>>20770711

TYB

Pentagon eases cloak of secrecy around space warfare training

April 22, 2024

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has partially declassified some space electronic warfare technologies and exercises, a move seen as critical for enhancing U.S. Space Force training and fostering closer collaboration with allied forces.

Col. Christopher Fernengel, director of the Commander’s Action Group at U.S. Space Command, credited the Defense Department’s space policy office for leading the declassification efforts.

“They’re directing changes to declassify where it makes sense,” Fernengel said April 20 on a podcast hosted by the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.

The head of the Pentagon’s space policy office, John Plumb, has advocated for updates to the classification guidance to facilitate collaboration with allies and with the private sector.

Historically, space electronic warfare has been highly classified, Fernengel said. Just a few years ago, “everything was behind the green door at the ‘top secret special access’ program level,” he said. Most recently, “we saw much of the capability go from a top secret SAP level down to secret, or top secret.”

Space electronic warfare involves manipulating the electromagnetic spectrum, crucial for communication, navigation, and sensor data in space. It encompasses offensive actions like jamming or spoofing to hinder adversaries, alongside defensive measures to protect friendly space assets. Exercises often involve an “aggressor squadron” simulating enemy attempts to disrupt U.S. space systems electronically.

‘We can share more with coalition partners’

Lt. Col. C. Gene Adams, commander of the 527th Space Aggressor Squadron, underscored the benefits of lowering classification. “We can share more with coalition partners who have similar capabilities,” he said.

The policy changes streamline approvals, Adams said. “Counter-space approval activity packages” previously requiring Secretary of Defense sign-off are now delegated to colonels (O-6 level) in most cases, he explained.

This has led to increased international participation in exercises. Adams cited a recent electronic communications and data-sharing exercise, “Heavy Rain,” conducted with the U.S. Air Force, U.K., Australia, and France at Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

Fernengel emphasized the need for continued declassification efforts. “Bringing on more allies builds a more holistic electronic warfare enterprise,” he said. “We should not take our foot off the pedal” in continuing declassification efforts so more training opportunities open up with international partners.

Adams sees transparency as a deterrent. “Strategic deterrence is difficult without proper messaging,” he said. “Being able to work more closely with our partner nations will only make us more proficient and effective.”

https://spacenews.com/pentagon-eases-cloak-of-secrecy-around-space-warfare-training/

https://www.indy100.com/science-tech/what-is-the-baltic-sea-anomaly-2667857294

What is the Baltic Sea Anomaly?

April 23, 2024

Scientists believe they have finally established the truth behind one of the world’s greatest deep sea mysteries.

Back in 2011, Swedish explorers Peter Lindberg and Denis Asberg were combing the Baltic Sea for treasure when their sonar radars detected a jaw-dropping structure.

Lying nearly 300 feet (90 metres) beneath the waves, the object was circular with a diameter measuring approximately 200 feet (60 metres), the Discovery Channel reports.

Perhaps most remarkably, the form was marked with angular lines, leading many to liken it to the iconic Star Warsstarship the Millennium Falcon.

More staggering still, it appeared to feature “stair-like formations”, leading to a dark hole and another unknown object around 660 feet (200 metres) away.

Speaking about the discovery at the time, Asberg told Sweden’s TV4: “We were really surprised and puzzled.

“We were thinking, ‘What is that we have found here?’. This is not a wreck. At that time we thought for sure there was a natural explanation.

“We wanted to look into it some more and decided to keep this totally quiet. We contacted geologists, marine biologists and when they said they had never seen anything like this, of course, more thoughts were triggered. It could be something really awesome that we’ve found."

The enigmatic nature of the find prompted a flood of speculation, with some netizens suggesting it could be the remains of an ancient civilisation, others convinced it was the shell of a UFO and others even positing that it could have been a hidden Nazi weapon or the entrance to a secret World War II bunker.

For his part, Lindberg was keen to offer his own ideas of what the object might be: "It has these very strange stair formations, and if it is constructed, it must be constructed tens of thousands of years ago before the Ice Age," he said in a 2012 radio interview, as quoted by NBC.

For context, the peak of the last Ice Age occurred some 20,000 years ago.

"If this is Atlantis, that would be quite amazing," Lindberg added, in reference to the legendary continent.

Still, he also acknowledged, more prosaically, that it could also be a natural formation, such as a meteorite that crashed to Earth, or an underwater volcano.

Suffice it to say, some of these theories were lent more credence than others.

And yet, for years experts couldn’t agree on what the structure – which came to be known as the Baltic Sea Anomaly – really was.

Whilst most researchers concluded that the anomaly was made of rock, others insisted that it was, in fact, constructed of metal.

Fuelling this latter hypothesis was the claim made by diver Stefan Hogerborn, who was part of Lindberg and Asberg's Ocean X mission that made the original discovery.

He told reporters that electrical and satellite equipment cut out whenever they got too close to the object, according to a TechSciblog post.

"Anything electric out there, and the satellite phone as well, stopped working when we were above the object,” Hogerborn reportedly said.

“Then when we got away about 200 metres, it turned on again."

Meanwhile geologist Steve Weiner, of the University of Texas, allegedly carried out tests on the anomaly, which led him to conclude that it was made of “metals which nature could not reproduce itself”.

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>>20770920

Over the years, the Ocean X team continued to explore the enigma, taking samples from the site and even, in 2016, making a documentary about it all.

Volker Brüchert, a Stockholm University geologist, reportedly studied some of these samples and said: "What has been generously ignored by the Ocean-X team is that most of the samples they have brought up from the sea bottom are granites and gneisses and sandstones."

His own analysis prompted him to insist that there was nothing mysterious about the object at all.

"I was surprised when I researched the material I found a great black stone that could be a volcanic rock,” he said.

“My hypothesis is that this object, this structure was formed during the Ice Age many thousands of years ago."

Göran Ekberg, a marine archaeologist at Stockholm's Maritime Museum, conceded that the anomaly’s appearance was “weird” since it is “completely circular”.

Research undertaken by experts including geologists, scientists, marine archaeologists and even planetary geomorphologists, established that the Baltic Sea Anomaly is the result of a naturally occurring phenomenon.

The specifics of their theories differ, but they largely agree that it is the remains of a process of glacial movements that occurred during the Ice Age.

Hypotheses include that it may be made of sandstone or of basalt – a rock formed from hardened lava as a result of an underwater volcano, the Discovery Channel notes.

It may also be a moraine – a mass of rocks and sediment deposited by a glacier, typically forming ridges at its edges.

Still, the structure’s co-discoverer, Lindberg, has remained philosophical about the find.

He said: "I have been the biggest sceptic, I was kind of prepared for finding just stone. For me, it has been an amazing experience.

“I think it is very odd in its shape. It is tough to give an explanation as to what it might be exactly, since different scientists have many different theories.

“Whatever it is, it is something we do not usually find in nature sitting in the dark cold depths of the Baltic Sea."

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>>20770916

They have livestreams now

https://www.visitinvernesslochness.com/live-stream

UF-WOAH Bizarre photos show massive saucer-shaped ‘UFO’ being hauled down desert road by a tractor trailer baffling onlookers

Updated: 2:40, 23 Apr 2024

Photos have emerged of the UFO-like object being transported on a truck in Argentina.

The dome-shaped object was spotted on a highway between the towns of Andacollo and Chos Malal, which is southwest of Buenos Aires.

The large "UFO" was strapped to the vehicle, as another passenger filmed the strange sighting.

Those who saw what looked like a flying saucer were confused by what they saw.

While some thought it had come from aliens others were sure that it was a piece of equipment.

“Could it be commercial equipment or a real UFO?” one person asked.

“It is a telecommunications antenna,” another person guessed.

“The Argentine economy must be really bad to carry an intact UFO on the roads in plain sight," A third person said.

“They obviously don’t have a military plane to transport it?” another person wrote.

“It looks like some type of spotlight."

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/27480550/bizarre-photos-massive-saucer-ufo-desert-tractor-trailer-onlookers/

Government's refusal's to declassify UFO docs is a 'cover-up' costing taxpayers millions: GOP congressman

April 24, 2024 4:00am EDT

A U.S. congressman said he believes there's a government UFO "cover-up" and is fed up with what he characterized as diversion tactics and stonewalling while millions of dollars seemingly vanish into a black hole.

Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who's been a leading voice trying to get to the bottom of the UFO debate, expressed his frustration with the government on this topic in an interview with Fox News Digital.

"I think there is a cover-up," he said. "I mean, it's a cover-up when you release a file, and it's just half blacked out. And there's a cover-up when one group says one federal authority says something exists, and then another federal authority says it doesn't exist. That's a cover-up.

"So, yeah, it exists. The cover-up is real, for whatever reason. And you're spending tens of millions of dollars on it on something that you say doesn't exist, yet you continue spending the money on it. It makes you wonder."

Last week, Burchett was one of about a dozen people in a SCIF, a sensitive compartmented information facility, about UFOs, which is a highly classified briefing, and he left feeling "discouraged, as all this other stuff is."

Instead of releasing classified files to the public that a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers had been calling for, federal government officials "bring you in a secure setting, even for the most mundane so-called facts. And, to me, that just reeks of a cover."

Because the meeting was classified, Burchett couldn't discuss the details, but he said he didn't learn anything new and wondered why it couldn't be discussed in public.

"I really think the whole thing is so compartmentalized that we'll never get to the bottom of it until you have a commander-in-chief who says enough is enough. We just got to put this stuff out. Let's clear the air. And let's move on," Burchett said.

"Like I said before, it's not about little green man or flying saucers, it's about tens of millions of dollars that our federal government is spending on something that at least some of the members of the federal government say does not exist. Yet they will not release all the files."

At times, Burchett said he felt like they were close to getting answers, but then they're told they have to ask someone else.

"And that person isn't in the SCIF, and then you start all over again. We need a coliseum to put everyone in one place, so we get all the questions answered."

As recently as 2021, an Intelligence Community Control Access program "was expanded to protect UAP reverse-engineering … without sufficient justification," the Pentagon's February report on UFOs (or UAP, unidentified anomalous phenomena) said.

"This program never recovered or reverse-engineered any UAP or extraterrestrial spacecraft. This IC (intelligence community) program was disestablished due to its lack of merit," according to the report.

But it doesn't say the cost of the project or how much was spent.

"If they (federal government) don't have anything to hide, they sure are doing a great job of hiding it," Burchett said with a smirk. "And also, if (UFOs) don't exist, why do they keep spending tens of millions of dollars researching? And why do they not declassify the documents?

"And when they do declassify them, they're so redacted it just looks like blotches of blacked out ink."

A representative of AARO, All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, which is the Pentagon's office that studies UFOs, didn't immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/governments-refusals-declassify-ufo-docs-is-cover-up-costing-taxpayers-millions-gop-congressman

>>20771214

CERN's edge AI data analysis techniques used to detect marine plastic pollution

22 APRIL, 2024

Earth Observation (EO) and particle physics research have more in common than you might think. In both environments, whether capturing fleeting particle collisions or detecting transient traces of ocean plastics, rapid and accurate data analysis is paramount.

On this Earth Day, as we reflect on our responsibility to reduce plastics for the benefit of our society and all life on our planet, we are excited to present a new EU project, Edge SpAIce. It applies CERN’s cutting-edge AI technology to monitor the Earth’s ecosystems from space in order to detect and track plastic pollution in our oceans.

“In particle physics, the trigger system plays a critical role by swiftly determining which data from the particle detector should be retained, given that only a small fraction of the 40 million collision snapshots taken each second can be recorded. As the data influx at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has grown significantly over the years, physicists and computer scientists are continually innovating to upgrade this process - and this is where AI technology comes in,” says Sioni Summers, a CERN physicist working on the CMS experiment at the LHC, who is supervising this work.

Edge SpAIce is a collaborative endeavour involving CERN, EnduroSat (BG) and NTU Athens (GR) and coordinated by AGENIUM Space. Its aim is to develop a specially designed on-board system for satellites that will make it possible to acquire and process high-resolution pictures using a DNN (Deep Neural Network). The system will use the “edge AI” approach, in which data is processed in near real-time directly on the satellite, mirroring the efficient filtering of LHC data in particle detectors at CERN. This means that it is not necessary to transmit all of the captured data back to Earth but only the relevant information - in this case, the presence of marine plastic litter. The system will also be deployed on FPGA hardware developed in Europe, which will improve competitiveness. This could open the door for a whole new market for EO services and applications.

As modern life increasingly relies on technology, the solution that the project offers adeptly addresses the growing demand for data processing and the rapid expansion of EO satellites. By eliminating the need for heavy processing in Earth-based data centres, it not only reduces the carbon footprint but also helps to relieve the burden on these facilities. The innovative approach holds potential for broader applications in domains such as agriculture, urban planning, disaster relief and climate change. Additionally, this technology will provide environmental scientists and policymakers with invaluable data for targeted clean-up operations. It will advance our understanding of plastic pollution patterns, thereby enhancing our capacity to address environmental challenges effectively.

“AGENIUM Space is thrilled to have found synergies with CERN in developing innovative solutions for our planet’s future,” said Dr Andis Dembovskis, a business development executive with AGENIUM Space.

The Edge SpAIce project exemplifies how creative thinking by partners across diverse fields can lead to a collaborative knowledge transfer project that tackles major societal challenges. To discover how other CERN knowledge transfer and innovation projects are making a positive impact on the environment, please visit: https://kt.cern/environment

https://home.cern/news/news/knowledge-sharing/cerns-edge-ai-data-analysis-techniques-used-detect-marine-plastic