Thursday, January 5, 2012

Big Brother

I have seen this along the Arizona border and never looked into until now. It is called a Tethered Aerostat Radar System.                          
      The aerostats are large fabric envelopes filled with helium, and can rise up to an altitude of 15,000 feet (4,600 m) while tethered by a single cable. (straight from Wikipedia) They can carry up to 1000 kg of downward facing radar looking for people or groups coming north across the border.


Went back to the area today on the way home from Yuma and found the support center for each one of the aerostat inflatables. It was down an unmarked road about a mile with only a sign to warn people off...which of course we ignored,at least to within 200 yards to the gate. You have a shop, huge radar array and if you look at the right hand side of the photo you will see a guide wire that the aerostat is attached to while hovering up to 15,000 feet above.


1 comment:

Teri said...

Mom and Dad would be so proud!