One reason the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been detecting additional “objects” in recent days could be that the command recently modified its filters to better spot slow-moving targets operating above a certain altitude, according to a source aware of the matter told DailyExpertNews.
The filters were adjusted and broadened only last week, the source said, after a suspected Chinese spy balloon passed over the US at high altitude and sparked a debate about the United States’ ability to detect potentially threatening objects entering the US. to detect and defend against. airspace.
The Washington Post first reported on NORAD’s adjustment.
The U.S. was able to track the spy balloon’s path before it entered U.S. airspace — and eventually shoot down off the coast of South Carolina — largely because the U.S. intelligence community developed a method over the past year to track the balloons using using a particular set of signals they broadcast, as DailyExpertNews has previously reported.
But in general, NORAD tends to prioritize the detection of fast-moving targets below a certain altitude – at which menacing aircraft or certain missiles might fly, for example.
The narrower filters were intended to help NORAD and defense officials better understand the mass of data collected on any given day, the source said. If they didn’t filter out slow-moving objects, early warning air defense systems would pick up a lot of noise, such as weather balloons and birds.
Two of the three targets shot down in the past three days — near Alaska and over northern Canada — were flying at about 12,000 feet, US and Canadian officials said, posing a potential risk to civilian aircraft. Both objects also appeared to contain a balloon, with a small metal cylinder underneath, officials said.
Very little is known so far about the third object shot down near Lake Huron on Sunday.