NEW YORK — U.S. officials say that a huge surveillance balloon that was seen over Montana and is thought to be from China is being followed as it flies over the United States.
Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement on Thursday, “The United States government has found and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is flying over the continental United States right now.” “NORAD” (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is still keeping a close eye on it.
China’s foreign ministry says it’s a civilian weather balloon, but many politicians on the right in the U.S. are already calling for President Joe Biden to shoot it down.
The previous balloon crashes near Hawaii and Guam in 2022:
Officials from the United States have confirmed that China was involved in balloon incidents last year near Hawaii and Guam. In February 2022, officials said that a balloon seemed to be still in international waters northwest of Kauai, Hawaii.
One of the officials said that the Hawaii event happened not long after a similar one near Guam that same year. Officials say that high-altitude balloons from China were involved in both of the events in the Pacific.
Images and videos of the balloon have been posted online by meteorologists, storm chasers, and aficionados of unusual occurrences. Similarly popular on Twitter are the hashtags #ChineseSpyBalloon and #ChinaBalloon.
It is expected that the balloon will pass over North Carolina on Saturday, according to projections made by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which produced a graphic depicting the balloon’s route.
Friday afternoon, the balloon was visible from the National Weather Service’s Pleasant Hill office, which is located in Kansas City, Missouri.
Tweeting that “We have confirmed that it is not an NWS weather balloon,” it said.
A weather forecaster in Salisbury, Maryland, posted an NOAA map depicting the balloon’s expected path over the following three days. Dan Satterfield, a researcher, has speculated that the path may shift.
Satterfield speculated in a tweet that the track’s height may change significantly if it could be lifted and lowered. A significant shift, though, would require bringing it down into the commercial air lanes.
It’s obvious that many people will be dutifully monitoring the balloon’s movement while U.S. and Chinese officials continue to argue over the balloon’s purpose and how to deal with it.
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