The eyes in the air, but the calm spirit. Members of the scientific community who use weather balloons or stratospheric balloons in their research are following with perplexity the ongoing geopolitical crisis induced by the interception and destruction of four balloons in North American skies. “Nebulous” and “strange” events, they say, while hoping that these new sky-related tensions do not harm the experiments they conduct with such equipment, in or from Canadian and American airspace. .
“Sounding balloons are important tools for atmospheric research and climate research,” explains chemist Patrick Hayes, a specialist in atmospheric chemistry at the University of Montreal, in an interview. Without them, we move forward with a reduced capacity to understand the evolution and the changes of the atmosphere, and it is to be hoped that in the future these stories of intercepted balloons will not make it more difficult to obtain authorization for projects that are important for research. »
“Sometimes it takes an incident to strengthen or change regulations,” says Frédéric Fabry, professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at McGill University, while admitting to speculating on the possible continuation of things. But he also believes in keeping a cool head. “Currently, we are faced with a disproportionate reaction to a phenomenon that has just struck us collectively: the presence in the sky of balloons which we did not pay attention to, until today, he adds. And then, if we take the hypothesis that these are spy balloons, we can say to ourselves that they were perhaps interesting tools for a State until now, but that now they become less, since we begin to worry a little more about it. »
Research balloon flights have high scientific significance, but low safety impact
On Tuesday, the United States somewhat deflated speculation about the nature and intentions of the launch of the last three balloons intercepted over American and Canadian territory between last Friday and Sunday. Quoted by Agence France-Presse, John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council of the White House, indicated that these last three balloons could have “harmless commercial or scientific functions”, according to the “pilot sightings” of fighter jets sent to bring them down. The search for the debris was still ongoing on Tuesday.
Washington maintains, however, that the first balloon, intercepted on February 4, is of Chinese origin and aimed, according to the American executive, to spy on American territory. The flying object carried surveillance equipment at very high altitude and was part of a vast global spy program from China, assures Washington, which Beijing formally denies.
A rigorous framework
“This whole story is very strange,” says Simon Thibault, director of the Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics at Université Laval, who in 2018 led a team that launched a telescope on a stratospheric balloon for the study of exoplanets. Among others. “It is very difficult to lose a ball without it being done on purpose, and for this reason I doubt that [la crise actuelle des ballons] going to have a negative impact on our future activities, as a scientist, he adds. Our launches are made within an already very rigorous and planned framework. The trajectories of the balloons are known to the authorities, and it will continue to be so. »
In Canada, the launch of stratospheric balloons, that is to say those that exceed the barrier of 15 km in altitude, is strictly supervised by the Canadian Space Agency, and this, from a base in Timmins, in the north. of Ontario.
“Balloon flights for research have great scientific significance, but little safety impact, assures Yves-Alain Peter, professor of engineering physics at Polytechnique Montréal, who occasionally uses sounding balloons in his research on the quality air. These balloons are registered and follow precise flight plans, since they cross altitudes where planes can pass. »
“The regulations to follow are already very complicated in Canada, the United States, but also in northern Europe and Australia,” adds Simon Thibault. These launches are very well planned, so that we can follow our balloons at all times and, above all, recover them safely, with all their equipment, which can be extremely expensive. It is moreover this regulation, which is already quite severe and restrictive, which makes it easier to identify balloons whose presence in the sky is not authorized”, which protects, according to him, the use for scientific purposes of balloons in a sky that has become a diplomatic minefield for a few days.
“Stratospheric balloons are wonderful and inexpensive ways to access space-like conditions for research,” says Laura Fissel, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University, joined by The duty in Kingston, Ontario. They bring the boundary between the terrestrial and extraterrestrial environment within reach and allow us to do science experiments that would otherwise require a more expensive satellite platform, and I’m not afraid that we can no longer launch these science balloons from the North America, Europe or even Antarctica. »
“On the other hand, I am more worried about the fate that this could reserve for amateur balloons, those launched by groups of students, for example, who do not need large balloons and who mainly make their own launches. New restrictions on those kinds of launches or their locations could really affect those groups,” and the science experience that usually comes with it, she concludes.