NPR "Billion Bug Highway" Video Worth Watching!

[gunug]

There is a video on Youtube I think you might like to see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QxfOYhpjro...player_embedded

This is about the "billions" of insects that are moving through upper layers of our atmosphere and it might easily explain where that strange bug came from in your lunchbox or some of those that hit your windshield out of a clear blue sky!  

[Xairbusdriver]

I mentioned this phenomenon to my grandkids after hearing that report. They really thought I was preparing them for a joke! They just couldn't believe such a thing was real. <Here's the original story.> Who knew radio was such fun to watch! It's golden nuggets like this that keep me tuned to the nearest NPR station.

[gunug]

My dad was a meteorologist, as I'm sure I mentioned, and when he was going to school in Norman, Oklahoma to get his masters degree he told me things about the sky, the Latin names of "parts" of the sunrise and the sunset for example, that were pretty surprising to me back in high school.  I don't think he ever "dreamed" of the Billion Bug Highway. . .this is just like something out of Charles Fort or something.  Pretty wild!

[Highmac]

Even allowing for the wonders of radar, it does leave you wondering how anyone spotted one termite flying at 19,000 feet.....  

[Xairbusdriver]

Only logical way I can imagine would be from some atmospheric testing/experimenting/air sampling at that altitude. Or, maybe the Orkin Man had a contract on a house at hat level on some mountain?

[RNKIII]

Or maybe they just scape the noses of some of those 'airbuses' and check out what's deposited there...


Bob K.   rnkiii

[gunug]

I can recall some atmospheric testing that NOAA did where they sampled the air at different altitudes with some relatively slow moving aircraft!  You could easily do this with a blimp, a hot air balloon (to a certain altitude) or a tethered weather balloon!