Number 59 (Story #4), December 18, 1991 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein CONTINENT-SIZED WINDSTORMS have been detected in the mesosphere, a little-studied region of the atmosphere at an altitude of 30 to 60 miles above the earth's surface. Paul B. Hays of the University of Michigan, speaking at last week's meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, described data recorded in November 1991 by the NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. He and his colleagues observed vortices of air as big as the U.S. swirling about at velocities as great as 200 miles per hour.