Fu-Go balloon bomb
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Fu-Go was an incendiary balloon weapon deployed by Japan against the United States during World War II. It consisted of a hydrogen-filled paper balloon 33 feet in diameter, with a payload of four 11-p
Balloon reinflated in California, January 1945
Fu-Go carriage, with labeled ring, electrical circuits, fuses, ballast, and bombs
Top view of carriage assembly, with control device removed
Altitude control device, with central master aneroid barometer and backups
Jet stream
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Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents in the atmosphere. It is the physical mechanism of a teleconnection. The main terrestrial jet streams are located near the altitude of the tropopause
Fu-Go balloon bomb
…bomb. The uncontrolled balloons were carried over the Pacific Ocean from Japan to North America by fast, high-altitude air currents, today known as the jet stream, and used a sophisticated sandbag ballast system to maintain their altitude. The bombs were intended to ignite large-scale forest fires and spread…
Clouds along a jet stream over Canada.
General configuration of the polar and subtropical jet streams
Hurricane Flossie over Hawaii in 2007. Note the large band of moisture that developed East of Hawaii Island that came from the hurricane.