Flying Saucers (PUBD Is Unknown)

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

## O

3. ATIA-5, faced with this situation, compiled in July a file of balloon launch data cards for Air Weather Service, Naval Air Weather Service, and Weather Bureau launch stations. In addition, this information is pictured graphically on the weather balloon launch location chart. Combining this information with the winds aloft data which ATIC receives from the facsimile charts has often provided a solution to Flyobrpts. Significantly, balloons, possible and probable, increased from 15% in June to 30% in August, with 21% in July. The percentage of reports analyzed as "unknown" decreased proportionately. This gain is a real one, and results from the accumulation of the background data and the elimination of guesswork.

4. The actual radiosonde meteorological information is extracted by all agencies launching balloons onto WBAN 31a, 31b, and 31c. For winds aloft observations, all agencies use WBAN 20 and 20a, and these forms also include the track of the balloon. All agencies forward these records to the National Weather Records Center, Grove Arcade Building, Asheville, North Carolina. ATIA-5 has requested the CO, ATS, which maintains a detachment at Asheville, to permit "Blue Book" to deal directly with Asheville. The intention is to request photostats of the sounding (WBAN 31a, b, c) and the balloon track (WBAN 20 and 20a) at certain specific times and places. If this is approved, ATIC will be in a position to obtain these records for every balloon flight launched in the U.S. from overseas American bases, and from all the U.S. ships and weather stations at sea. In addition, ATIA-5 will continue to use the balloon launch information available in this office and will from time to time TWA various launch sites for specific information. These methods of approach will solve the problem of weather balloons.

## Part II - Upper Air Research Balloons

1. Specially designed types of balloons are used by the USAF and the U.S. Navy in cooperation with various contractors to obtain upper air data for scientific purposes. There is no doubt that these balloons cause Fly-obrpts; tracking data of eleven such flights in July resulted in positive identification in three cases, probable identification in three more. The U.S. Navy, through its field representative of CMR at the University of Minnesota, deals with three contractors. The balloons released are large white polyethylene types capable of expanding to 100' in diameter and carrying up to 500 pounds of metallic equipment. Valve and inflation arrangements control floating altitudes. Naturally, they are visible even at extreme altitudes under many conditions and are capable of assuming almost any shape. The contractors often release from time to time fres or attached clusters of the PA and P type rubberized balloons, as well.

2. These flights are often of long duration; one Minneapolis released balloon was tracked to Cape Cod and lost, then it was recovered in Bordeaux, France. They are tracked by ten RDF stations throughout the United States.

3. ATTAL-5 has taken steps to set up a reporting system for all balloon flights of the Navy contractors. This program will be implemented 15 Oct 52 and will permanently solve the problem of U.S. Navy upper air research balloons.