Greenland.Simiutak · a red object appears as a weather balloon bursts

On Wednesday, June 24, 1953, at about 1430 UTC (the intelligence report gives 1445), an airman second class of the U.S. Air Force, with three and a half years of experience as a weather observer, was tracking a 100-gram pilot balloon through a theodolite, released at Simiutak, an Air Force post in southern Greenland, in the area of Narsarsuak base. A theodolite is an optical instrument used to follow a balloon and measure the winds at different heights. According to his sworn statement, the balloon was at about 18,000 feet and about three miles from the post when it burst. In its place, he said, a red object appeared.

The airman described it as an object about twice the size of the balloon (the card and the initial telex say three times), with a definite shape, somewhat triangular, that rotated while holding its position, with slow circular movements "such as a loop". The documents give a height of 16,000 or 18,000 feet for that point. It stayed like that for about 15 seconds. Then it moved to the northwest, gaining speed rapidly, and became a round red dot, with no trail, that seemed to gain altitude at great speed. He followed it for five minutes until it disappeared. The theodolite readings held an azimuth of 301 degrees for those five minutes. Neither the balloon nor the object could be seen with the naked eye, and no one else saw anything.

The base reported the event the same day by telex. On June 29, the Air Force's technical intelligence center, at Wright-Patterson, noted that an earlier message from the base said the observer had not seen the object and the balloon at the same time through the theodolite, and asked for written answers to three questions: whether the supposed collision between the object and the balloon was seen through the theodolite or with the naked eye, whether a 100-gram balloon could be seen at 18,000 feet under those conditions, and at what altitude it was set to burst. It also suggested finding out whether the balloon carried instruments and, therefore, a red parachute, and added that the center "cannot at this time find an answer for the sighting".

On July 2, a base intelligence report relayed the weather detachment commander's reply. The collision was seen through the theodolite; neither the balloon nor the object could be seen with the naked eye; there were scattered clouds at 8,000 and 20,000 feet and visibility of 25 miles. A 100-gram balloon was not expected to burst below 30,000 feet, and perhaps not until 40,000 or higher, and there was no abnormally low pressure; it carried no instruments. His opinion was that "the only possibility of a phenomena would be an optical illusion or parallax in the lens of the theodolite".

The Northeast Air Command report of July 1 adds the winds. The 1500 UTC balloon at Simiutak recorded 120 degrees at 14 knots at 10,000 feet, 120 degrees at 13 knots at 12,000, 180 degrees at 4 knots at 14,000 and 200 degrees at 7 knots at 16,000, where the sounding ended, with a marked wind shift between 16,000 and 18,000 feet. The analysis of the 500-millibar chart gave a wind of 280 degrees at 12 knots at 18,000 feet, and northwesterly winds of about 15 knots between 18,000 and 20,000 feet. The initial telex and the base report of June 25 said the object moved off into the wind; the Northeast Air Command report qualifies it: without continuous measurements of the object's altitude it is not possible to tell which way it traveled.

The case rests on a single observer and a single instrument. The theodolite is what let him see the object, but it records nothing: the azimuth readings are the ones the airman himself noted. No one else saw it, and it could be seen only through the theodolite: neither the balloon nor the object could be made out with the naked eye. That sets the case apart from one with several witnesses: if the airman was wrong, there is no other datum to correct him.

The documents offer two readings that get in each other's way. The officer who prepared the intelligence report wrote that the object appeared at once after the burst, in the same place, and that attributing it to an independent factor is "leaving too much to coincidence". That ties what was seen to the balloon itself. The weather commander, on the other hand, said the only possibility was an optical illusion or a parallax effect in the theodolite's lens. Blue Book recorded both: the card marks "Unidentified", says the observer's integrity was excellent and that it believed he exaggerated the maneuvers, and cites the commander's opinion about the lens. No evidence shows that the theodolite failed.

The technical intelligence center asked whether the balloon carried instruments and, therefore, a red parachute, and the answer was that it carried no instruments. Two things remain open that the documents do not settle: why the balloon burst at about 16,000 or 18,000 feet when it was expected to hold above 30,000, and what the red dot was that the airman followed for five minutes with readings of 301 degrees.