Author: Guest Contributor

Cyclone Gabrielle February 14, 2023 Image by Lauren Dauphin, Image courtesy of The Earth Observatory, NASA

Cyclone Gabrielle Lashes New Zealand

Cyclone Gabrielle has been lashing New Zealand with strong winds and heavy rain in mid-February 2023, adding to what has already been an unusually wet start to the year. The latest round of extreme weather brought destructive flooding, storm surge, and landslides to the region. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer … [continued]

Image Author: Chase Doak, his image of a Chinese surveillance balloon, taken by Billings, Montana resident Chase Doak, was circulated among news organizations, leading to acknowledgement of the balloon by United States government and military officials. The balloon's trajectory included sensitive U.S. military installation airspace, and led to a ground stop at Billings Logan International Airport. The balloon was eventually shot down over the Atlantic Ocean after traversing much of the Continental U.S.Permission confirmed on Instagram [1], This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

How Will China’s Spy Balloon Affect US-China Relations?

I have to admit that at first I didn’t see the Chinese spy balloon drifting into US airspace as the crisis that it would, well, balloon into. Countries spend large amounts of resources spying on each other, expanding their methods as new technologies become available. This is well-known. High-altitude intelligence … [continued]