Physics Lab Builds Squad Car for Pursuit of Electronic Clouds Hung 62 Miles Above Earth

Elaborately equipped with radio apparatus, a squad car which pursues electronic clouds as they drift over the earth's surface is in the possession of the Physics Laboratory. Harner Selvidge and Paul Bernard King, Jr., graduate students in the Engineering School, and John Alvin Pierce, are guiding the vehicle in its pursuit of the elusive clouds that travel an estimated distance of 62 miles high.

The new portable laboratory is designed to carry on a wide variety of scientific measurements which have hitherto required the facilities of fixed stations. It also undertakes experiments which could not be performed in ordinary laboratories.

A transmitter sends out one radio wave that travels along the ground and another that travels out into the atmosphere at different angles. A measurement of the time interval between the reception of the ground and the angle waves, the "echo," at a distant station, reveals the altitude and position of the ionized clouds.

The car carries a receiving set as well as a special type of transmitter and it is thus possible to conduct sending and receiving experiments with the radio station at the Physics Lab simultaneously.

The transmitter sends a circularly-polarized or "corkscrew" wave which can be spun clockwise or counterclockwise as it moves through space. The set also transmits the ordinary type of radio wave.