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Subject: Any idea what this is?
Nanheyangrouchuan    9/5/2008 6:47:53 PM
It supposedly exists near Korla in Xinjiang province (aka E. Turkestan) and may be a relic of or a current CIA/PLA joint surveillance op of Russian nuke/space activity. Or a weather modification experiment? Would that flat circular section be able to pump enough microwave energy into the atmosphere to generate instabilities further downwind?
 
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Nanheyangrouchuan       9/5/2008 6:48:43 PM

It supposedly exists near Korla in Xinjiang province (aka E. Turkestan) and may be a relic of or a current CIA/PLA joint surveillance op of Russian nuke/space activity.

Or a weather modification experiment? Would that flat circular section be able to pump enough microwave energy into the atmosphere to generate instabilities further downwind?
 


 
 
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Nanheyangrouchuan       9/5/2008 6:50:15 PM



It supposedly exists near Korla in Xinjiang province (aka E. Turkestan) and may be a relic of or a current CIA/PLA joint surveillance op of Russian nuke/space activity.



Or a weather modification experiment? Would that flat circular section be able to pump enough microwave energy into the atmosphere to generate instabilities further downwind?



http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=korla,+xinjiang,+china&ie=UTF8&ll=41.759928,86.203011&spn=0.001861,0.003771&t=h&z=18"
 





 



 
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gf0012-aust       9/5/2008 10:45:10 PM
send it to jim...
 
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YelliChink       9/6/2008 2:05:00 PM
Looks more like a water tower to me.
 
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Nanheyangrouchuan       9/6/2008 2:24:46 PM
 


And for all of you Obama supporters:
 
But consider the fact that we don't know if this operation is still underway and what was going on under Republican administrations (we did turn our backs on both Tibet and Taiwan under Nixon).
 

 
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warpig       9/7/2008 6:46:09 PM
Domes are weather-protection enclosures and also protect the contents from observation.  They sometimes contain radars, and sometimes communicaions antennas.  Much can be learned from the shape of a radar antenna, and it's useful to see which way a communications antenna is pointing.  It could easily contain an antenna for an air surveillance radar or satellite communication, i.e., it could be a Chinese satellite downlink/uplink site.  There are military facilities in the area that it might be supporting with satellite communications.  It could even be commercial/other-than-military government satellite communications, too.  Also, the Chinese certainly have SIGINT capability of their own, and again the dome could be protecting/shielding any such antennas so no one else can tell what it's trying to intercept.  Considering the distance from there to the border, if it's intercepting other nation's signals it seems most likely to me it would be trying to receive satellite downlinks meant for nearby Russian facilities, but it may be in the footprint of some other communications sources as well.  None of the above requires any American or any other foreign involvement.
 
 
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Softwar       9/8/2008 9:42:37 AM

Domes are weather-protection enclosures and also protect the contents from observation.  They sometimes contain radars, and sometimes communicaions antennas.  Much can be learned from the shape of a radar antenna, and it's useful to see which way a communications antenna is pointing.  It could easily contain an antenna for an air surveillance radar or satellite communication, i.e., it could be a Chinese satellite downlink/uplink site.  There are military facilities in the area that it might be supporting with satellite communications.  It could even be commercial/other-than-military government satellite communications, too.  Also, the Chinese certainly have SIGINT capability of their own, and again the dome could be protecting/shielding any such antennas so no one else can tell what it's trying to intercept.  Considering the distance from there to the border, if it's intercepting other nation's signals it seems most likely to me it would be trying to receive satellite downlinks meant for nearby Russian facilities, but it may be in the footprint of some other communications sources as well.  None of the above requires any American or any other foreign involvement.

 



Korla used to be a joint NSA/PLA SIGINT monitoring site - it was intended to keep tabs on Russian ICBM communications.  I understand the US pulled out of the joint program in the early 1990s - the end of the Cold war brought an end to the budget.
 
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warpig       9/8/2008 11:00:48 AM
I agree that's the buzz on the internet.  However, even if true in all the particulars, that isn't necessarily what this specific (and quite small) facility has ever been involved with.
 
 
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