It’s not a bird.
It’s not a plane, although it is towed by a helicopter.
And it’s definitely not a missile.
That’s one thing the U.S. Geological Survey wants people to know should they see a white, 35-foot-long tube flying low over the area in the next week or so.
The tube and helicopter are owned by Fugro Airborne Surveys, a Canadian company currently under contract to the USGS to gather information about buried sand and gravel aquifers in three areas of eastern Nebraska.
The tube, which contains equipment mapping geologic structures beneath the earth, is carried about 100 feet above ground level by a helicopter.
“The brake lights really come on when drivers see it,” said Robert Swanson, director of the USGS Nebraska Water Science Center in Lincoln.
The Fugro system has never been used in Nebraska but has been used worldwide to determine oil, gas and mineral deposits.
Swanson and other USGS scientists will headquarter at Fremont Municipal Airport, studying geophysical data retrieved from flights near Oakland; Ashland, Gretna, Hickman and Firth.
Initial surveillance flights were have to begun today, weather permitting, with the helicopter crew returning with the tube this afternoon to the Oakland area. The pilot and crew are specially trained for low-level flight and anyone observing the helicopter should not be alarmed when they see it fly overhead or pass below the horizon, stated USGS officials.
The retrieved information, including a three-dimensional color-coded model of each surveyed area, will be presented to the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, which Swanson estimated paid about $300,000 for the project. Results will be used to study and define the extent of water resources of the sand and gravel aquifers near the aforementioned towns.
Swanson said geologists will follow up the aerial survey by drilling holes in specified areas.
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