WMO Bulletin, Volume V, No. 4: October 1956
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WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION OCTOBER 1956 VOL. V NO. 4 At all modern BAROGRAPHS Recording anerolds with contlnous meteorological stations charts i adopted for over 40 years by the French Meteorological Service. Standard equipment in the French THE PRECISION Navy. INSTRUMENTS OF THERMOGRAPHS Which can be combined with our barometers and hygrometers. These JULES RICHARD instruments are outstandingly sen sltive. provide a permanent answer HYGROGRAPHS Direct recording of air humidity on ruled charts. All types of indicators and recorders, including upper-air and dew-point instruments. SOLARIMETERS Direct reading and recording ins truments for measuring the intensity of solar radiation. Pyrheliographs. ANEMOGRAPHS All types of anemometers, including 14 Pap \lion" eledro-magnetic instru ments for recording instantaneous wind speed at a distance. RAINGAUGES All types of float, balance and syphon raingauges, both recording and non~recording. upon request OFFICERS OF THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION President : Mr. A. VrAuT First Vice-President : Dr. M. A. F. BARNETT Second Vice-President : Prof. Dr. H. AMORIM FERREIRA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Mr. A. VIAUT Mr. A. THOMSON Dr. F. W. REICHELDERFER Dr. M. A. F. BARNETT Dr. C. DEL RosARIO Mr. A. A. SoLOTOUKHINE Prof. Dr. H. AMORIM FERREIRA Dr. A. NYEERG Sir GRAHAM SUTT0:'-1 Mr. J. RAVET Mr. L. DE AZCARRAGA Mr. M. F. TAHA Mr. S. BASU Prof. Dr. J. LuGEON TECHNICAL COMMISSION PRESIDENTS REGIONAL ASSOCIATION PRESIDENTS Aerology: Prof. Dr. J. VAN MIEGHEM Africa (I) : Mr. J. RAVET Aeronautical Meteorology : Mr. A. H. NAGLE Asia (II) : Mr. S. BASU Agricultural Meteorology: Mr. ]. ]. BuRGos South America (Ill) : Vacant Bibliography and Publications: Dr. M. MEZIN North and Central America (IV) : Climatology: Dr. C. W. THORNTHWAITE Mr. A. THOMSON Instruments and Methods of Observation : South-West Pacific (V) : Mr. A. PERLAT Dr. C. DEL RosARIO Maritime Meteorology : Europe (VI) : Dr. A. NYBERG Cmdr. C. E. N. FRANKCOM Synoptic Meteorology : Prof. Dr. \'!. BLEEKER SECRETARIAT Secretary-General :Mr. D. A. DAVIES Chief, Technical Division : Dr. K. LANGLO Deputy Secretary- General : Mr. ]. R. RIVET Chief, Administrative Division : Dr. H. SEBASTIAN THE PURPOSES OF THE WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION "(a) To facilitate world-wide co-operation (c) To promote standardization of meteo in the establishment of networks of rological observations and to ensure stations for the making of meteorolog the uniform publication of observ ical observations or other geophysical ations and statistics ; observations related to meteorology (cl) To further the application of meteor and to promote the establishment and ology to aviation, shipping, agricul maintenance of meteorological centres ture, and other human activities ; and charged with the provision of meteor (e) To encourage research and training in ological services ; meteorology and to assist in co (b) To promote the establishment and ordinating the international aspects maintenance of systems for the rapid of such research and training." exchange of weather information ; From the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization, Article z. THE CONSTITUENT BODIES OF THE ORGANIZATION (a) The World Meteorological Congress one of the six meteorological Regions which meets at least once every four of the world. They meet as often as years; necessary to ensure compliance with (b) The Executive Committee, which the policies of the Organization. meets at least once annually ; (d) Technical Commissions composed of (c) Regional Associations made up of experts in the various meteorological Members of the Organization the fields which meet at least once every networks of which lie in or extend into four years. THE SECRETARIAT The Secretariat of the Organization is located at Campagne Rigot, Avenue de la Paix, Geneva, Switzerland. W 0 R L D METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION OCTOBER 1956 VOL. V NO. 4 THE PICTURE ON THE COVER TABLE OF CONTENTS Page In accordanee with the protocol to the agreement between the Swiss Confederation Basic weather data . 126 and the WMO, a series of six postage stamps will be issued in honour of the Organization Economic and Social Council of the United on 22 October 1956. The stamps of value Nations . 131. 5 c, r o c and 40 c were designed by Mr. Donald The International Geophysical Year Brun (Basle) and those of 20 c, 6o c and 1957-58 135 2 fr by Mr. Eric Poncy (Geneva). They will Water resource development be made available for use on the official WMO . 138 correspondence and also for private corre Technical Assistance Programme ......... 141 spondence placed in a special letterbox. The stamps will be cancelled for a short period Activities of Regional Associations ....... 145 after issue by a special postmark mentioning IVMO and subsequently by the normal post Obituary .................................. 147 mark of the United Nations, Geneva. For philatelic purposes, the stamps are on sale, Collaboration with other international organ- either mint or postmarked, from the Service izations 148 philatdlique de la Direction des PTT, Boll werk 8, Berne, Switzerland. Activities of the Technical Commissions ... 151 As pointed out some time ago by Mr. F. E. Bioclimatology and Biometeorology ....... 154 Dixon (Weather, Vol. II, No. 2, p. 34), a specialized collection of stamps with some Radar and meteorology ................... 155 meteorological connexion offers a wide field for the philatelist. Apart from the new WMO World comparison of radiosondes ........ 157 issue, there should be considerable possibil ities of enlarging such collections in the near Sferics in the Sudan ..................... 159 future when special stamps are issued by various countries for the International Geo Symposium on atmospheric ozone ........ 161 physical Year. News and Notes . .163 The cover also contains a reproduction of the WMO emblem. The Executive Com News from the WMO Secretariat . 164 mittee recently decided that the official WMO seal should be based on this emblem and that Reviews . 167. it should be used as a distinctive sign on WMO publications and documents. Calendar of coming events . 168 The purpose of the WMO Bulletin is to provide a summary of the work of the World Meteorological Organization and of developments in international meteorology of interest to Members of the Organization and others concerned with the application of meteorology to human activity. The WMO Bulletin is published quarterly in two separate editions : English and French. The price is I Swiss franc per copy, including postage. Annual subscriptions (4 Swiss francs) and all other correspondence about the Bulletin should be addressed to the Secretary-General, World Meteorological Organization, Campagne Rigot, Avenue de la Paix, Geneva. Signed contributions do not necessarily represent the views of the Organization. 125 WMO Bulletin October 1956 BASIC WEATHER DATA A SURVEY OF CURRENT CONTROL PRACTICES XPERIENCE has shown that basic to the advantage of all the services E weather data are being used in to establish eventually, at the WMO some services quite widely in various level, a data control centre for basic activities. To mention a few : data which would discharge two prin The development of techniques for pre cipal functions : (r) it would act as a senting specific weather data for design data information centre on the availa problems, e.g., the weather criteria in bility of weather records, and (2) as design problems are frequently so complex that special techniques must be developed a records receiving, reproducing and for the presentation of the data and, because disseminating centre. Such a centre of the complexity of the requirements, would receive weather records in the access must be had to the basic weath~r agreed form and, upon request, data. repro The development of the use of indirect duce and disseminate the records in methods in obtaining otherwise unavailable micrographic form to all concerned. data ; the development of such methods The group believes that such an again requires access to the basic weather data, since summarized data, if available, activity on the part of the WMO would are seldom in the form required to develop stimulate meteorological research to an these methods. extent which is highly restricted today The development of regional specializa by the expensive and necessarily tions ; regional specializations are systema tically being developed which require access highly selective process of publishing to the basic weather data, in some cases basic data. At the same time it would from more than one meteorological service, tend to eliminate current cumbersome e.g., specialization in the weather of the procedures of service-to-service requests tropics requires basic data from areas under several meteorological services. for basic data. To discover what is being done to National data control integrate all basic weather data, includ However, the group points out that ing those collected in connexion with a necessary preamble to this project special projects, into. the files of is the establishment of data control meteorological services, and what is authorities within the national meteor being done to make these data acces ological services. As a result of their sible to interested workers, the chair survey, the group believes that these man of the Working Group of the authorities are not yet firmly estab Commission for Climatology on Arrange lished at the national level. Therefore, ments for International Exchange although