65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Section_006

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conditions exist, flying saucers become likely
same so1·t of conditions which cause optical
mirages cause radar mirages as well, as any
radar expert will hasten to tell you. They cause
television mirages too. Everyone knows cases
where a television station, normally miles out
of range, suddenly comes in powerful and
steady.
Also, the stress laid on the optical pecu­
liadties of air over deserts should not be mis­
leading. Th<? temperature inversions of which
I speak arc common over the desert (and over
coastal waters) but they are not limited to
such areas. They can appear anywhere, and
do. A bad smog, for example, is usually a sign
of a temperature inversion. But they a-re more
frequent over deserts, which explains in part
the fact that saucer reports are more frequent
over deserts.
You, too, can have flying saucers in your
home. Perhaps not as elaborate as the ones I
have just described, but nevertheless adequate
to demonstrate some of the effects. You may
simulate the gradual bending that causes a
mirage by using a sharp reflection at a water
surface.
Fill the kitchen sink to the brim and set
up a candle or row of candles close to the edge
along one side. A box with a series of pinholes
illuminated by a light or candle is even better.
Now face the lights from the opposite side of
the sink, keeping your eye close to the water
surface and see the bright reflections. Now
have someone gently stir the water and pro­
duce waves The lights will float and travel­
and ovon s ;,ow the disklike form character­
istic of a reflection from the trough of a wave.
One can even reproduce the saucers with light
reflected from the surface of coffee in a cup.
As I have said earlier, these experiments
arc suggestive rather than definitive. More
work is necessary to prove the phenomenon.
The analysis indicates, however, a clear plan
for tuturc study and research. I believe that
these experiments will eventually cause the
saucer scare to vanish -
most appropriately,
into thin air, the region that gave birth to it.
END"
The forc1?s entrusted with the defense
of the U. S. from the skies still must
look for "flying saucers." In its next
issue, looK will tell the story of this
secret hunt by our aerial defenders.
In normal air, light from the ground siml?ly spreac.s out into space. Outside its
With a temperature inversion, light bends in refracting layer of air.
range, where the earth curves away, there 1s darkne:s antl no strange phenomena.
A ray of light will thus be seen in areas far distant from its source.
spread out horizontally to.form a thin layer
of smoke and haze. This ceiling occurs at the
point of highest temperature. Smoke, dust -and
all kinds of gencrnl haze tend to collect in this
layer. From below or above, you may not be
aware of its existence. But as you pass through
it, you see a fine black line extending from
horizon to horizon.
On that famous day in June, 1947, when
Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho, spotted from
his private plane nine distant saucers moving
at "fantastic speeds" along the slopes of Mt.
'Rainier, he may well have been flying not too
far from one of these layers of inversion haze.
His was the observation that touched off the
saucer scare.
Let us turn to the official Air Force release
and quote Arnold himself: "I could !:lee their
outline quite plainiy against the snow as they
...pproached the mountain. They fiew very close
to the mountain tops, directly south to south­
east down the hog's back of the range, flying
like geese. I watched for about three minutes
-a chain of saucerlike things at least five miles
long, swerving in and out of the high mountain
peaks. They were flat like a pie pan and so
shiny they reflected the sun like a mirror."
In Arnold's own story, there are several
clues that should have pointed out the answer
long ago. Anyone familiar with mountains
knows that the ridges, where ascending cur­
rents of air from oppol:lite sides meet and mix,
arc subject to the most violent drafts. From the
Harvard and University of Colorado observa­
tory at Climax, Colo.. I have observed with a
telescope the blowing snow on the ridges of
14,000-foot peaks, and have- noted the billow­
ing gusts rage along the "hog's back." It is
indeed highly prnbable that the slopes of Mt.
Rainier are equally turbulent. And, if their
turbulence reaches upward into the haze, the
warped layers would reflect sunlight and a
• progression of moves would make the crests
seem to move with phenomenal speed.
And if you doubt whether mere bending
or crinkling of a hazy layer could cause the
bright reflection, note how a fold of a lace
curtain- or piece of cheesecloth- similarly re­
flect:; the light. The reflection is l.JrighLcs~ wnen
the curvature is sharpest. Mostdaytime saucers
are a variant of this phcnomc-nnn. The mirage
effect is· here of secondary importance.
The "ghost" balloons arc perhaps the sim­
plest of all mirage phenomena. The balloon
itself is responsible. As it "punctures" some
fairly high inversion, a lArge bubble of colder
air settles down from above, forming in effect
a sort of supermagnifying lens or telescope.
This imperfect lens of air forms an image· of
the balloon. And, as the Jens changes its size
and shape, the distorted image darts wildly
around, with phenomenal speed - like a reflec­
tion of the sun from a hand mirror.
To demonstrate some of these efTects ­
chiefly those associated with the luminous
night saucers- I prepared a simple laboratory
experiment, as follows: I filled a cylindrical
jar half full of benzene and carefully floated
a layer of acetone on top. Gentle stirring pro­
duced a narrow region where the chemical
composition changed slowly upward. Benzene
has optical qualities analogous to those of cold
air and acetone to those of warm afr. I thus
reproduced in a small space what would ordi­
narily require miles of terrestrial atmosphere.
The liquids produce remarkable effects.
A beam of light, focused diagonally up­
ward from a small slide projector, would or­
dinarily strike the ceiling. But caught in the
"inversion layer." the beam obediently curved
downward. Tiny globules of glycerine emulsi­
fied in the benzene.scattered the light and made
the beam visible. The original circular pinhole
used in the projector was distorted into an
oval shape and clearly marked with some pat­
tern suggesting a surface structure.
Laboratory "Saucers"
Any motion of the liquid- produced as the
result of a rocking- made the saucer slip about.
T11rbulcnc", <'CTU«<'d by <> d.<>lioQto otirring of
the medium near the light beam, gave dozens
of flying disks. The color efiects, resulting in
part from the glycerine globules, were star­
tling and beautiful. Finally, when I replaced
the single pinhole with a row that simulated
distant street lights, the resulting images be­
haved and looked like the Lubbock Lights.
These considerationsdo not explain every­
thing. The green fire balls are still something
of a mystery, though many will prove to be
meteors. Prof. Fred L. Whipple of Harvard has
called my attention to the fact that the color
pr,ibably arises from the presence of magne­
:s1v 11 111 Lill! ,uctvvr lts CH. This rnctul, wcl!
known to be an abundant constituent of the
ro•·k meteors, emits green light when incan­
dc;cent. The reported slowness of motion may
be due to great distance, associated with the
cla1·ity of the desert skies.
This mirage-phenomena theory includes
U-c flying saucers seen on radarscopes. The