Mosul "Sphere"

[FatPhil]

The picture wasn't from Ukraine.

I'm fairly sure the logic was probably as follows:
A) [Fact] Some recent wars have involved this tech
B) [Deduction from A] Therefore all recent wars will involve this tech
C) [Fact] The Ukraine war's a recent war
D) [Deduction from B and C] Therefore this tech should have been seen in Ukraine.

Classic Hasty Generalisation Fallacy at B. Some does not imply all. (I know you know this, I'm just spelling it out in case your response didn't make things clear enough.)

 

[Mauro]

Are there any examples of using balloons to distract anyone in ukraine? I feel like the idea that people just let loose balloons to distract people if it were a tactic in military we'd see all over a war where drone attacks are so common.

Would be a great way to hide/freak out the opponent if you filled the sky with balloons, but I've never seen that used as a tactic outside of pictures or suggestions ITT(and the other)

I remember to have read Russians used balloons as decoys in Ukraine. I cannot trace back the original links (probably it was on The War Zone), but a simple google search finds many results:

 

[John J.]

Why is it not a thing I see in practice? With the coverage in ukraine, I think we'd have multiple examples this.

The Ukrainians probably realise it's a useless tactic.
For insurgent groups (or whatever we want to call them) in the Middle East, maybe it helps morale- maybe people believe they're reducing the frequency or effectiveness of air reconnaissance/ air attacks.

Before the Second World War, Britain built concrete acoustic mirrors to detect incoming enemy aircraft. A microphone would be at the focus of the "mirror".

These mirrors are all about 5 m (16' 3") high. (The curved wall-like structure on the left, 2nd pic, is a mirror of different design).
From Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_mirror Fortunately for Britain, radar was developed just before the war.

I think it's very unlikely that the acoustic mirrors would have been an effective warning system- but it showed the authorities were doing something to protect the people. Maybe the release of balloons by Mid-East groups has a similar function.

 

[Duke]

The Ukrainians probably realise it's a useless tactic.
For insurgent groups (or whatever we want to call them) in the Middle East, maybe it helps morale- maybe people believe they're reducing the frequency or effectiveness of air reconnaissance/ air attacks.

Before the Second World War, Britain built concrete acoustic mirrors to detect incoming enemy aircraft. A microphone would be at the focus of the "mirror".

These mirrors are all about 5 m (16' 3") high. (The curved wall-like structure on the left, 2nd pic, is a mirror of different design).
From Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_mirror Fortunately for Britain, radar was developed just before the war.

I think it's very unlikely that the acoustic mirrors would have been an effective warning system- but it showed the authorities were doing something to protect the people. Maybe the release of balloons by Mid-East groups has a similar function.

I saw one of those out in a field in/around East Anglia when I went to visit my late father-in-law's USAAF base (100th BG/Thorpe Abbotts). It never occurred to me what it was.

 

[Ann K]

I saw one of those out in a field in/around East Anglia when I went to visit my late father-in-law's USAAF base (100th BG/Thorpe Abbotts). It never occurred to me what it was.

My uncle had a dog, given to him by a naval officer who had been stationed in heavily-attacked Portsmouth. Goofy knew the difference in sound between British aircraft and German ones, and was a pretty efficient acoustic detector. When Goofy started to whine, everyone from the upper floors came down to take shelter in my uncle's cellar.

 

[tobigtofool]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt11FrOYa0A


I'd be interested to hear more about this from other sources about militant uses https://www.metabunk.org/threads/mosul-sphere.12850/post-286740

As for useless tactic, I wonder if you released 50,000 balloons over a target if that'd make it harder to target actual rocket threats with it?

 

[Bruce M]

Necroposting, sorry. Just didnt read this thread until now.
Was there a conclusion? Given its a screenshot, not the video, it seems likely they posted this one shot because its the most interesting. If you saw the 4 second video and it shows this moving across the screen quickly you'd know it was just a balloon/air object, and not a sphere on the ground or a water puddle. The lack of video seems deliberate.
Its not a water droplet on the outside glass. It cant focus and be sharp like that. If its an internal camera fault(on the focal plane) then its (a) huge, and (b) going to be seen everywhere you look at the same place on the screen.
Highly unlikely this is a photo of a monitor.(and hence a reflection). The screen capture/image is exactly the size of a video output from the camera.


The camera setting is the EON daylight camera, at 1500MM focal length. Common in MX systems.


Terrible focus setting. Set at infinity, with trim at 99% (the maximum) implies there is something wrong with the mechanism/tuning. It is at absolute maximum focus, and it still isnt sharp.


Spatial AND temporal on! Temporal filtering, on a sunny day, in a fast moving aircraft, is a very odd choice. Temporal uses time to calculate an average of the view over multiple frames, and present a final pixel. Very good for cutting through haze, from a sandstorm or falling snow. So, maybe there was blowing dust this day? But to get it to work when you are moving quickly takes some skill, because if you slew the camera too quickly all you get is a smear of images everywhere. Like cheap 80's sci-fi ghosting effect.

The locations and overlay descriptions from post #22 look correct.

From Corbell's instagram on this photo:

DURATION - The video is 4 seconds long. The UAP is seen “moving with purpose” in a lateral direction across the video (south to north). The “orb” UAP is visible for approximately 1 second - as it moves through frame.​

So, even the original source knows it isnt a shiny puddle.

My 2c : It is a balloon moving through the frame, from either blowing in the wind, or the aircraft moving relative to it, keeping it in frame for only a brief moment.