China says the balloon shot down Saturday was doing weather research. The U.S. government says it was a spy balloon. There are some key differences between the Chinese balloon and the...

A weather balloon, also known as a sounding balloon, is a balloon (specifically a type of high-altitude balloon) that carries instruments to the stratosphere to send back information on atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed by means of a small, expendable measuring device called a radiosonde.

The People's Republic of China claimed the recent spy balloon was used exclusively for weather research. There are some major differences between balloons that conduct weather research...

In this Weatherwise, its high stakes espionage in our sky and the weather, specifically wind speed and direction influenced the path of the Chinese surveillance balloon.

From January 28 to February 4, 2023, a high-altitude balloon originating from China flew across North American airspace, including Alaska, western Canada, and the contiguous United States. [2] . On February 4, the U.S. Air Force shot down the balloon over U.S. territorial waters off the coast of South Carolina.