(Fremont County, WY) – County 10 received quite a few photos, videos and messages over the weekend concerning “a strange object in the sky,” which many speculated was a weather balloon of some kind.
The sightings reported to us ranged from Riverton, Morton to Dubois, all of which stated that the object appeared to be slow-moving, almost stationary in the sky.
While most weather balloons are more spherical in shape with instruments dangling below, the object in question from this weekend looked more like a teardrop hot air balloon shape, with another oval balloon attached at the base, also with instruments dangling below.
After confirming with the National Weather Service in Riverton that it was indeed not one of their weather balloons, our search led us to reports of other sightings across the state, which then led to the source; World View.
World View is a data collection company that flies on behalf of scientific organizations like NASA and NOAA, government organizations like the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and commercial entities across a wide variety of industries like oil and gas, mining and minerals, insurance and utilities, according to a response from Phil Wocken, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for World View Enterprises.
Wocken confirmed that the sightings were of a World View Stratollite high-altitude balloon system, which was launched on August 31 from Arizona, where it has since been carrying out its mission north of the 40th Parallel over the last 23 days.
“A Stratollite is often confused with a weather balloon, but weather balloons are basic in their design: they’re launched, ascend into the stratosphere and then they pop when they get too high,” Wocken explained. “Ours is a much more sophisticated stratospheric vehicle that can be remotely navigated to certain areas and stay aloft for days, weeks, or months at a time.”
The mission is only flying one system/balloon, Wocken added, but stated that they do have a separate mission also in the air right now, currently in southern Colorado.
Wocken shared that the primary customer on this specific mission is Space Environment Technologies, in collaboration with NASA, as part of the Automated Radiation Measurements for Aerospace Safety (ARMAS) project.
“We are flying their sensor package north of the 40th Parallel to increase their solar radiation data set,” Wocken said of the mission. “Their sensors use an innovative approach with a low-cost dosimeter sensor to enhance Earth science research and improve aerospace safety.”
“The data captured improves the accuracy of radiation dose and dose rates along flight tracks. In doing so, the ARMAS project has made a significant contribution toward improving U.S. and international aviation safety by laying the groundwork for an automated, reliable operational system that can monitor the natural galactic and solar radiation environment at commercial aviation flight levels.”
The systems utilize ADS-B transponders so they can be tracked on flight tracking websites, Wocken shared, but the balloon system folks in Fremont County witnessed experienced a transponder malfunction early in the flight, which is preventing it from squawking its location to public flight tracking sites. World View can still track the balloon though, as can the FAA and local air traffic control.
Wocken went on to explain that his technology and data is used in many ways.
“We exist to inspire, create and explore new perspectives for a radically improved future,” Wocken commented. “The primary way we do that today is to gather and provide data for our customers to help them make smarter decisions that improve our life (and our future) on this planet.”
“World View Stratollite high-altitude balloon systems can help the U.S. Forest Service detect and monitor wildfire activity over long periods of time or help an insurance company assess damage and assist in recovery efforts after a natural disaster,” Wocken continued.
“We can also help an oil and gas company monitor their pipelines to detect trace methane emissions leaks that can harm the environment.”
Additionally, World View “helps organizations like NASA and NOAA study the planet and space from the stratosphere to improve weather forecasting, understand the impacts of solar radiation or measure long-term changes in our planet and her atmosphere,” and also assists the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security with “intelligence and surveillance needs to protect national security interests.”
“There are many, many use cases for this type of remote sensing technology from a high-altitude balloon system like ours.”