Comparison of Insects' Flight Characteristics with Observed Characteristics of Radar Dot Angels

Abstract

To assist the radar meteorologist in identifying certain types of echoes believed to originate with insects, the flying characteristics of insects have been obtained from entomologists'reports and compared with observed characteristics of dot angel type radar echoes. The entomologists' reports reveal that it does not appear likely one could predict the orientation of an insect in flight; consequently, polarization information obtained from dot angel echoes does not appear to be a useful bit of information in attempting to relate dot angels to insects. Reported insect flying speeds and flying altitudes are found to agree with measured speeds and altitudes of dot angel echoes. The endurance of insects in flight is found to be such that it can easily account for the time duration during which individual dot angels have been observed and for the time that would be required for insects to reach the altitude of the observed dot angels.