Cloud puzzle over Earth

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 8

Cloud puzzle over Earth

NZPA-ReuterMountain View. California A high-altitude U2 reconnaissance plane flew into a mysterious cloud circling the Earth at the week-end to try to discover how the cloud was formed, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman has said. The cloud covers a large portion of the Earth at a height of 18km and might have been formed by debris and dust from an unrecorded volcanic explosion., scientists at a N.A.S.A. research centre

in Mountain View said. The spokesman said the plane took off from an air base near Topeka. Kansas, to spend more than six hours collecting cloud particles. The plane carried beneath one of its wings a canister containing fine wires designed to trap the particles, the spokesman said. He said the canister would be flown to the research centre and scientists should know definitely this week how the cloud was formed. The cloud was first reported ,by observatories in

Japan. Germany, and Hawaii in late January. A research scientist. Owen Toon, said it was unlikely the cloud was formed by an exploding meteor or by an unnoticed nuclear explosion. “We don't expect the cloud to have any effect on the weather, but it should help make some colourful twilights." he said. He said that a similar cloud formed after Mount St Helens, a volcano in Washington. exploded in May, 1980, killing -61 people and destroying 150 homes.