similar event

Boy one video and a number of eyewitnesses and the Internet and we have a mysterious missile launch. Or not? The story was the lead on the network news and is sure to be front page in tomorrow’s newspapers. Are we under attack? Hardly. Not to give away my age but back in the late 60s I worked on Department of Defense funded program seeing if there was a difference in the optical properties of high ice clouds (cirrus) and missile plumes. Instruments were flown in a U2 (the plane not the rock group) out of Patrick AFB in Florida when we knew there was going to be a missile launch from then Cape Kennedy, now back to Cape Canaveral, the U2 was sent up and recorded data of what the optical properties of the missile plume were. The researchers (I was certainly the very junior member) had also included a wide angle camera in the instrument pod so my job was to look at the recorded film (it sure was film in those days) and analyze what the cloud was or what the instruments were “seeing”. Clouds or missile plumes? So what does this all have to do with this missile launch off the California Coast?

I’ve looked at the video and the images. IT’S A CONTRAIL from a high flying commercial jet aircraft. Well that’s my considered professional opinion with 99% confidence. Remember everything in observing, forecasting, reaching conclusions before all the facts are in does involve some uncertainty . . . even global warming. Bad joke.

Anyway if you agree or disagree with my conclusion here is a wonderful link, that probably has been getting more hits than every that you should look at. Let me know what you think.

Bob Ryan

bryan@wjla.com