What is hydrogen and how green is it?

Martin Kuebler

DW

Politicians and industry leaders meet in Namibia this week to hype hydrogen. DW takes a closer look at the pros and cons of the powerful gas, widely regarded as a key part of a green energy future.

Green hydrogen is used in fuel cells to power, among other things, electric vehicles

Image: Hauke-Christian Dittrich/dpa/picture alliance


African business and political leaders are betting big on hydrogen to fuel the continent's "green industrial revolution," as Namibia holds a major summit hyping the gas that many believe will play a key role in shifting away from polluting fossil fuels.

The three-day summit in Windhoek will bring together investors and project developers from across Africa and the world, all attempting to boost investment in the gas. Europe, in particular, is eyeing up the continent's production potential.

But how does hydrogen really stack up as a climate solution?

What is hydrogen?

Hydrogen, the universe's most abundant element, is a colorless, odorless and nontoxic gas. It's light, flammable and has a high energy density — but it's also highly explosive. So much so that the name Hindenburg — referencing the hydrogen-filled airship — became synonymous with disaster after the 1937 accident.

Germany partners with Africa on green hydrogen energy  01:30

Despite the notoriety, hydrogen has been used for decades in the petrochemical industry. It's used to refine oil, produce ammonia for fertilizers, to make plastics and steel and generate methanol.

Hydrogen is a potent carrier of energy. One kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of hydrogen has 2.4 times more usable energy than the same amount of natural gas, nearly three times more than a kilo of gasoline and roughly four times more than a kilo of coal.
Is hydrogen a clean energy?

By itself — used in a fuel cell to generate electricity for some cars, for example — hydrogen doesn't produce any direct greenhouse gas emissions. It only creates water, electricity and heat.

But hydrogen isn't as easy to source as fossil fuels, which can just be dug up and burned directly. In nature, hydrogen is most commonly found in water. It's the H in H2O. But isolating and storing the gas requires time and energy.

There are many ways to separate hydrogen from water. But today, more often than not, these processes are polluting. Hydrogen production contributes around 2.2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, even if the hydrogen fuel at the end burns clean.

Gray, blue green, pink — how is hydrogen produced?

Hydrogen may be a colorless gas, but the industry has come up with a veritable rainbow of colors to describe the different production methods.

Today, most of what we produce is known as gray hydrogen. It uses a process called "steam reforming" which is powered by natural gas or methane. Every ton of gray hydrogen produced releases about 10 tons of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.

Black and brown hydrogen is even more detrimental. It's made by transforming black or brown coal into gas at high temperatures and separating out the hydrogen. It pollutes the atmosphere with both planet-heating CO2 and poisonous carbon monoxide.

Gray, black and brown hydrogen are commonly used in oil refining and to produce fertilizers, and today make up around 95% of the hydrogen produced worldwide.

Germany is looking hydrogen to replace oil from Russia, with German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (left) visiting a green hydrogen plant in Norway in 2023

Image: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/picture alliance

Blue hydrogen is more promising, but only marginally. This process captures the CO2 generated during the steam reforming process and stores it underground, rather than letting it escape. Though it's sometimes considered to be carbon neutral, some 10-20% of the carbon emissions can't be captured.

Pink hydrogen, meanwhile, is generated using nuclear power. No emissions, but you're still left with radioactive waste. And it's difficult to use on a global scale, with nuclear not readily available everywhere.

Turquoise, an experimental process which leaves behind solid carbon, and yellow — using either solar power or a mix of renewable and fossil fuel energies — also exist, but don't factor much into global production.

Neither does green hydrogen, the only method that doesn't emit CO2 during production. It's made using electrolysis — splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen — using renewable energy.

Green hydrogen produces no CO2 emissions — but it only makes up less than 1% of global hydrogen production.

What's holding green hydrogen back?

A few things: cost, proper infrastructure and the lack of renewable energy.

Today, green hydrogen costs more than twice as much to produce as gray. And to build up the wider hydrogen sector to supply 15-20% of the world's energy demand, we would need to invest $15 trillion (€13.5 trillion) by 2050, according to the Energy Transitions Commission, an international think tank.

The EU's ambitious hydrogen bet  13:29


But in its 2023 report on hydrogen, the International Energy Agency said the expansion of renewable energy where sun and wind are plentiful — places like India, the Middle East and Africa — could significantly increase the share of green hydrogen. And that would bring down costs, though some critics have said it would be more efficient to just use renewable energy directly.

That gas needs to be delivered to clients around the world, and hydrogen is notoriously difficult to transport in large quantities. It has to be stored in special pressurized containers, or liquefied (at minus 253 degrees Celsius/minus 423 Fahrenheit) and transported in pipelines, trucks or ships. It can also be moved in the form of ammonia, which is easier to ship as a liquid.

Before all that, the world would need to build up the necessary infrastructure. Germany and other countries aim to massively invest and scale up in this area over the next decade, in a bid to make hydrogen a viable alternative to fossil fuels.

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

'White' hydrogen — climate savior?  04:33

Martin Kuebler Senior editor and reporter living in Brussels, with a focus on environmental issues

Flying high: U.K.'s modern-day green airship takes shape

Agence France-Presse
March 12, 2024 

Britain's Airlander 10 is being billed as a less polluting alternative 

to traditional aircraft© Daniel LEAL / AFP


Britain's innovative Airlander 10 airship could soon take to the skies to offer leisure passengers panoramic views and far less pollution than traditional aircraft, according to its manufacturer.

On the outskirts of the town of Bedford, north of London, UK company Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) says its plans are well underway for greener but slower commercial air travel.

The Airlander -- which is 300 feet (91 metres) long -- is lifted by its gigantic helium-filled hull, which is then steered through the air by engine propellers powered by conventional fuel.

The dirigible is "unlike any other aircraft cabin you've sat in", HAV chief executive Tom Grundy told AFP on a visit to the Bedford facility.

"It's big, it's long, it's spacious (and) it's very quiet to sit on board.

"There's floor-to-ceiling windows, and the aircraft's unpressurised, so you can even open a window and look at the outside world as you're going over it."

- Cutting emissions -

The airship, initially developed for the US army, is longer than the Airbus A380 jumbo yet pumps out up to 75 percent less emissions than aircraft, according to HAV.

The group plans to start production later this year, while electric- and hydrogen-powered versions are planned in order to further slash emissions.


HAV has already manufactured a prototype, part of which is now on display in Bedford after completing test flights.

The tech hub also features a life-size model of the future airship that allows visitors to step on board and view its "luxury" configuration including a bar, passenger cabins and an observation lounge.

However, experts concede that airships will be hindered as a form of transport owing to its slow speed versus other airborne modes.


Professor Andreas Schaefer, director of the Air Transportation Systems Laboratory at University College London, cautioned that it would be a "niche" market.

"On a commercial basis, as a vehicle for long distance transport, I can't see any future because simply the speed is by far too slow," he noted.

HAV is one of the few companies that it seeking to relaunch the airship, but using the inert gas helium.


Almost 90 years ago, the Hindenburg Zeppelin -- filled with highly flammable hydrogen -- exploded in the United States in 1937, killing 36 people and ending the widespread use of airships.

- Airship revival -

Yet the potential of airships to provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost alternative to helicopters and passenger jets for transportation has now sparked renewed interest.

HAV's French peer Flying Whales is seeking to develop a fleet of rigid airships for carrying heavy cargo.

"The airship revival has been talked about, like the revival of Concord, for about 30 years now (or) more," aviation consultant Philip Butterworth-Hayes told AFP.

"The idea is absolutely great, it should theoretically be able to meet all the environmental challenges that aviation has in terms of being able to reduce carbon emissions."


Yet he sounded a cautious note over the outlook for airships.

"There's a whole number of very complex technical regulatory issues that need to be sorted out before it becomes a reality," said Butterworth-Hayes.

"You need an awful lot of money to certify an aircraft," he added.

Airlander, which is capable of taking off and landing on land or water, can stay airborne for up to five days and travel more than 7,000 kilometres at about 140 kilometres per hour.

Yet its British manufacturer estimates that its first commercial airship flights will not be until 2028.

HAV currently has 23 pre-orders for the airship, with an order book totalling more than £1.0 billion ($1.3 billion). That includes 20 lodged by Spanish regional airline Air Nostrum.

U.S. intelligence officials determined the Chinese spy balloon used a U.S. internet provider to communicate
An American intelligence assessment found that the balloon used a commercially available U.S. network to communicate, primarily for navigation, U.S. officials say.
The Chinese spy balloon in the sky over Billings, Mont., on Feb. 1.

Chase Doak / AFP

Dec. 28, 2023, 
By Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence officials have determined that the Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. this year used an American internet service provider to communicate, according to two current and one former U.S. official familiar with the assessment.

The balloon connected to a U.S.-based company, according to the assessment, to send and receive communications from China, primarily related to its navigation. Officials familiar with the assessment said it found that the connection allowed the balloon to send burst transmissions, or high-bandwidth collections of data over short periods of time.

The Biden administration sought a highly secretive court order from the federal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to collect intelligence about it while it was over the U.S., according to multiple current and former U.S. officials. How the court ruled has not been disclosed.

Such a court order would have allowed U.S. intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance on the balloon as it flew over the U.S. and as it sent and received messages to and from China, the officials said, including communications sent via the American internet service provider.

The company denied that the Chinese balloon had used its network, a determination it said was based on its own investigation and discussions it had with U.S. officials.

NBC News is not naming the provider to protect the identity of its sources.

A National Security Council spokesperson referred questions to the national intelligence director's office. It declined to comment.

Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said it was a weather balloon that accidentally drifted into American airspace.

"As we had made it clear before, the airship, used for meteorological research, unintentionally drifted into U.S. because of the westerlies and its limited self-steering capability," Liu told NBC News in a statement. "The facts are clear."

Chinese intelligence officials have covertly used commercially available service providers in various countries in the past, often as backup communication networks, according to multiple former U.S. officials. They frequently seek out encrypted networks or ones with strong security protocols so they can communicate securely, the officials said.

The previously unreported U.S. effort to monitor the balloon's communications could be one reason Biden administration officials have insisted that they got more intelligence out of the device than it got as it flew over the U.S.

Senior administration officials have said the U.S. was able to protect sensitive sites on the ground because they closely tracked the balloon's projected flight path. The U.S. military moved or obscured sensitive equipment so the balloon could not collect images or video while it was overhead.U.S. sailors recover debris from the Chinese surveillance balloon after it was shot down off Myrtle Beach, S.C. U.S. Navy via AP file

After the balloon was shot down on Feb. 4, Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, told reporters that the U.S. military and intelligence community had taken exhaustive steps to protect against the balloon's ability to collect intelligence.

“We took maximum precaution to prevent any intel collection," VanHerck said at a briefing. "So that we could take maximum protective measures while the balloon transited across the United States.”

In an exclusive interview this month, VanHerck said he worked together with U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees U.S. nuclear weapons, to reduce the release of emergency action messages to ensure the Chinese balloon could not collect them.

“We took action to put capabilities away, whether that be airplanes, ballistic missiles in our missile fields," VanHerck said. "We limited our emission of emergency action messages that could be potentially collected on."

Emergency action messages, or EAM, are how U.S. leaders communicate with strategic forces all around the world. The messages, which are highly classified, can include directing nuclear-capable forces on response options in the case of a nuclear war.

“Protecting EAM and nuclear command and control communications is of critical importance to the United States,” a senior defense official said.

After the balloon was shot down, a senior State Department official said that it was used by China for surveillance and that it was loaded with equipment able to collect signals intelligence.

The balloon had multiple antennas, including an array most likely able to collect and geolocate communications, the official said. It was also powered by enormous solar panels that generated enough power to operate intelligence collection sensors, the official said.

Defense and intelligence officials have said the U.S. assessment is that the balloon was not able to transmit intelligence back to China while it was over the U.S.

The FBI forensics team that examined the balloon after it was shot down completed a classified report about the equipment it carried, according to multiple U.S. officials. Its findings remain secret and have not been widely briefed.

Federal judges on the surveillance court, where proceedings are held in secret, must determine whether there is probable cause that the surveillance target is a foreign power or a foreign agent and that the surveillance is necessary to obtain foreign intelligence information. The court's rulings are classified.

Courtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

Carol E. Lee is an NBC News correspondent.

Shortening ice road seasons threat to safety for northern Manitoba First Nation: NDP MP Niki Ashton

Story by The Canadian Press • 20h

The federal Liberals are leaving a Manitoba First Nation in danger and suffering, as shorter ice road seasons lead to isolation and “inhumane” conditions, a northern Manitoba MP says.

“It's time for the feds to act for Wasagamack,” Churchill-Keewatinook Aski MP Niki Ashton said at a media conference in Ottawa where she was joined by the chief and council of the Wasagamack First Nation on Thursday.

“Prime Minister Trudeau got elected on a promise of reconciliation, and we are not seeing that in action.”

Ashton said she and members of the Wasagamack band council believe climate change is to blame for increasingly erratic weather patterns and for warmer than average temperatures this fall in Manitoba, and the federal government must step in to help the community get an airport, something she said they have been requesting for “decades.”

“As a result of the impacts of climate change we must act now,” Ashton said. “This is having devastating impacts to people’s health for those needing urgent medical care.

“Indigenous Services Canada, you need to step up and work with Wasagamack and with all partners to build an airport, and create all-weather access.”

Wasagamack, a community about 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg, continues to be one of the most isolated communities in Manitoba and in Canada, as it has no airport and no all-season road, and is only accessible via seasonal ice road.

As temperatures across the province continue to sit well above average for this time of year, Wasagamack First Nation Chief Walter Harper told reporters Thursday those temperatures have kept the ice road into his community shuttered.

That closure will have both short and long-term negative effects on the community, he said, as they struggle to acquire basic goods and to get residents who need medical or emergency care out.

“Normally we would have been driving already, but right now we can’t do anything,” Harper said. “We only have a certain window for transporting goods, and because there has been no snow and no cold, we are looking at a very short window of delivering goods this year.

Ashton added the road closure is “devastating” for those seeking medical care, including the elderly.

“As a result of the lack of an airport, people have to rely on inhumane conditions to get to medical care. People rely on boats, and helicopters that can't always fly to get to an airport,” Ashton said.


“When you’re in that situation, those costly minutes and in some cases hours can mean life or death.”

Having no airport also makes it dangerous to live in the community when natural or man-made disasters strike, because of how difficult it can be to pull off an evacuation, Ashton said.

In August of 2017, Wasagamack was evacuated by boat due to wildfire. Once they reached the airport in St. Theresa Point they were flown to Winnipeg, Brandon or Thompson.

Ashton said the conditions of that evacuation were “inhumane.”

“We’ve heard what it was like to be evacuated in the middle of the night by boat because of wildfires closing in,” she said. “This is the lived experience of the people of Wasagamack, and we know with climate change it’s only going to get worse.”

Chief Harper said he also has a personal reason to build an airport as his mother, Bernadette Harper, died on April 23, 1998 when a helicopter taking people to a funeral crashed shortly after takeoff, killing his mother and one other.


“With the fact that this precarious situation led to the death of Chief Harper’s mother, this is heartbreaking,” Ashton said.

The Winnipeg Sun reached out to Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) for comment.

— Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.

Dave Baxter, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Sun


LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for AIRSHIP 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for AIRSHIPS 

'Pure Offence': China Slams US Special Envoy's Meet with Dalai Lama in Delhi As Ties Teeter on the Brink


Reported By: Abhishek Jha
Edited By: Shilpy Bisht
CNN-News18
Last Updated: JULY 10, 2023, 
New Delhi, India

China has consistently expressed reservations about high-ranking US officials engaging with the Dalai Lama, whom they view as a secessionist leader. (Photo: News18)

China has criticised the meeting between the US special envoy and Dalai Lama, calling it an interference in China’s internal affairs. Reacting to the meeting, Wang Xiaojian, spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in Delhi said "China firmly opposes any form of contact between foreign officials and the "Tibetan independence" forcesFollow us:
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In a significant development, US Under Secretary Uzra Zeya, who serves as the Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues in the Biden administration, met with the 14th Dalai Lama in Delhi on Sunday. Accompanied by a high-level US delegation, the meeting is expected to draw a sharp reaction from the Chinese government. The gathering also involved senior officials from the Tibetan government in exile.

The meeting has drawn a sharp criticism from China calling it in interference in its domestic affairs.

Wang Xiaojian, spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in Delhi in a series of tweets said “Xizang(Tibet) affairs are purely internal affairs of China and no external forces have the right to interfere". Questioning the very concept of US Special Coordinator for Tibet Issues" Xiaojian called it “pure offense and a move of political manipulation to interfere in China’s internal affairs" and added that, “China has always been firmly opposed to this and has never recognized it."

The Chinese spokesperson also said “The so-called “Tibetan government-in-exile" is an out-and-out separatist political group and an illegal organization completely in violation of China’s Constitution and laws."

@UnderSecStateJ @USAmbIndia Xizang(Tibet) affairs are purely internal affairs of China and no external forces have the right to interfere. China firmly opposes any form of contact between foreign officials and the "Tibetan independence" forces.— Wang Xiaojian (@ChinaSpox_India) July 10, 2023

The US special envoy had also met Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh during her India visit in May 2022. At that time also Chinese foreign ministry had criticised the meeting, calling it an interference in China’s internal affairs. China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian had told media, “The US should earnestly abide by its commitment that Tibet is a part of China” and should not provide any support for separatist activities by “The anti-China Dalai clique”.

China has consistently expressed reservations about high-ranking US officials engaging with the Dalai Lama, whom they view as a secessionist leader. However, the Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate widely respected across religions, has maintained that he seeks autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from China.

On Saturday, while talking to reporters in Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, the Dalai Lama said, “We are not seeking independence, we have decided since many years that we remain the part of People’s Republic of China”. He also indicated that Chinese side is willing to engage with him. “China is changing and has now realised that the Tibetan people are very strong and in order to deal with the Tibetan problem, they want to have contact with me and I am also ready."

The US has supported the Tibetan people’s aspirations for religious freedom, cultural preservation and autonomy. However, China considers Tibet an integral part of its territory and has criticised foreign nations’ involvement in Tibetan affairs. This meeting aligns with past engagements between senior US officials and representatives of the Tibetan government in exile.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s meeting with a representative of the Dalai Lama during his visit to Delhi in July 2021 drew similar criticism from Beijing. In 2016, the Dalai Lama had met former US President Barack Obama in Washington.

Following her meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2022; in an interview with the Tibet TV, Zeya had expressed commitment to working with the international community and to “engaging PRC officials on advancing the human rights of the Tibetan people and preserving their unique historical religious, cultural and linguistic heritage”.

The latest discussions between the US delegation and the Dalai Lama are expected to have covered a range of topics, including the current situation in Tibet, efforts to promote dialogue with China, and ways to enhance support for the Tibetan cause on the global stage.

The meeting between US officials and the Dalai Lama, despite efforts to improve US-China relations, adds to the complexity of US diplomacy.

In a short span of last 20 days, the US had sent two senior officials, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to China. The visits are being seen as an outreach by the US to bridge the fast depleting trust, and keep a line of communication with the Chinese government. Both the secretaries had cancelled their February trip to China in the wake of “Chinese Spy balloon” spotted over the US. This followed a panic in the US administration, with the US scrambled F-22 fighter jet shooting down the balloon leading to a sharp protest from China, which maintained that the balloon was a civilian research airship blown way off course by fierce winds.

Was ‘the first man to reach the North Pole’ a fraud?

Frederick Cook claimed to have reached the top of the world, but a new book says he was lying

Vanessa Thorpe
Sun 28 May 2023 

Who was the first person to reach the north pole? According to American adventurer Frederick Cook, it was him. But now a new book will set out the evidence that the explorer’s 114-year-old claim was an instance of fake news on a global scale.

In The Explorer and the Journalist, author Richard Evans has examined the greatest scandal in polar history, reigniting a debate that has smouldered since September 1909, when Cook, who had been missing for a year, sent out a telegram announcing he had reached the pole in 1908.

The son of German immigrants, Cook grew up in the foothills of New York state’s Catskill Mountains. He quickly became a popular hero, embraced by scientists because of his humble attitude and the credit he gave to the Inuit. “He had a mild manner that made him seem genuine and believable,” said Evans. “And he was seen as a kind of antidote to all the big personalities of other explorers, like his fellow American Robert Peary, and the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.”

Cook’s eventual undoing came in the shape of a British journalist, Philip Gibbs, who was sent by his newspaper, the Daily Chronicle, to secure the first interview with the triumphant American. Tracking him down to his berth on a boat off the coast of Denmark, Gibbs joined Cook for a fateful breakfast in the dining saloon, writing in his memoir: “I was favourably impressed by the first appearance of the man who says he reached the pole.

“Here, surely, was a typical sea rover. Under his Danish cap there was a mass of shaggy fair hair, a pair of smiling blue eyes, and a florid face with a powerful nose and a large mouth which, when he smiled, showed broken teeth. An honest face, surely, if any face is honest.”

Gibbs was keen to get the polar scoop. But as the putative explorer started to avoid the topic of his exploits, the reporter’s doubts grew. Cook had already made his name as part of the Belgica expedition, the first group to over-winter in Antarctica. And on that southern trip he had earned a favourable reputation by prescribing fresh meat to fight off scurvy and coming up with an idea to free the boat from ice. Also on board the Belgica was a young Amundsen, who remained a lifelong admirer of Cook even after scandal struck.

A photograph that Cook claimed was of him and two Inuit men at the North Pole. Photograph: ullstein bild/Getty Images

“I read Gibbs’s memoir about six years ago and it kept drawing me back,” said Evans, whose book was published last week. “I have set my book in Copenhagen in that year because at that moment it was like the centre of the world, with all the rival polar explorers and their backers in one place. Most journalists would have given their eye teeth for the kind of early access that Gibbs got. But although the Scientific Society in Copenhagen really believed Cook, Gibbs pushed on with his doubts and got his paper to publish this potentially libellous piece, suggesting that Cook was lying.”

When Gibbs filed his sceptical, explosive accusations he was 32 years old and on his fifth job in Fleet Street. The Cook story permanently elevated him to the rank of the leading British journalists of his day. Polar scholars have obsessed over details of the competing claims ever since. But after assessing the case and laying out the counterclaims, Evans concludes Gibbs was on to the truth: “For what it is worth, I agree.”

Lack of evidence was Cook’s main problem. He had told Gibbs his notes would prove his claim, but said he had given them to someone to take to New York. Conclusive documents never materialised.

Looking back: polar exploration

To complicate matters further, days after Cook got to Copenhagen, his former friend Peary also announced he had reached the north pole. Peary soon accused Cook of lying, while Cook attempted to rise above the allegations. Today, many believe both men were lying.

Cook went back to America to ride out the reputational storm, earning big money as a lecturer, but questions about his honesty persisted. Before his north pole expedition, he had been best known as the first person to reach the top of Mount McKinley – now called Denali – in Alaska. But when doubters looked back at this claim it seemed that the photograph of the summit Cook had submitted looked just like another much lower one in the range.

Some people still argue that Cook did reach the pole, and he himself spent the rest of his life trying to establish his claim. He went on to become a Texas oilman and was later accused of fraud, spending six years in prison.

While the race to the south pole has a clear winner in Amundsen, the truth about the race to the north pole is uncertain.

Some now give the credit to Amundsen once more, because he flew over it in an airship in 1926. American Ralph Plaisted reached it on a snowmobile in 1968 and British explorer Sir Walter Herbert got there on foot a year later.

How solar-powered airships could make air travel climate-friendly

Research team identifies optimal flight routes for solar-powered airships

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRIEDRICH-ALEXANDER-UNIVERSITÄT ERLANGEN-NÜRNBERG

Flying is the most damaging mode of transportation for our climate. At least, up until now. But work is already underway to investigate technical alternatives to conventional aircraft. For example, airships with highly efficient solar cells and extremely light batteries on board. Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum from Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), together with Prof. Dr. Agnes Jocher from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the FAU student Tim Riffelmacher, has investigated which route a solar airship would have to take in order to fly from London to New York as quickly and as climate-friendly as possible.

The findings were published in the International Journal of Sustainable Energy.

“If we rely on solar-powered airships, we can make aviation more climate-friendly relatively quickly and economically,” says Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum. The computer science professor at FAU specializes in numerical simulation with high-performance computers and has published the paper “Design and route optimization for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting” together with FAU student Tim Riffelmacher and Professor Jocher from TUM.

Climate-friendly and cost-effective air travel

“Our calculations show that solar airships could significantly reduce both transport costs and the CO2 emissions of air travel,” explains Professor Pflaum. In the course of his research, the scientist has become a true fan of solar-powered air travel and eagerly lists its many benefits: “Solar airships are absolutely climate-friendly because they are equipped with extremely light and highly efficient thin-film solar cells that recharge over again during the flight. As a result, no combustion-related emissions are generated while the airship is flying.”

Energy from the power grid is only needed to recharge the battery before the airship is launched and the charging process has very low CO2 emissions. “A maximum of five percent of the amount of carbon dioxide generated in conventional air transport is emitted,” he says and refers to the figures: Compared with long-haul freight flights, less than one percent is generated, by medium-haul flights almost 1.4 percent and for person transport approximately five percent.

“Unfortunately, this solar airship does not exist at the moment, but in California a company is investing heavily in developing a large, fully rigid airship for the first time in 90 years, which offers a lot of space and is well protected in wind and weather,” says Professor Pflaum enthusiastically.

The technology can be implemented quickly, but has been quite neglected in recent decades. “Of course, the tragedy of the airship LZ 129, better known as ‘Hindenburg‘ has influenced this lack of progress,” the professor acknowledges. “With a length of 245 meters and a diameter of 41.2 meters, LZ 129 was one of the largest aircraft ever built and a real sensation on its maiden voyage in March 1936. But just a year later, it caught fire when it landed in the USA and was completely destroyed.” This meant the end of airships for a long time, but now they are being rethought with solar cells on board and work is underway on a “real game changer”.

With these new models, no one needs to be afraid of a fire, as the airships are neither filled with combustible hydrogen nor with any other fuel.

The researchers believe that cost aspects also speak in favor of solar airships, because the energy consumption costs of solar-powered airships are, according to their current calculations, significantly lower than those of conventional aircraft.

Two to three days for a flight across the Atlantic

Are solar airships a real technical alternative to conventional aircraft? “It looks promising,” Professor Pflaum and Professor Jocher agree. “We only have to lower our expectations for flight time, because an airship flies much slower than an airplane.”

Several FAU students simulated and calculated in their Bachelor’s and Master’s theses how fast an airship with solar cells on board would really be and which route it would have to take in order to optimally exploit wind and weather and sun positions. Most recently, Tim Riffelmacher dealt with the “Charging optimization of the battery in a solar airship with simulated annealing” in his Bachelor’s thesis.

He, too, is very enthusiastic about the solar-powered airships and took a closer look at battery use during day and night in his simulations. “The battery is charged before the flight and then has to last for long distances,” explains the young researcher. “This is easier said than done, because at night there is no sun and the solar cells do not produce electricity.“ But optimizing the charging process makes a lot of things possible.

In their work, Riffelmacher and the other students were able to show that national, continental and even intercontinental flights with a satisfactory flight duration are possible. “According to our calculations, a flight across the Atlantic from New York to London takes about two days and one night,” Prof. Dr. Christoph Pflaum summarizes the results. “In the opposite direction from London to New York we calculated a flight time of three days and two nights.”

Such travel times are acceptable for most cargo flights and he also sees an opportunity for passenger transport: “After all, traveling in an airship is much more comfortable than in a conventional aircraft. There is space for a dining room and a lounge and for stylish double rooms for passengers.”

---

JOURNAL

International Journal of Sustainable Energy

DOI

10.1080/14786451.2023.2189488 

ARTICLE TITLE

Design and route optimisation for an airship with onboard solar energy harvesting

China says U.S. refused to share information on downed Chinese balloon




Fri, February 24, 2023 

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry said on Friday that the United States had refused to reply to a Chinese request for information on the balloon that it had shot downed off the coast of South Carolina earlier this month.

The Chinese balloon, which Beijing denies was a government spy vessel, spent a week flying over the United States and Canada before President Joe Biden ordered it to be shot down. The episode strained further ties between Washington and Beijing, leading America's top diplomat to postpone a trip to China.

"The United States, from the recovery of the (balloon) remains to the analysis of the (balloon) debris, has completely acted on its own and in a surreptitious manner," the foreign ministry's spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing.

"China early on through protected consular channels clearly demanded the United States notify (China) on the progress (of recovery of the balloon), but the United States refused to respond."

Wang's comments were made in response to a question about an ongoing U.S. investigation into the balloon.

China said that the alleged spy balloon is a civilian airship used for meteorological purposes, and that it was accidentally blown off course into U.S. airspace.

The United States has said a Federal Bureau of Investigation Laboratory in Virginia is analysing debris from the balloon for "counterintelligence exploitation."

Both the State Department and the Pentagon have said they had reached out to their Chinese counterparts after the suspected spy balloon was shot down on Feb. 4, in an attempt to keep lines of communication open.

The Chinese defence ministry later said it declined a proposed phone call with the Pentagon because the United States had not created the "appropriate atmosphere".

(Reporting by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

VERY COLD WAR 2.0

China is using spy buoys in the Arctic, says Canada

Sophia Yan
Thu, 23 February 2023 

A ball is seen on a beach in Hamamatsu, Japan earlier this month - REUTERS

The Canadian military has discovered Chinese spy buoys in the Arctic which are monitoring US submarines and melting ice sheets.

Such "activity is not new”, Canadian defence minister Anita Anand said in televised remarks, implying that China has been engaging in surveillance efforts in the region for some time.

Officials described the objects as “dual-purpose technologies” but they have been reported in Canadian media as buoys used for spying.

It is unclear whether the Chinese buoys floated into Canadian waters or were purposefully anchored into the waters.

Monitoring buoys can follow environmental and weather conditions, the salinity of water, and track fish.

Earlier this week, a giant mystery ball washed ashore in Japan, later found to be a buoy, though no owner has laid claim.

Daniel Le Bouthillier, from the Department of National Defence said the Canadian military found and retrieved the monitoring devices but gave no further information about the operation.

China has long been interested in building a presence in the Arctic which will allow it to secure a shorter trade route to Europe as glaciers melt.

But as China's presence expands globally, so have concerns over undue influence, surveillance and espionage.

Canada’s foreign minister Melanie Joly said that China is an increasingly disruptive power, in an interview with CNN.

“When it comes to China, we will challenge China when we ought to, and we will cooperate with China when we need to,” she said.

“When it comes to issues over the Arctic within our maritime borders, or any form of foreign interference, we will be clear, and that’s how we will address this issue.”

Earlier this month a suspected Chinese spy balloon flew over Canadian airspace into the US, before the American military shot it down into the Atlantic Ocean.

Beijing has denied that the balloon served any surveillance purposes, saying instead that it was a weather research “airship.”

The Canadian parliament is also currently investigating allegations of Chinese election interference.

SEE 

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/godzilla-egg-japan-baffled-by-large.html

NORAD is back in the news. So what does it do, exactly?

For years, North American Aerospace Command — or NORAD — had its headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. In this archival photo, a bus enters a tunnel for a half-mile trip to a command center inside the Cheyenne complex. The headquarters is now in nearby Colorado Springs.
CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES

BY Bill Chappell
FEB 15, 2023 

NPR

It was created as a counter to a rival superpower. So in a way, it's fitting that a tiff with another superpower has once again thrust North American Aerospace Command — or NORAD — into conversations about national security and spying.

For the public, the most frequent mentions of NORAD likely come in Cold War-era stories and its famed Santa Tracker, which makes the news every Christmas. But over its nearly 65-year history, NORAD has had to adjust to new threats, and its leader says it needs to modernize, citing a "domain awareness gap" and equipment that was installed in the 1970s and '80s.


With many people now asking questions about NORAD, here's a rundown of its history, how it works today and how it might change:

Is NORAD a U.S. entity?

It's a joint project by the U.S. and Canada, motivated by concerns that the Soviet Union might send bombers to North America. What began as collaborations on air defense and radar installations evolved into calls for a shared organization. The two countries formalized the first NORAD Agreement on May 12, 1958.

The agreement has been renewed every 10 years — a process that has allowed leaders to repeatedly widen its parameters.

For a sign of how things have changed, look at the name. While the first unified command was called the North American Air Defense Command, its name was later changed to include the word "Aerospace," acknowledging threats from satellites and other space vehicles.

The organization also monitors for maritime threats, and it helps civil authorities track aircraft suspected to be used in drug trafficking.

How is it different from U.S. Northern Command?

It can be confusing — both are led by the same officer, Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck. Their responsibilities can overlap, but the key difference is that the U.S. Northern Command is a U.S. military headquarters.


U.S. Northern Command was formed in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Its activation in October 2002 was "the first time a single military commander has been charged with protecting the U.S. homeland since the days of George Washington," according to an official history.

It's responsible for protecting air, land and sea approaches to North America, from Mexico to the continental U.S., Alaska, and Canada.

U.S. Northern Command's mandate also includes disasters and emergencies, from giving defense support to civil authorities to sharing military resources with federal, state and local authorities.

Where is NORAD located?

For decades, NORAD was headquartered in Colorado's Cheyenne Mountain — a bunker facility whose tunnel entrance will likely be familiar to anyone who has watched the Stargate movie or TV series.

While NORAD still maintains a presence there, its main headquarters are at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. Officials announced that move in 2006, calling for an integrated command center with U.S. North Command.

What is NORAD's 'domain awareness' problem?

The recent spate of unidentified airborne objects has put a spotlight on how NORAD's radar systems work: when they were adjusted to pick up objects like the Chinese balloon, crews saw much more information.

NORAD's current and former leaders say the radar network and other equipment sorely needs to be updated, and work has been ongoing with Canadian officials to chip away at that job.

"NORAD and USNORTHCOM rely on what we call the North Warning System, which is an array of short- and long-range radars in northern Canada, Alaska and elsewhere," retired Vice Admiral Mike Dumont, a former deputy commander at NORAD, recently told NPR.


"They were put into place in the late 1980s, and that system of radar coverage was concluded in about 1992. It's 1970s technology," Dumont said. "So no, NORAD does not have what it needs to adequately defend North America. They need new sensors, sensors that are able to detect in all domains. And by all domains, I mean space, land, air, cyber and maritime."

A NORAD/USNORTHCOM cyber unit was approved in 2012. But the potential battlefield keeps changing, including the threat of hypersonic cruise missiles.

Last year, VanHerck highlighted three "domain awareness challenges," from the difficulty of keeping up with competitors' advances in submarines to monitoring missiles and cyber operations.

"The good news is we're working to fix this," VanHerck said last summer. Praising the latest appropriations, he added, "There's four over-the-horizon radars in the budget, so I look forward to that."

NORAD made history this month


For the first time in its history, fighter jets from NORAD shot down airborne objects in U.S. airspace, Gen. VanHerck said this week, after NORAD tracked a massive Chinese balloon that the U.S. says is a spy airship, along with three smaller objects.

The balloon and another object were shot down under the U.S. Northern Command's authority — the first off of South Carolina and one in Alaska.

But NORAD was directly involved in two other takedowns: On Feb. 11, a U.S. F-22 shot down an object in Canada's central Yukon, after the object crossed from Alaska over the U.S.-Canada border. And on Feb. 12, a U.S. F-16 took down an object over Lake Huron, along the border.

What about NORAD's Santa-tracking domain?

By now, it's a famous story: back in December of 1955, a red phone at the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor, started ringing.

It wasn't a four-star general on the line — but a young boy, who had seen a misprinted phone number in a Sears newspaper ad urging kids to call Santa personally. The recipient of the call, Col. Harry Shoup, quickly went from being annoyed at a potential prank to realizing he had a new duty to perform: encouraging a youngster's curiosity and belief in Santa.

"So he talked to him, ho-ho-ho'd and asked if he had been a good boy," Shoup's own children later remembered.

It grew from there, as Shoup recruited servicemembers to answer the phone. NORAD's Santa Tracker later became an authority on the jolly gift-giver's trek around the world. [Copyright 2023 NPR]

Chinese balloon sensors recovered from ocean, says US



No indication of aliens... I loved ET but I'll leave it there - WH spokeswoman

By Max Matza

BBC News

The sensors from a suspected Chinese spy balloon shot down over the US earlier this month have been recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, the US says.

Search crews found "significant debris from the site, including all of the priority sensor and electronics pieces identified", said US Northern Command.

The FBI is examining the items, which the US said were used to spy on sensitive military sites.

The US has shot down three more objects since the first on 4 February.

"Large sections of the structure" were also recovered on Monday off the coast of South Carolina, military officials said.

About 30-40ft (9-12m) of the balloon's antennas were among the items found, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.


US officials said the high-altitude balloon originated in China and was used for surveillance, but China said it was a weather-monitoring airship that had blown astray.

Since that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three more high-altitude objects - over Alaska, Canada's Yukon territory, and Lake Huron on the US-Canada border.

But officials have not said these objects were suspected spy balloons.

In the Lake Huron strike, the first Sidewinder missile fired by the US F-16 warplane missed its target and exploded in an unknown location, US media reported, citing military sources.

The second missile hit the target. Each Sidewinder missile costs more than $400,000 (£330,000).

Strange flying objects - unanswered questions

How has China reacted to the balloon saga?

Officials have said the slow-moving unidentified objects, all of which have been smaller than the first balloon, may be difficult for military pilots to target.

White House spokesman John Kirby said on Monday the three other objects were shot down "out of an abundance of caution".

They did not pose "any direct threat to people on the ground", but were destroyed "to protect our security, our interests and flight safety", he said.

The balloon shot down over South Carolina was described by officials as the size of three buses.

The second object, over Alaska, was described as the size of a "small car". The third object, over the Yukon, was "cylindrical". And the fourth, over Michigan, was said to be "octagonal" with strings attached.

A Pentagon memo later reported in US media said the flying object shot down over Yukon appeared to be a "small, metallic balloon with a tethered payload below it".

On Tuesday, Mr Kirby said that the objects did not appear to be involved in intelligence collection and "could be balloons that were simply tied to commercial or research entities, and therefore benign".

But he noted no company, organisation or government have said they were the owners of the objects.

Media caption,
Watch: 'What’s going on?' The mind-boggling balloon mystery in 61 seconds


The recovery of the balloon shot down on 4 February was delayed due to bad weather.

Efforts are under way to collect debris from where the other objects were blown out of the sky.

Canadian Armed Forces Major-General Paul Prévost said all three of the most recent objects to be shot down appeared to be "lighter than air" machines, and described the Lake Huron object as "a suspected balloon".

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is considering meeting China's most senior diplomat, Wang Yi, later this week at a security conference in Munich, Germany, sources familiar with the negotiations told US media on Monday.

Amid the row over high-altitude aircraft, America's top diplomat cancelled a visit to Beijing that was initially planned for last week.

Meanwhile, in a sign of heightened tensions over the incidents in the US, Romania scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to investigate an aerial object entering European airspace.

But the country's defence ministry said the pilots were unable to locate it and abandoned the mission after half an hour.

US NAVY
Navy divers helped recover the balloon from the Atlantic Ocean

 

US military shoots down third flying object in three days after Great Lakes airspace closure

Issued on: 12/02/2023 -

The US and Canada have raised the surveillance over their airspaces after a number of unindentified flying objects were spotted. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, right, meets with Canada's Minister of National Defense Anita Anand, far left, at the Pentagon in Washington, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. © J. Scott Applewhite, AP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

The U.S. military shot down a flying object over Lake Huron near the Canadian border, U.S. officials said on Sunday, as North American security forces have been on high alert for airborne threats.

Two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the military had shot down the object but declined to say whether it resembled the large white Chinese balloon that was shot down earlier this month.

U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin, who represents a district in Michigan, near where the incident took place, said pilots from the U.S. Air Force and National Guard shot down the object. "Great work by all who carried out this mission," she wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Canadian investigators are hunting for the wreckage of an unidentified flying object that was shot down by a U.S. jet over Yukon territory on Saturday.

"Recovery teams are on the ground, looking to find and analyze the object," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Sunday.

"The security of citizens is our top priority and that's why I made the decision to have that unidentified object shot down," he said, adding that it had posed a danger to civilian aircraft.

North America has been on high alert for aerial intrusions following the appearance of a white, eye-catching Chinese airship over American skies earlier this month.

The 200-foot-tall (60-meter-high) balloon - which Americans have accused Beijing of using to spy on the United States - caused an international incident, leading Secretary of State Antony Blinken to call off a planned trip to China only hours before he was set to depart.

Surveillance fears appear to have U.S. officials on high alert.

Twice in 24 hours, U.S. officials closed airspace - only to reopen it swiftly.

On Sunday, the Federal Aviation Administration briefly closed space above Lake Michigan. On Saturday, the U.S. military scrambled fighter jets in Montana to investigate a radar anomaly there.

Canada also closed airspace on Sunday near Tobermory, Ontario, which is on Lake Huron near the U.S. border, according to Nav Canada, a private non-profit that operates Canada's air traffic control system.

China denies the first balloon was being used for surveillance and says it was a civilian research craft. It condemned the United States for shooting it down off the coast of South Carolina last Saturday.

At least three other flying objects have been destroyed over North America since then, as military and intelligence officials focus on airborne threats.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told U.S. broadcaster ABC that U.S. officials think two of the latest objects were smaller balloons than the original one, which was brought down off the coast of South Carolina on Feb. 4.

A second was shot down over sea ice near Deadhorse, Alaska, on Friday. The third was destroyed over the Yukon on Saturday.

The White House said only that the recently downed objects "did not closely resemble" the Chinese balloon, echoing Schumer's description of them as "much smaller."

"We will not definitively characterize them until we can recover the debris, which we are working on," a spokesperson said.

Schumer said he was confident U.S. investigators scouring the ocean off South Carolina to recover debris and electronic gadgetry from the original balloon would get to the bottom of what it was being used for.

Debris in remote locale

Canadian counterparts trying to piece together what was shot down over the Yukon may have their own challenges. The territory is a sparsely populated region in Canada's far northwest, which borders Alaska. It can be brutally cold in the winter, but temperatures are unusually mild for this time of year, which could ease the recovery effort.

Speaking to Fox News, House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said the balloon shot down over the South Carolina coast had been on a mission to get imagery of sensitive American nuclear sites.

"They want to get imagery, get intelligence on our military capability, particularly nuclear," McCaul said. "And they're building quite a nuclear stockpile themselves."

Republican lawmaker Mike Turner, who serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, suggested the White House might be overcompensating for what he described as its previously lax monitoring of American airspace.

"They do appear somewhat trigger-happy," Turner told CNN on Sunday. "I would prefer them to be trigger-happy than to be permissive."

Republicans have criticized the Biden administration over its handling of the incursion by the suspected Chinese spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down much earlier.

(REUTERS)

US military shoots down fourth flying object over North America

A US fighter jet shot down the object over the shores of Michigan on Sunday

The object, which was not deemed a military threat, has been described by defence officials as unmanned and octagonal in shape. It was downed by a missile fired from an F-16 fighter jet at 14:42 local time (19:42 GMT).

By Gareth Evans

BBC
in Washington

The US has shot down another unidentified flying object in the fourth military operation of its kind this month.

President Joe Biden ordered it to be downed near Lake Huron, close to the Canadian border, on Sunday afternoon.

The object could have interfered with commercial air traffic as it was traveling at 20,000ft (6,100m), a Pentagon statement said.

It was first detected above military sites in Montana on Saturday, it added.

The incident raised further questions about the spate of high-altitude objects that have been shot down over North America this month.

A suspected Chinese spy balloon was downed off the coast of South Carolina on 4 February after hovering for days over the continental US. Officials said it originated in China and had been used to monitor sensitive sites.

China denied the object was used for spying and said it was a weather monitoring device that had been blown astray. The incident - and the angry exchanges in its aftermath - ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing.

On Sunday, a defence official said the US had communicated with Beijing about the first object after receiving no response for several days. It was not immediately clear what was discussed.

Since that first incident, American fighter jets have shot down three further high-altitude objects in as many days.

President Biden ordered an object to be shot down over Alaska on Friday, and on Saturday a similar object was shot down over the Yukon in north-western Canada.

Officials have not publicly identified the origin or purpose of these objects. Both the US and Canada are still working to recover the remnants, but the search in Alaska has been hampered by Arctic conditions.

"These objects did not closely resemble, and were much smaller than, the [4 February] balloon and we will not definitively characterise them until we can recover the debris," a White House National Security spokesperson said.

Unidentified flying objects - timeline

4 February: US military shoots down suspected surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina. It had drifted for days over the US, and officials said it came from China and had been monitoring sensitive sites

10 February: US downs another object off northern Alaska which officials said lacked any system of propulsion or control

11 February: An American fighter jet shoots down a "high-altitude airborne object" over Canada's Yukon territory, about 100 miles (160 km) from the US border. It was described as cylindrical and smaller than the first balloon

12 February: US jets shoot down a fourth high-altitude object near Lake Huron "out of an abundance of caution"

Later on Sunday, the US Air Force general overseeing North American airspace said he had not ruled any explanation out - including extraterrestrial life.


"I'll let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out. I haven't ruled out anything," Gen Glen VanHerck told reporters after being asked about the possibility of aliens.

One senior official told ABC News that the three most recent objects to be shot down were likely weather balloons and not surveillance devices.

But this was contradicted by the top Democrat in Congress, who earlier told the broadcaster that intelligence officials believed the objects were in fact surveillance balloons.

"They believe they were [balloons], yes," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, adding that they were "much smaller" than the first one shot down off the South Carolina coast.

"The bottom line is, until a few months ago, we didn't know of these balloons," he said.

Democrat Debbie Dingell, one of several Michigan members of Congress who applauded the military for downing the object over the state on Sunday, joined growing calls for the White House and defence officials to provide more information.

"We need the facts about where they are originating from, what their purpose is, and why their frequency is increasing," she said.

Democratic Senator Jon Tester, who represents Montana, told the BBC's US partner CBS: "What's gone on the last two weeks or so... has been nothing short of craziness. And the military needs to have a plan to not only determine what's out there, but determine the dangers."

Republicans have repeatedly criticised the Biden administration for its handling of the first suspected spy balloon, saying it should have been shot down far sooner.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the UK would conduct a security review following the recent incidents in the US and Canada. "This development is another sign of how the global threat picture is changing for the worse," he said.

Objects shot down over Alaska, Yukon were balloons, US Senate leader says

Schumer says devices downed from 40,000 feet in air were smaller than Chinese balloon downed off South Carolina earlier this month, officials trying to analyze debris for data

By APToday, 8:26 pm  

FBI special agents assigned to the evidence response team process material recovered from the high altitude balloon recovered off the coast of South Carolina, February 9, 2023, at the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. (FBI via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States believes the unidentified objects shot down by American fighter jets over Canada and Alaska were balloons, though smaller than the Chinese balloon downed over the Atlantic Ocean last weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday.

Schumer told ABC’s “This Week” that he was briefed on Saturday night by US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, after the incident hours earlier over the Yukon. On Friday, an object roughly the size of a small car was downed over remote Alaska, according to the White House.

Asked whether those two recent objects were balloons, Schumer said, “They believe they were, yes, but much smaller than the first one.”

The government has said the first balloon was about the size of three school buses. It was shot down February 4 off the South Carolina coast after it had traversed the United States.

The Biden administration said it was used for surveillance. China claims it was on a meteorological research mission.

Schumer said teams were recovering debris from the objects and would work to determine where they came from.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York speaks during a bill signing ceremony for the Respect for Marriage Act, December 13, 2022, on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The ones downed on Friday and Saturday were smaller and flying at a lower altitude of about 40,000 feet, within the airspace occupied by commercial flights, compared with about 60,000 feet for the first one.

“The bottom line is until a few months ago we didn’t know about these balloons,” Schumer said. “It is wild that we didn’t know…. Now they are learning a lot more. And the military and the intelligence are focused like a laser on first gathering and accumulating the information, then coming up with a comprehensive analysis.”

Schumer: "It is wild" U.S. didn't know about China's balloon program earlier

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) acknowledged it was "wild" the U.S. didn't know about the Chinese government's use of balloons "until a few months ago," during an interview on ABC's "This Week" Sunday.

Catch up quick: Last week the U.S. shot down a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that had traversed the U.S. and is believed to have been capable of collecting communications.

• Pentagon officials have said that similar balloons crossed into U.S. airspace briefly at least three times during the Trump administration.
• The State Department spokesperson said earlier this week that China has flown similar surveillance balloons over more than 40 countries across five continents in the past.
• The U.S. on Friday shot down a "high-altitude" object that violated its airspace above territorial waters near Alaska and on Saturday Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that an unidentified object had been shot down in its airspace.
• Little is known about the origins of the latter two objects and it is not clear whether they were in any way connected to the first.

State of play: The U.S. military and intelligence are "focused like a laser" on gathering more information about the balloons, Schumer said.

• Asked by host George Stephanopoulos whether the surveillance balloon program would need to be shut down, Schumer agreed that the Chinese government would likely need to "get rid of it."
• “I think the Chinese were humiliated. I think the Chinese were caught lying, and it's a real step back for them," Schumer said.
• Schumer added that he believed Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) was looking into why it took so long for the U.S. military and intelligence to know about the balloons and said he supported Congress looking into the matter.

The big picture: Tester told CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that while the military likely had "some" awareness of the use of balloons, Congress needs to have a debate about whether that awareness was at a sufficient level.

• Going forward, the U.S. needs to have a specific plan for how to deal with such objects, "so we know exactly what's going to happen when these balloons come in and their threat is assessed," Tester said.
• Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told the same program Sunday that the flight of the suspected surveillance balloon was clearly intentional, calling it an "act of belligerence."
• "It was done with provocation to gather intelligence data and collect intelligence on our three major nuclear sites in this country. Why? Because they're looking at what is our capability in the event of a possible future conflict in Taiwan. They're really assessing what we have in this country," McCaul said.
• https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/norad-trudeau-ordered-u.html