9 ms·

Chilean officials can’t identify a strange IR signal seen by its Navy

107 points by astrodev 10y ago

snowwrestler 10y ago
Why did the article say it was a heat signature? I thought heat looked white to an IR sensor, and cold looked black. EDIT: thank you to the informative replies below!
- Gracana 10y ago
  It could be set up as "black hot."
- kowdermeister 10y ago
  They usually invert it to have a better contrast against the background.
  - FoeNyx 10y ago
    In fact the video shows the 'inverted' mode at some point. https://youtu.be/NkUTGpegZN0?t=363 https://youtu.be/NkUTGpegZN0?t=363
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
erik_landerholm 10y ago
I posted this yesterday, but the article references the huffington post, so I figured I'd drop it here too: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d37bce4b014e7c72ee56b http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d37bce4b014e7c72ee56b
jimrandomh 10y ago
So, the Chilean Navy has some strange footage, probably corresponding to some other country's secret aircraft, and they... get it published on Ars Technica and invite the literally-schizophrenic "UFO" community to take a look at it?
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  Where does it say that they went to Ars Technica? They published a press release [1]. [1] http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/en-la-prensa/noticias/casoarmada http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/en-la-prensa/noticias/casoarmad...
- eternalban 10y ago
  My immediate thoughts exactly (minus the schizo ad hom). Are militaries of the world so careless as to advertise their capabilities and equipments? FLIR Thermografie Kamera FLIR SC8000 Quantendetektor: https://youtu.be/doQGWcHTCG8 https://youtu.be/doQGWcHTCG8 Curious. FLIR demo video shows the (usual) color thermal imaging and the OP has grayscale output. http://www.flir.com/assets/0/6618/6729/6733/6740//9e20a2b4-4622-4402-bfd8-63c0918b47ad.jpg http://www.flir.com/assets/0/6618/6729/6733/6740//9e20a2b4-4...
- protomyth 10y ago
  If you don't have the resources as a country to investigate on your own, why not get an article published? I get the feeling information gathering in the internet / social media age is going to mess with the minds of a lot of people (and probably give some a bit of trouble).
- timthelion 10y ago
  I have a feeling that they know that this is a secret military spycraft, and this is a diplomatic way for them to thumb their noses at China, Russia, or the US and say "nanananabooboo, we see you!"
TTPrograms 10y ago
I'm not an expert on fighter thermal signatures, but this sort of looks like the rear output of two engines followed by usage of the afterburners maybe? http://i51.tinypic.com/20fs0pf.jpg http://i51.tinypic.com/20fs0pf.jpg It may correspond to known aircraft configuration, or an unknown one, but it doesn't seem like there's anything anomalous about it...
- kowdermeister 10y ago
  This thing just hovers there, slowly moving. Seeing noting in the visible spectrum is not anomalous?
  - flosstop 10y ago
    Here my guess: - It appears stationary as it is travelling towards the camera and very far away. - It isn't apparent in the visible spectrum because of cloud/haze between it and the camera. - The plume appears as it passes through a layer of cloud and heats the moisture therein.
    - Applejinx 10y ago
      Absolutely. It's a twin engined something, and we're seeing the heat signature. May not even be an unusual aircraft.
      - heatButNoRadar 10y ago
        How come no radar signature. Is that not unusual for aircraft, or are most aircraft radar absorbing?
        hindsightbias 10y ago
        Most civilian ATC radars are 'Secondary' radars which depend on cooperative transponders on all aircraft. If you turn your transponder off, the system doesn't work. US ATC uses 'Primary' radars as backup for locating aircraft that don't have transponders or don't have them on. Militaries use Primary radars for most of their activities. Other articles don't provide distinction on what type of radar was used.
vonkale 10y ago
Could it be some kind of IR reflection of the helicopter itself due to the structure of the clouds? It would seem logical if there was no radar signal, it was on a linear path with the helicopter and did not show on normal camera. Any opinions?
- pcrh 10y ago
  What would the plume be? Would the helicopter produce a dumbell-shaped heat signature?
- Shivetya 10y ago
  I figure a reflection from other planes just further off, water vapor can do some tricks. however they claim the IR gives them a temperature
kowdermeister 10y ago
> The significance of this sighting is that it was made by credible Navy officers, lasted nearly 10 minutes, and involved observation in both the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. Thanks, that's what all previous UFO disbelievers were crying about. I don't suggest any ET origin to be clear. If that footage is not faked (which doesn't seem to be case) it will going to be a hard puzzle to solve.
rahimiali 10y ago
another analysis that suggests this might be airplanes. scroll to the comments, where they plug in GPS coordinates from the video into google early, and superimpose the location of various flights from public records. https://www.metabunk.org/explanation-for-chilean-navy-ufo-video-aerodynamic-contrail.t8306/ https://www.metabunk.org/explanation-for-chilean-navy-ufo-vi...
- Cyph0n 10y ago
  The discussion is ongoing though. There are two possible candidate aircraft, but the distances and altitudes seem to be off.
  - Semiapies 10y ago
    Three, now, and people putting in coordinates on Google Earth get pretty good reconstruction of key shots in the video. Of course, it's unsurprising that a government committee for investigating UFOs didn't bother to do any due diligence like actually checking publicly documented flight paths. You don't get continued funding if you undermine the purpose of the position. (The article reports their claim that there were no planes in the area to be seen, but there were in fact three.)
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  All this discussion about it being another aircraft ignores the fact that this was by all reports an experienced crew who must have seen plenty of airplanes at a distance before and know whether they would be looking at one. Conversely, if this were a green crew with little experience with the FLIR infrared equipment who wouldn't necessarily recognize another plane, why would the Chilean military consider this to be a mystery at all?
  - drawnwren 10y ago
    I happen to be a very experienced FLIR analyst, and I've looked at this video: all you can tell at this range and resolution is that there is a hot thing there moving at a constant speed. There really isn't much magic to analyzing these videos, they're either black or white hot and usually don't provide as much information as we would like to think they do.
avian 10y ago
The article says that the possibility that this was an object reentering the atmosphere was dismissed. Why? There is no sense of scale here. It could be something very fast and far away, like a bolide leaving a trail of debris.
remarkEon 10y ago
When the object first comes on screen I initially thought "CH-47 making a left turn."[1] It looks like there's two little "nubs" on the front and back at the first zoom. Don't have any explanation for the discharge out the back, however. [1] http://www.boeing.com/defense/ch-47-chinook/ http://www.boeing.com/defense/ch-47-chinook/
YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
A UFO releasing plumes of material in the atmosphere? Just wait 'till the contrails community gets a whiff of this.
- 0xffff2 10y ago
  I think you actually mean "chemtrails". Contrails are perfectly unremarkable phenomena.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
    Dammit. Chemtrails. Thank you.
mannykannot 10y ago
Is temperature the only determinant of intensity, or could this also depend on something like opacity, emissivity or reflectance? Could these be ordinary contrails?
- Semiapies 10y ago
  I'd heavily recommend the metabunk thread linked by rahimiali. Reflection off a perfectly ordinary contrail is a likely explanation..
  - mannykannot 10y ago
    Yes - I have just finished reading it. QED.
awinter-py 10y ago
The chilean Very Large Telescope has a laser system that creates a 'virtual guide star' -- presumably this isn't that.
- nraynaud 10y ago
  They avoid looking low over the horizon.
- nraynaud 10y ago
  They avoid looking low over the horizon.
avenoir 10y ago
Right at the 0:46 mark (and again at 10 minutes) in the video you can see something that resembles a quad-copter with propellers on 4 sides of the flying object. Or am i just imagining things?
- tedd4u 10y ago
  Definitely remarked that to myself as well, but the rotors look huge compared with the craft itself ... and extend above, below, left and right. Like a drone traveling sideways? Strange indeed.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

107 points by astrodev 10y ago

Why did the article say it was a heat signature? I thought heat looked white to an IR sensor, and cold looked black. EDIT: thank you to the informative replies below!

Gracana 10y ago
It could be set up as "black hot."
kowdermeister 10y ago
They usually invert it to have a better contrast against the background.
- FoeNyx 10y ago
  In fact the video shows the 'inverted' mode at some point. https://youtu.be/NkUTGpegZN0?t=363 https://youtu.be/NkUTGpegZN0?t=363
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

erik_landerholm 10y ago

I posted this yesterday, but the article references the huffington post, so I figured I'd drop it here too: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d37bce4b014e7c72ee56b http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_586d37bce4b014e7c72ee56b

jimrandomh 10y ago

So, the Chilean Navy has some strange footage, probably corresponding to some other country's secret aircraft, and they... get it published on Ars Technica and invite the literally-schizophrenic "UFO" community to take a look at it?

lobster_johnson 10y ago
Where does it say that they went to Ars Technica? They published a press release [1]. [1] http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/en-la-prensa/noticias/casoarmada http://www.cefaa.gob.cl/home/en-la-prensa/noticias/casoarmad...
eternalban 10y ago
My immediate thoughts exactly (minus the schizo ad hom). Are militaries of the world so careless as to advertise their capabilities and equipments? FLIR Thermografie Kamera FLIR SC8000 Quantendetektor: https://youtu.be/doQGWcHTCG8 https://youtu.be/doQGWcHTCG8 Curious. FLIR demo video shows the (usual) color thermal imaging and the OP has grayscale output. http://www.flir.com/assets/0/6618/6729/6733/6740//9e20a2b4-4622-4402-bfd8-63c0918b47ad.jpg http://www.flir.com/assets/0/6618/6729/6733/6740//9e20a2b4-4...
protomyth 10y ago
If you don't have the resources as a country to investigate on your own, why not get an article published? I get the feeling information gathering in the internet / social media age is going to mess with the minds of a lot of people (and probably give some a bit of trouble).
timthelion 10y ago
I have a feeling that they know that this is a secret military spycraft, and this is a diplomatic way for them to thumb their noses at China, Russia, or the US and say "nanananabooboo, we see you!"

TTPrograms 10y ago

I'm not an expert on fighter thermal signatures, but this sort of looks like the rear output of two engines followed by usage of the afterburners maybe? http://i51.tinypic.com/20fs0pf.jpg http://i51.tinypic.com/20fs0pf.jpg It may correspond to known aircraft configuration, or an unknown one, but it doesn't seem like there's anything anomalous about it...

kowdermeister 10y ago
This thing just hovers there, slowly moving. Seeing noting in the visible spectrum is not anomalous?
- flosstop 10y ago
  Here my guess: - It appears stationary as it is travelling towards the camera and very far away. - It isn't apparent in the visible spectrum because of cloud/haze between it and the camera. - The plume appears as it passes through a layer of cloud and heats the moisture therein.
  - Applejinx 10y ago
    Absolutely. It's a twin engined something, and we're seeing the heat signature. May not even be an unusual aircraft.
    - heatButNoRadar 10y ago
      How come no radar signature. Is that not unusual for aircraft, or are most aircraft radar absorbing?
      - hindsightbias 10y ago
        Most civilian ATC radars are 'Secondary' radars which depend on cooperative transponders on all aircraft. If you turn your transponder off, the system doesn't work. US ATC uses 'Primary' radars as backup for locating aircraft that don't have transponders or don't have them on. Militaries use Primary radars for most of their activities. Other articles don't provide distinction on what type of radar was used.

vonkale 10y ago

Could it be some kind of IR reflection of the helicopter itself due to the structure of the clouds? It would seem logical if there was no radar signal, it was on a linear path with the helicopter and did not show on normal camera. Any opinions?

pcrh 10y ago
What would the plume be? Would the helicopter produce a dumbell-shaped heat signature?
Shivetya 10y ago
I figure a reflection from other planes just further off, water vapor can do some tricks. however they claim the IR gives them a temperature

kowdermeister 10y ago

> The significance of this sighting is that it was made by credible Navy officers, lasted nearly 10 minutes, and involved observation in both the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum. Thanks, that's what all previous UFO disbelievers were crying about. I don't suggest any ET origin to be clear. If that footage is not faked (which doesn't seem to be case) it will going to be a hard puzzle to solve.

rahimiali 10y ago

another analysis that suggests this might be airplanes. scroll to the comments, where they plug in GPS coordinates from the video into google early, and superimpose the location of various flights from public records. https://www.metabunk.org/explanation-for-chilean-navy-ufo-video-aerodynamic-contrail.t8306/ https://www.metabunk.org/explanation-for-chilean-navy-ufo-vi...

Cyph0n 10y ago
The discussion is ongoing though. There are two possible candidate aircraft, but the distances and altitudes seem to be off.
- Semiapies 10y ago
  Three, now, and people putting in coordinates on Google Earth get pretty good reconstruction of key shots in the video. Of course, it's unsurprising that a government committee for investigating UFOs didn't bother to do any due diligence like actually checking publicly documented flight paths. You don't get continued funding if you undermine the purpose of the position. (The article reports their claim that there were no planes in the area to be seen, but there were in fact three.)
lobster_johnson 10y ago
All this discussion about it being another aircraft ignores the fact that this was by all reports an experienced crew who must have seen plenty of airplanes at a distance before and know whether they would be looking at one. Conversely, if this were a green crew with little experience with the FLIR infrared equipment who wouldn't necessarily recognize another plane, why would the Chilean military consider this to be a mystery at all?
- drawnwren 10y ago
  I happen to be a very experienced FLIR analyst, and I've looked at this video: all you can tell at this range and resolution is that there is a hot thing there moving at a constant speed. There really isn't much magic to analyzing these videos, they're either black or white hot and usually don't provide as much information as we would like to think they do.

avian 10y ago

The article says that the possibility that this was an object reentering the atmosphere was dismissed. Why? There is no sense of scale here. It could be something very fast and far away, like a bolide leaving a trail of debris.

remarkEon 10y ago

When the object first comes on screen I initially thought "CH-47 making a left turn."[1] It looks like there's two little "nubs" on the front and back at the first zoom. Don't have any explanation for the discharge out the back, however. [1] http://www.boeing.com/defense/ch-47-chinook/ http://www.boeing.com/defense/ch-47-chinook/

YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago

A UFO releasing plumes of material in the atmosphere? Just wait 'till the contrails community gets a whiff of this.

0xffff2 10y ago
I think you actually mean "chemtrails". Contrails are perfectly unremarkable phenomena.
- YeGoblynQueenne 10y ago
  Dammit. Chemtrails. Thank you.

mannykannot 10y ago

Is temperature the only determinant of intensity, or could this also depend on something like opacity, emissivity or reflectance? Could these be ordinary contrails?

Semiapies 10y ago
I'd heavily recommend the metabunk thread linked by rahimiali. Reflection off a perfectly ordinary contrail is a likely explanation..
- mannykannot 10y ago
  Yes - I have just finished reading it. QED.

awinter-py 10y ago

The chilean Very Large Telescope has a laser system that creates a 'virtual guide star' -- presumably this isn't that.

nraynaud 10y ago
They avoid looking low over the horizon.
nraynaud 10y ago
They avoid looking low over the horizon.

avenoir 10y ago

Right at the 0:46 mark (and again at 10 minutes) in the video you can see something that resembles a quad-copter with propellers on 4 sides of the flying object. Or am i just imagining things?

tedd4u 10y ago
Definitely remarked that to myself as well, but the rotors look huge compared with the craft itself ... and extend above, below, left and right. Like a drone traveling sideways? Strange indeed.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]