HORN%HYDRA%sdi.polaroid.com@RELAY.CS.NET (10/29/90)
From: HORN%HYDRA%sdi.polaroid.com@RELAY.CS.NET I've watched a variety of insects on radar, although not locust migrations. Most insects stay below 1000m AGL, including US midwestern locusts, so I would expect desert locust swarms will also. I never saw returns stronger than a light drizzle equivalent, but a quick calculation of radar returns based on the swarm pictures that I have seen indicates that 100mm/hr could be observed. Weather radars will mis-interpret returns from large objects like locusts as spuriously high rain rates. (Now what is the right dialectric constant to use for a locust? :-)) Locust dimensions are such that you might also see a significant sensitivity change between L, C, and X band radars. R Horn horn%hydra@polaroid.com