When I was a kid, my father worked for Aeroject General Corp in Azusa, CA. They worked on all kinds of government projects. The employees that I met seemed bright and creative. Maybe a little too creative...

One of the things they would do when things were dull was to send up "UFOs" to entertain the news media and hopefully scare a few people. They inflated weather balloons and attached what they referred to as a "magnesium flares" to them, and sent them across town (wind direction was always important). The things burned very brightly for quite a while.

Question: what is a magnesium flare, and what are they really used for?

Sue