How High above ground does a country's Airspace extend ?

[torboy]

This whole balloon debacle got me thinking about the extent of a Nation's territory.

By International convention, a country's territory extends out 12 nautical miles over open water. If that country has a coastline.

So Canada could shoot down an object within 12 nautical miles of its coastline and rightfully say it operated within its rights.

But how High up in the air does our territory extend ?

12 nautical miles up ?

There doesn't appear to be any agreed to definition.

12 nautical miles is about 73,000 feet and all 4 balloon objects were shot down below that altitude.

Satellites are a different case. They orbit in Outer space which no country lays claim to.

So what happens when the next Russian or Chinese balloon arrives at say 100,000 to 120,000 feet altitude ?

That is higher than 12 nautical miles.

Does the U.S. figure it lays claim to airspace at any altitude it pleases ?

Fighter jets have a ceiling of 60,000 feet. I don't know the ceiling of sidewinder missiles but as rockets they could travel higher than fighter jets.

Homeowners and commercial property owners also own some airspace above them. An adjacent property is not allowed to build over the airspace of an existing property.

So it would not be possible for the Ryerson campus on Yonge to build a Sexy Roof pink in colour and in the shape of a Cruise ship over our beloved gem Zanzibar.

I would like to see that happen.

 

[Pleasure Hound]

The boundary between airspace and space is normally considered to be 100km (60 miles). This is about 316,800 feet.

 

[torboy]

The Record altitude for a weather balloon is 175,000 feet. How would you shoot down an object that high ? Lasers ? Can laser light pierce a balloon ?

 

[Pleasure Hound]

The Record altitude for a weather balloon is 175,000 feet. How would you shoot down an object that high ? Lasers ? Can laser light pierce a balloon ?

Jewish lasers can do that

 

[escortsxxx]

The Record altitude for a weather balloon is 175,000 feet. How would you shoot down an object that high ? Lasers ? Can laser light pierce a balloon ?

Regarding the use of lasers to shoot down a balloon, it is highly unlikely to be an effective method. Lasers are effective in destroying or damaging objects that are within their range and have specific properties, such as being highly reflective or flammable. However, a weather balloon is not likely to have those properties, and the laser beam would likely be dispersed before reaching the balloon.

Moreover, it is not ethical to shoot down a weather balloon, as it is a scientific instrument used for collecting important data about the Earth's atmosphere and weather patterns. Shooting it down would destroy valuable scientific data and equipment.

Instead of shooting down a weather balloon, it is essential to respect its purpose and allow it to complete its mission safely.

 

[Erosboy]

The Convention on International Civil Aviation says a country has sovereignty of the airspace over it's airspace.

See Article 1: Sovereignty

https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/7300_cons.pdf

 

[hamermill]

Depends on which country the rules are applied to. The US of @s$ considers their air space extends to Pluto.

 

[torboy]

Passenger jets top out at 39,000 feet, balloons go a lot higher and may not be applicable in this document. So higher up its a free for all.

 

[y2kmark]

The Convention on International Civil Aviation says a country has sovereignty of the airspace over it's airspace.

See Article 1: Sovereignty

https://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/7300_cons.pdf

Airspace over it's airspace? From the folks who brought you turtles all the way down...

 

[torboy]

The lowest earth orbit is around 100 miles up or 160 km. Below that there is too much atmospheric drag for a stable orbit. I believe China's next move will be to build a balloon to go to higher altitude say 130,000 feet. That is very doable. The U.S. has a balloon that goes to 120,000 feet. Just make the balloon stronger and bigger. Then the balloon will be too high for fighter jets to shoot down . An F 22's ceiling is 58,000 feet. And boosting to higher altitude will also quash the argument that the balloons interfere with civil aviation cause commercial jets only go to 39,000 feet. Problem solved. Boost the altitude so that fighter jets can't shoot them down and so that they are 3 times the height of commercial jets. The camera systems can certainly magnify a bit more to balance out the higher distance. I wonder what Biden will do then. He only shot these balloons down cause they were low. But the SR 71 Blackbird spy plane got to 100,000 feet. Can the Blackbird be armed with missiles ? Biden better make some sense tonight when he makes a speech about this.

 

[dirtydaveiii]

The Record altitude for a weather balloon is 175,000 feet. How would you shoot down an object that high ? Lasers ? Can laser light pierce a balloon ?

There was a major incident back I'm the 60s when an American spy and was shot down over the ussr. At the time rhe us did not believe that the soviets could shoot it down from 60,000 feet. The pilot ejected and made it to the ground to be taken custody by the soviets and held as a spy it was probably the 2nd most tense incident of the cold war

 

[dirtydaveiii]

Class a airspace extends from 18,000 to 60,000 feet above msl.

 

[Erosboy]

Airspace over it's airspace? From the folks who brought you turtles all the way down...

No, that was just me unable to type or think straight after three straight nights of not much sleep

 

[Frankfooter]

The lowest earth orbit is around 100 miles up or 160 km. Below that there is too much atmospheric drag for a stable orbit. I believe China's next move will be to build a balloon to go to higher altitude say 130,000 feet. That is very doable. The U.S. has a balloon that goes to 120,000 feet. Just make the balloon stronger and bigger. Then the balloon will be too high for fighter jets to shoot down . An F 22's ceiling is 58,000 feet. And boosting to higher altitude will also quash the argument that the balloons interfere with civil aviation cause commercial jets only go to 39,000 feet. Problem solved. Boost the altitude so that fighter jets can't shoot them down and so that they are 3 times the height of commercial jets. The camera systems can certainly magnify a bit more to balance out the higher distance. I wonder what Biden will do then. He only shot these balloons down cause they were low. But the SR 71 Blackbird spy plane got to 100,000 feet. Can the Blackbird be armed with missiles ? Biden better make some sense tonight when he makes a speech about this.

The easy thing is to id the balloons as research and warn the countries underneath that a jet stream or polar vortex shift has it off course.

 

[torboy]

Yes but how do you know if the balloon is Government or Private ? And we don't know for sure IF the balloon did indeed stray off course. That is just conjecture. And why didn't China inform North America Air Defence that a balloon was transiting its airspace ? That would be the respectable thing to do, if indeed the balloon tracked off course. China didn't inform us cause it was a secret spy balloon. It was not discovered over Montana. The Military had been tracking it since it left China.

 

[dirtydaveiii]

Yes but how do you know if the balloon is Government or Private ? And we don't know for sure IF the balloon did indeed stray off course. That is just conjecture. And why didn't China inform North America Air Defence that a balloon was transiting its airspace ? That would be the respectable thing to do, if indeed the balloon tracked off course. China didn't inform us cause it was a secret spy balloon. It was not discovered over Montana. The Military had been tracking it since it left China.

Can you imagine if Biden said his own military and the cia were incompetent and corrupt so he believes Xi? Tuckers head would explode

 

[dirtydaveiii]

Didn't anyone bother to Google this : There is no international agreement on the vertical extent of sovereign airspace,[citation needed] with suggestions ranging from about 30 km (19 mi)—the extent of the highest aircraft and balloons—to about 160 km (100 mi)—approximately the lowest extent of short-term stable orbits. (The satellite Lixing-1 had a stable orbit with an apogee of 140 km (87 mi) for three days.)[6] The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale has established the Kármán line—at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi)—as the boundary between the Earth's atmosphere and outer space,[7] while the United States considers anyone who has flown above 80 kilometres (50 mi) to be an astronaut[citation needed]. Indeed, descending Space Shuttles flew closer than 80 km (50 mi) over other nations, such as Canada, without requesting permission first.[8] Nonetheless, both the Kármán line and the U.S. definition are merely working benchmarks, without any real legal authority over matters of national sovereignty.

The boundary between public airspace and private air rights is defined by national or local law.

In the United States, the 1946 Supreme Court decision United States v. Causby overturned the common law doctrine that private property rights extend indefinitely upwards, instead ruling that they end 300 feet above the highest terrain (including buildings), the lower limit of the "public highway" defined by Congress in the Air Commerce Act of 1926. The Federal Aviation Administration regulates the construction and marking of structures taller than 200 feet near airports and 500 feet generally.[9]

 

[torboy]

The Record height for a weather balloon is 175,000 feet or 33 miles or 53 km. There have been Manned balloons also and some spacejumps from very high up

 

[Dutch Oven]