![]() This property means that a few hundred thin reflectors could, together, reflect as much energy as a heavy British bomber plane would. Under the right conditions, the re-radiated waves create the sonic impression of a large object when in reality, there is none-hence, the blob in Alabama. ![]() ![]() As it turns out, thin metal strips can resonate with incoming waves, and also re-radiate the waves. Radar detectors measure the reflection of radio waves of a certain wavelength off of incoming objects. The idea, Jones later explained in his book Most Secret War, was simple. Jones that was developing a method to conceal aircraft from enemy radar detection. Curran joined a team led by British physicist and scientific military intelligence expert R.V. Shortly after their wedding in November, the Currans transferred to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in the autumn of 1940. There also, Strothers married Sam and took on his last name, becoming Joan Curran. There, the two developed proximity fuses to destroy enemy planes and rockets. But with international conflict brewing in Europe, in 1940 the pair was transferred twice to work on military research, and ended up at Exeter. For two years, Strothers got along swimmingly with her new lab partner. Upon finishing her degree requirements in 1938, she went to the University’s preeminent Cavendish Laboratory to begin a doctorate in physics.Īt the Cavendish, Strothers was assigned to work with a young man named Samuel Curran. Strothers studied physics on a full scholarship and enjoyed rowing in her spare time. The inventor of radar chaff was a woman named Joan Curran.īorn Joan Strothers and raised in Swansea on the coast of Wales, she matriculated at the University of Cambridge’s Newnham College in 1934. More surprising than the effect that radar chaff has on modern weather systems, though, is the fact that its inventor’s life’s work was obscured by the haze of a male-centric scientific community’s outdated traditions. Its source was the nearby Redstone Arsenal, which, it seems, had decided that a warm summer’s day would be perfect for a completely routine military test.Īn image of a mysterious blob seen in weather radar on June 4, 2013, in Huntsville, Alabama. The source of the blob turned out to be not a freak weather front, but rather a cloud of radar chaff, a military technology used by nations all across the globe today. Strangely, however, the actual view out of peoples’ windows remained a calm azure. By 4 PM, it covered the entire city of Huntsville. The “blob,” as they referred to it, mushroomed on the radar screen. Just what the forecasters had predicted.īut in the post-lunch hours, meteorologists started picking up what seemed to be a rogue thunderstorm on the weather radar. On June 4, 2013, the city of Huntsville, Alabama was enjoying a gorgeous day.
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