Each aerostat in the dog pod grid was a mirror-surfaced, aerodynamic 
teardrop just wide enough, at its widest part, to have contained a Ping-Pong 
ball. These pods were programmed to hang in space in a hexagonal grid pattern, 
about ten centimeters apart near the ground (close enough to stop a dog but not 
a cat, hence "dog pods") and spaced wider as they got higher. In this fashion 
a hemispherical dome was limned around the sacrosanct airspace of the New 
Atlantis Clave. When wind gusted, the pods all swung into it like weather vanes, 
and the grid deformed for a bit as the pods were shoved around; but all of them 
eventually worked their way back into place, swimming upstream like minnows, 
propelling the air turbines. The 'bines made a thin hissing noise, like a razor 
blade cutting air, that, when multiplied by the number of pods within earshot, 
engendered a not altogether cheerful ambience.