Hot air balloon at 60,000 ft in North Carolina

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RaleighGuy

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Been watching a hot air balloon on my ADSB in the area of Norlina NC N253TH callsign HBAL593 off and on throughout the evening going up to flight level between 58K and 60K. Wondering what could be giving off this type of tracking. Appears to be tracking to the east.

 

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Chris-KH2PM

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Interesting catch.

I found this with a search for N253TH.

www.flightradar24.com

Keep Your Eye on the HBAL—Tracking Project Loon Balloons | Flightradar24 Blog

Take a closer look at Keep Your Eye on the HBAL—Tracking Project Loon Balloons, learn more about flight tracking and get the latest aviation news with Flightradar24.
www.flightradar24.com www.flightradar24.com

Super Pressure Balloons - Aerostar

Raven Aerostar's Super Pressure Balloons offer groundbreaking scientific, engineering, and communication advances in the stratosphere.
ravenaerostar.com
 
RaleighGuy

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Was just reading those, thanks @Chris-KH2PM, at first I thought it was a false reading until I googled it. Still wondering what it's doing up there.
 
ATCTech

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The Google-backed remote internet project ended but there are still experiments in progress to do with duration aloft for balloons like this for other purposes. There are various threads from over the years of the original program here on RR if you'd care to search for them.
 
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MtnBiker2005

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Another balloon was seen in Florida area.

Weather balloon spotted over Southwest Florida left residents mystified
the balloon comes from a private company that does Space Tourism called ‘World View Enterprises.’

World View | Stratospheric Spaceflight | Tourism Exploration Observation

World View is creating a new standard in space tourism that allows you to truly experience space as a tourist through affordable, accessible trips.
worldview.space worldview.space


Weather balloon spotted over Southwest Florida left residents mystified

A weather balloon floating over Southwest Florida mystified many residents Sunday evening.
nbc-2.com nbc-2.com
 
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RaleighGuy

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Wonder if it was the same one, looks like it crossed Florida heading down to Central America and Hondoras?

Screenshot 2022-05-09 20.59.39.png
 
RaleighGuy

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HBAL593 is back up today, just southeast of Norlina in Warren County NC, however the registration number is now showing N933TH. This may be because of duplicate Hex of ACF27F being used by multiple balloons as mentioned above, however I'm not seeing another with that hex. Across the country I'm seeing 4 hot air balloons up.

Screenshot 2022-05-10 09.41.48.png
Screenshot 2022-05-10 09.46.34.png
 
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dmaaero

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One came up yesterday 5/19/22 somewhere NW of Roanoke Rapids, NC and drifted SE over Hatteras before making a turn to the north.
 
AB4BF

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RaleighGuy said:
Been watching a hot air balloon on my ADSB in the area of Norlina NC N253TH callsign HBAL593 off and on throughout the evening going up to flight level between 58K and 60K. Wondering what could be giving off this type of tracking. Appears to be tracking to the east.

Click to expand...
According to a You-Tube channel called MonkeyWerx ( https://www.youtube.com/c/MonkeyWerxUS ) these balloons are US intelligence gathering balloons flying upwards of 90 K feet, usually 1 to 5 balloons are up on any given day. MonkeyWerx uses a rather new flight identification system called "SkyGlass" in 3D. Its available to the general public for a subscription fee. HTH...
 
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