So what do they use the ballons for if not spying ?Whistler wrote: ↑February 17, 2023, 7:46 pmNot really the case Rick.
There is no need to observe in real time, most things change very little day to day, so a daily scan is plenty good enough. Take Fench sattelites spot 5 and spot 7. They are in o polar orbit north to south. They scan over a 15 % peripheral orbit every 24 hours.
When they appear over PNG each day, they download data to an Alice Springs receiving station from the previous days sensory information while gathering data on the day. Military basis, crop data, coal stacks do not change on a minute by minute basis, a once a day download works fine.
US says salvaged sunken remnants of downed Chinese balloon reinforce it was for spying
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... for-spying