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Modern Mysteries

S-shaped radar trace mystery solved

By T.K. Randall
February 16, 2014 · Comment icon 13 comments

The strange radar hit had weather experts baffled. Image Credit: NOAA
The strange snake-like trace was picked up by an Australian weather beareau radar last Wednesday.
While the radar can sometimes pick up unusual patterns, the image of a perfect s-shape on Wednesday's image soon had experts scratching their heads. The hit had been picked up around 30km to the west of Australia's Rottnest Island.

As soon as the image appeared online Twitter users wasted no time in speculating what the mysterious object could be. Some suggested that it was a UFO while others likened it to a sea monster, earning it the honorary title of "The Rottnest Monster".
Now a Department of Defence spokesman has come forward to set the record straight by revealing that the strange s-shape was nothing more than a military training exercise.

"The environmental conditions over the West Australian coast at the time of the activity provided a unique opportunity for this routine activity to be visible on the weather radar display," he said.

Source: ABC.net.au | Comments (13)




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Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #4 Posted by Kludge808 10 years ago
No, it's a Serpentine Overlord named Susan. :-)
Comment icon #5 Posted by the artory 10 years ago
Solved? I don't think so! Just because a Dept of Defence person says we did it, doesn't solve the mystery. HOW did they do it with a detailed explanation may explain it. I live in Perth and there is no way that if this was a contrail, chem trail or naval ships laying down a smokescreen it wouldn't have been seen by people on Rottnest (hundreds, sometimes thousands at this time of the year are on the island) and indeed the coast of Perth. There would have been countless Facebook photos and comments. There wasn't. Simply accepting that because the D of D said they did it without asking the hard ... [More]
Comment icon #6 Posted by bison 10 years ago
It was suggested that the S shape was made up of radar reflective chaff, released from a plane, or planes. The Dept of Defense statement did not mention radar chaff specifically. They did call the incident a 'unique opportunity' for the radar to observe their work, due to apparently unusual atmospheric conditions. Observing the same weather radar display in subsequent days I noted a number of very long, straight, thin lines, pretty obviously artificial, rather than natural. These typically appeared and disappeared in the course of about ten minutes. I was at first inclined to think that these ... [More]
Comment icon #7 Posted by bulveye 10 years ago
Well there is currently vast amounts of money to be made in drone technology. My guess is that it some experimental drone/s and probably testing some anti-radar or anti missile tech. Seeing as how the military have given a true/untrue statement on it I think that is the last we will know of it for a few years. They only thing we can hope for is that they have to keep testing and more people share their witness accounts so we can gradually build a bigger picture.
Comment icon #8 Posted by bison 10 years ago
Just checked the radar display again (see my link, above). Another 300 kilometer long line is visible. Snaps into view in one radar frame, but is missing from the ones 10 minutes before and after. Quite strong and artificial looking. Same North North East-- South South West orientation as seen with the two parallel lines yesterday.
Comment icon #9 Posted by OverSword 10 years ago
It's an ongoing part of the covert weather wars being secretly fought by various governments all over the world in an effort to cause havoc through environmental disasters and famine.
Comment icon #10 Posted by stereologist 10 years ago
It's an ongoing part of the covert weather wars being secretly fought by various governments all over the world in an effort to cause havoc through environmental disasters and famine. That's funny. Thanks for the humor in all of this. I was thinking that this was a message being spelled out that had an 'S' in it - sort of like a crop circle thingy in the sky. But weather wars is so much more fun. Could make it into a reality show. You could have Weather Wars hosted by old timers from the pro-wrestling circuit screaming at each other with a back drop of storms and lightning. Then they'd be talk... [More]
Comment icon #11 Posted by bison 10 years ago
I'm still not satisfied with the sketchy explanation for the letter S. I do believe that I have an explanation for the straight lines, though. It was suggested to me that these could be radial interference spokes ( a well known radar anomaly) from an adjacent weather radar. They are not radial to the Serpentine radar, but, as it turns out they are, with respect to the next weather radar to the North, at Geraldton, Western Australia. The images I was looking at happened to incorporate data from other weather radars, besides the one at Serpentine, including Geraldton.
Comment icon #12 Posted by psyche101 10 years ago
Well the Rottnest Monster has returned. Either that or the Dreamtime has returned and this snake is back to carve out more river systems. In all seriousness, such RADAR anomalies are not uncommon, over the last couple of years we have seen a variety of RADAR "UFO's" over Oztralyia. Here are just a few: And Cairns had a giant "T" Over it at one stage: Probably more likely than a giant aliens snake. LINK - RADAR anomaly "odd" Page Call it sketchy all you like, but look at the scale, it just has to be a glitch. And according to the colour code, the UFO snake is made out of moderate rainfall.
Comment icon #13 Posted by psyche101 10 years ago
Was the DOD spokesman p101? Nah, he was my sister.


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