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Old 06-29-2015, 08:32 PM   #1
Undertoad
Radical Centrist
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: Cottage of Prussia
Posts: 31,423
June 29, 2015: SpaceX rocket explosion seen on weather radar



That blue cloud in the upper right... that's a rocket, and 4000 pounds of stuff intended for the International Space Station. Exploded yesterday morning, two minutes after launch. And what you see above is the doppler radar time frame from 10:20 am to 11:45 am, as the debris fell back into the ocean.

Quote:
The good news, however, is that rockets failing in a spectacular fashion over the open water allows us to gawk at weather radar and watch the debris fall into the ocean. Doppler weather radar is able to detect just about anything in the beam’s way—usually we only care about precipitation, but radar can often show us the location and movement of swarms of bugs, flocks of birds, smoke from fires, debris swirling around in tornadoes, airplanes, and even highway traffic or trains speeding down railroad tracks if the beam gets inverted on cool mornings.
from gawker
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