Google Balloons Off The Coast

[Grahame Hutchison]

HBAL259 is now at 50,000 feet and very close to the coast at Forster. It would be interesting to know if they are visible from the ground ?

[AdamC]

What's the purpose of these Grahame, or anyone if they know.

Visible on flightradar24 also. There was heaps over New Zealand last week.

Cheers

Adam

[Grahame Hutchison]

From Google Project Loon ...

Many of us think of the Internet as a global community. But two-thirds of the world’s population does not yet have Internet access. Project Loon is a network of balloons traveling on the edge of space, designed to connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after disasters.

Project Loon balloons float in the stratosphere, twice as high as airplanes and the weather. In the stratosphere, there are many layers of wind, and each layer of wind varies in direction and speed. Loon balloons go where they’re needed by rising or descending into a layer of wind blowing in the desired direction of travel. People can connect to the balloon network using a special Internet antenna attached to their building. The signal bounces from this antenna up to the balloon network, and then down to the global Internet on Earth.

[Grahame Hutchison]

The is the latest position of the balloons with Range Rings and our current ADS-B reception Polar Plot. At 60,000 feet they are well above normal weather, only
needing small changes in altitute to pickup different air currents and change direction.



The 16Right ADS-B Analytics for today show the amazing difference in reception from the balloons transmitting all day, rather then
aircraft transmitting only for the duration of their flight (purple line compared to green).

[Grahame Hutchison]

Update From this morning ...

[Grahame Hutchison]

This story has been picked up by ZDNet's AU Edition by Leon Spencer.

Sydney sees Project Loon drift