamentally understand this so we can apply it to many other objects," Harper said.

At some point in the next million years, Betelgeuse is expected to follow the path of many red supergiants before, it and explode into a supernova. From Earth, it may appear as bright in the night sky as the full moon. This stellar explosion could take place tomorrow, but with any luck, scientists will have enough time before Betelgeuse explodes to solve the curious case of the cool red supergiants.

Follow Calla Cofield @callacofield. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.