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Bulletin American Meteorological Society

COMSAT headquarters, Washington, D. C., 15 June 1965. Ten-foot long mosaic of TIROS IX weather satellite chart Shown here are prototype models of the Early Bird com- of the Southern Hemisphere is fed into Alden "Map-a- munications satellite (center) and the TIROS IX weather Minute" Scanner at COMSAT headquarters in Washington, satellite (right) prior to the demonstration of weather map D. C., for transmission via Early Bird satellite to Paris, France. facsimile transmissions to Paris, France.

COMSAT systems as a single facility. French officials de- charts via their facsimile networks, regional meteorological scribed the clarity of the copy received from Early Bird as centers could enjoy prompt receipt of the most valuable indistinguishable from local copy sent to a recorder within information. Thus, while 8 to 10 additional charts were Paris headquarters. being received from Early Bird at the rate of 960 rpm, At 11:00 a.m. the Early Bird satellite was turned over to the most urgent and high time-value data were imme- the French Posts and Telegraphs. Weather charts generated diately retransmitted to be shared with the pertinent areas by the French group were sent by high speed facsimile up in and Africa. to Early Bird and back again, including transmissions sent The COMSAT demonstration also included the Alden at 16 times the speed of standard weather map transmis- facsimile chart coding and selection system, which permits sions. This technique, utilizing the 960 rpm and the 48 coding of every transmission by type and a later selection lines per inch capability of the Alden equipment, redoubled at the recording center which would recognize the code and the speed over the U. S. transmissions to a rate of one chart take only the desired maps. This device would permit local (10 inches by 19 inches) in 30 seconds. use of high speed weather facsimile transmissions through In addition, the French scanned one of the first high- selection of only those transmissions that were vital to a speed transmissions received from the U. S. and sent it at local weather mission. 120 rpm and 96 lines per inch via radio transmitters to These high speed weather charts represent the results of the meteorological community in Europe. This French ex- millions of bits of weather data collected on a 24-hour basis periment vividly demonstrated the fact that by immedi- and analyzed, drawn or computer-plotted into an inter- ately retransmitting the most pertinent facsimile weather nationally understood language of meteorological charts.

ences in Washington, D. C. Dr. Jule Charney of MIT, mem- ber of a citizens' committee on meteorology of the Inter- national Cooperation Year which met with members of the news and nntes corresponding Government committee, is drafting a report for the NAS on the practicability of a global observation system. The Southern Hemisphere program is under the direction of Dr. Vincent E. Lally of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Transparent plastic balloons are scheduled to circle the earth for at least 60 days, carrying a three-ounce radio trans- Southern Hemisphere balloon program mitter as payload, at altitudes of 20,000 ft, 40,000 ft, and A start on the often discussed global system of balloon ob- 80,000 ft. The New Zealand experiment is expected to de- servations is being made this fall when for the first time termine the feasibility of the global program. 100 free-flying constant-level weather balloons are to be re- One speculation that may be cleared up is what happens leased in the Southern Hemisphere. Tlie balloons are being to balloons after they have floated around the globe for launched from Christchurch, New Zealand, in a cooperative two months—do they cluster at certain spots and, if so, what program of New Zealand and the United States. spots? Opinions as to the likely places for the balloons to Dr. Robert M. White, head of the Environmental Sci- collect have varied from high pressure areas to low pres- ence Services Administration (ESSA), announced the program sure areas, or along the jet stream. this summer at a meeting of the National Academy of Sci- (More news and notes on page 562)

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Of considerable importance to this waste containment concept is the rate and direction of water movement through the fractures in the crystalline rock. It was found that most of the rock was virtually impermeable, but that some sections had more open fractures through which water could be transmitted at a faster rate. Initial estimates of the groundwater velocity in the rock were made using hydraulic parameters estimated from data obtained from observation wells and from pumping and swabbing tests. The analyses used in estimating these parameters as- sumed that fractures in both types of rock were sufficiently numerous that each approximated a homogeneous medium. Estimates for the maximum mean groundwater velocity were 0.5 ft per year in virtually impermeable rock and 12 ft per year for movement in the major fractured sections of rock. In order to test the validity of these hydraulic estimates, a between-hole tracer test using tritium was designed and is now in progress. Water is pumped from one rock well and carried by hose across the land surface to another well 1,765 ft aw7ay where it is injected. In August 1964, 300 curies of tritium were injected into the system during a 28-hr period. The first ar- rival of tritium was 73 days after its injection and since then the tritium concentration in the pumped well has increased slowly, but steadily. The shape of this arrival curve indicates the absence of planar, smooth-walled, sheet-like fractures connecting the two wells. Had one such fracture been present the concentration would have risen quickly to a high value. Had there been several such fractures the arrival curve would have had steps in it. As it occurred, the arrival curve lends support to the assumption that the fractured sections consist of numerous interlacing fractures. As of 1 June 1965, 285 days after the injection of the tritium, the peak concentration of tritium has not been reached. Even if the peak concentration occurred at this time, the estimate for the mean velocity of the natural groundwater movement through the major fractured sections of the rock on the tracer test would be about 37 ft per year or a maxi- mum error of three fold in the original estimates. If the hydraulic parameters determined from the pumping and swabbing tests are valid, the peak concentration will be reached 850 days or about 2 years and 4 months from the original injection. 018/016 ratios in an annual One hundred samples taken from the Hubbard and Kaskawulsh glaciers in the St. Elias Moun- accumulation of snow and tains (near the Alaska-Yukon border) during the summer of 1963 wTere analyzed for 018/016 ice in the Hubbard and content. Pit studies, summer precipitation sampling, and longitudinal and transverse profile Kaskawulsh glaciers sampling were conducted with the hope of (i) correlating O18/O10 variations with annual me- 18 16 D. S. MACPHERSON teorological trends and (ii) utilizing 0 /0 ratios as a tracer of glacier flow. A number of AND H. R. KRAUSE interesting results which could be related to accepted theories were derived from these studies.

(Continued from news and notes, page 549) tests, the scientists went to Miami, Florida, for further stand- ardization flights in a semi-tropical atmosphere. Radiometers tested by four nations While in Miami the group visited the National Hurricane Under the sponsorship of the Radiation Commission of the Research Center and the National Hurricane Research Lab- International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric oratory. On 5-6 April they toured the Weather Bureau fa- Physics (IAMAP) and the World Meteorological Organiza- cilities in the Washington, D. C., area. tion, scientists from four countries met at the University of Foreign scientists participating in the radiometer tests were Wisconsin in Madison on 22 March to compare data and Drs. V. I. Schlyakhov and G. N. Kostyanoy of the USSR instruments relating to thermal radiation studies of the Hydrometeorological Service; Dr. N. Arizumi and H. Seki- upper atmosphere. Meteorologists from Germany, Japan, guchi of the Japan Meteorological Agency; and Dr. H. G. and the Soviet Union joined United States scientists in a Muller and H. Fimpel of the University of Munich, Ger- two-week series of standardization tests with balloon-borne many. In general charge of the tests and representing the radiometers used by all countries for basic studies of the United States was Dr. Peter Kuhn of the Weather Bureau longwave radiation flux in the free atmosphere. Since no Office at the University of Wisconsin, assisted by Stephen one country can obtain sufficient radiation data on a global Cox and James Maynard of the University's Department of scale, standardization and international cooperative research Meteorology. Accompanying the group were J. R. Latimer are the keys to understanding the Earth's heat budget. of the Canadian Meteorological Service and Prof. E. W. Beginning 24 March, 13 joint ascents were made at the Wahl, Department of Meteorology, University of Wisconsin. Weather Bureau Airport Station at Green Bay, Wisconsin. It is anticipated that a joint publication of the results of Each group flew its own instrument by balloon and docu- the tests will be issued through the sponsoring agencies. mented its performance. Following this four-day series of (More news and notes on page 599)

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Atlas, AFCRL, Bedford; Charles J. Miller, Cincinnati; Martha Aarons, Los Angeles, Calif.; Hal Geer, Hollywood, Calif.; Stan Siehiem, New York, N. Y.; John Hildt, Astro at AMS headquarters Dynamics, Inc., Burlington; Rev. and Mrs. Max Sellers and family, Cincinnati (Mr. and Mrs. Sellers lived at 45 Beacon Street in 1945 while he was attending Boston University Divinity School and served as caretakers); Donald C. Mer- ton, United Air Lines, Boston; Gordon T. Barnes, South Executive Secretary Spengler visited the Research Laboratory Weymouth; Jean Frassica, State House, Boston; E. J. Cronin, of the United Aircraft Corporation in East Hartford, Conn., Weather Services, Inc., Boston. on 8 July, and afterward had discussions with Prof. Verner E. Suomi of the University of Wisconsin and Richard C. Molloy and E. Brewster Buxton of the UAC Weather Sys- (Continued from news and notes, page 562) tem Center following Prof. Suomi's lecture at a United Air- craft seminar. Evelyn Mazur and Matthew Toyli of the AMS Major advances in balloon technology headquarters staff accompanied Mr. Spengler on the trip. Scientists at the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories On 9 July, Mr. Spengler and John Gerhardt attended a have made advances in balloon technology that may permit lecture presented at the U. S. Army Natick Laboratories by flights as high as 180,000 ft and allow intact recovery and Dr. Heinz Lettau of the University of Wisconsin. reuse of the expensive research vehicles involved. In Washington, D. C., from the 20th through the 22nd, In a flight from Holloman AFB, N. Mex., AFCRL suc- Mr. Spengler held many discussions primarily in connection cessfully demonstrated a new, extremely lightweight balloon with METEOROLOGICAL AND GEOASTROPHYSICAL ABSTRACTS. He material that will enable scientists to send larger payloads conferred with representatives of the National Science Foun- to higher altitudes than previously possible. dation, the Environmental Science Services Administration, The new recovery technique permits, for the first time, the Weather Bureau, Naval Weather Service, the Meteoro- the reuse of large research balloons. The recovery and re- logical Management Division of the Bureau of Naval Weap- use techniques will bring a considerable savings to users of ons, the Naval Oceanographic Office, and members of the research balloons. Heretofore, most balloons were limited to M&GA staff. 150,000-ft altitudes and had to be destroyed to terminate the On the 26th, Mr. Spengler left for the West Coast and the flight. Costs of the balloons range up to $30,000. During the meeting of the AIAA at San Francisco. He went to Reno on first five months of this year, AFCRL alone launched 72 the 27th to confer with the staff of the Desert Research In- large research balloons. stitute, University of Nevada, on plans for the October meet- Arthur Korn, of AFCRL's Aerospace Instrumentation Lab- ing, returning to San Francicso for the AMS joint sessions oratory, developed a special loom called the Flying Thread with the AIAA on the 28th. Loom that makes possible the tailoring of balloon material The last three days of the month, Mr. Spengler was in to match the payload and altitude mission requirements of Colorado. In addition to attending the joint symposium on a particular balloon, thus achieving an optimum strength- Extraterrestrial Influences on Atmospheric Circulation on the weight ratio. The loom continuously varies the angle of the 29th and 30th, Mr. Spengler talked with the program chair- weave and the density of the thread to obtain differing man and AMS President Thompson concerning the technical strengths over the surface of the material. program for the annual meeting in January and visited the The balloon recovery technique, developed by James Earth Science Curriculum Project at the University of Colo- Payne of the same laboratory, is both simple and ingenious. rado for discussions with the meteorologists involved in the It employs two parachutes in tandem. The lower parachute summer writing conference. He also had a personally con- assembly is conventional and carries the payload. The upper ducted tour of the exciting new buildings being constructed parachute assembly is attached to the top of the lower para- on Table Mountain for the National Center for Atmospheric chute. This assembly, during flight, is located between the Research. On the 31st, he conferred with the editor of ME- inflated balloon and the lower parachute-payload assembly. TEOROLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS and representatives of NCAR The first step in the recovery process is the controlled de- about a forthcoming monograph. The Colorado visit con- flation of the balloon and the deployment of the two para- cluded with talks with members of the Denver-Hilton staff chutes. The upper parachute has a sizeable opening in its concerning the physical arrangements for the January meet- center through which the neck of the balloon is fitted. Thus ing. when the parachute opens, it rides up the neck of the bal- Visitors at headquarters in July included: Lcdr. J. W. loon as the balloon deflates. Attached to the opening in the Nickerson, USN, Indialantic, Fla.; G. J. Schroeder, Milprint upper parachute is a cylindrical nylon sleeve. As the para- Co., New York, N. Y.; Robert P. Boell, West Chester, Pa.; chute moves up along the balloon, the sleeve envelops the James V. Mesite, Framingham; Lt. Michael J. Spelman, deflated balloon. When the balloon is thus ensleeved, the USAF, Plattsburgh, N. Y.; Robert J. Proverb, Tewksbury; upper parachute carrying the wrapped and protected bal- Dr. John Howard, AFCRL, Bedford; Judy Frankel, Laurie loon material is separated from the lower parachute which Hayden, Michael Pallodino, Jr., Framingham; Richard A. carries the payload package. Davis, Boston; Henry L. Stambler, Weather Bureau, Suit- The flight used to test the two techniques is considered land, Md.; Gerry Power, Hyde Park; Bob Copeland, WBZ, by AFCRL scientists to be one of the most significant bal- Boston; Robert W. Lenhard, Maj. USAF (Ret.), Lexington; loon experiments of the past decade. Robert M. Ulchak, Tallahassee, Fla.; A. M. Hudson, Occi- So well did the technique work on the May 21 test, that dental College, Los Angeles, Calif.; James W. Telford, CSIRO, the same balloon was scheduled for its second flight in Sydney, , en route to the Cloud Physics Depart- August. ment, Imperial College, University of London; Dr. David (More news and notes on page 604) 599

Unauthenticated | Downloaded 10/05/21 09:07 AM UTC Vol. 46, No. 9, September 1965 occurring very-low-frequency electromagnetic emission phe- uncertainties that still exist. The theory of the whistler nomena, and contains much original material. Observations phenomenon proper is treated much more completely, al- made with the aid of man-made sources are described, as though even here the reviewer has the impression that the- well as those made with natural sources such as lightning ory lags experiment. The book is, in fact, a challenge to discharges, and this includes observations made in satellites. the theoreticians. This is especially true of the 112 pages An account is given of the methods available for converting devoted to a remarkable atlas of original records covering the observations into information about the distribution of virtually every aspect of the observational material. The ionization density in the magnetosphere and of the results book is worth buying for these pages alone, which will be obtained. The theory of very-low-frequency emissions is studied for years to come, especially by theoreticians.—Henry treated rather cursorily, presumably because of the major G. Booker

(Continued from news and notes, page 599)

IMO Prize for 1965 The International Meteorological Organization Prize, which is awarded for outstanding work in meteorology and inter- national cooperation, was presented by the Executive Com- mittee of the World Meteorological Organization on 7 June 1965 to Dr. Sverre Petterssen, scientific attache at the United States Embassy, Stockholm, Sweden. Although Prof. Petterssen's distinguished scientific career has covered all aspects of meteorology, his main interest has been weather forecasting, which in his view is a basic prob- lem. He was a pioneer in the efforts to establish it as an exact science, and his major published work, Weather Analy- sis and Forecasting, a two-volume study, has been translated into Russian, Japanese, Italian, and Chinese. His career has also been largely international. Born and educated in Norway, he was regional director of the Nor- wegian Meteorological Institute from 1931 to 1939. He then came to the United States as exchange professor and chair- Dr. Sverre Petterssen man of the Department of Meteorology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1942 became advisor to the Me- (United Kingdom, 1958), J. Bjerknes (Norway and United teorological Office of the British Air Ministry, and in 1945 States, 1959), J. Van Mieghem (Belgium, 1960), K. R. Rama- returned to Norway as chief of the Norwegian Forecasting nathan (India, 1961), A. Angstrom (Sweden, 1962), R. C. Service. Then followed appointments in 1948 as advisor to Sutcliffe (United Kingdom, 1963), and F. W. Reichelderfer the Director General of Observatories in India and director (United States, 1964). of the Scientific Services of the Air Weather Service, USAF. In 1952 he was appointed professor of meteorology at the University of Chicago and held this post until his assignment Radiosonde inventor dies in Stockholm in 1963. He has served as president of a num- Dr. Robert Bureau, whom meteorologists of the world will ber of technical commissions of the IMO and has assisted remember as the inventor of the radiosonde (1927), died in in several important conferences on aeronautical meteorol- Paris on 17 March 1965. ogy. Prof. Petterssen was president of the American Meteoro- Dr. Bureau was deputy director of the French logical Society in 1958-1959. Office national meteorologique, 1932-1939. He was then appointed The IMO Prize was established in 1955 by the WMO in director of the Laboratoire national de radioelectricite, a honor of the former non-governmental organization that post he occupied until 1957, and was later a member of the initiated international collaboration in meteorology in 1878 permanent scientific staff of the Centre national d'etudes des and was replaced by the WMO in 1951. The Prize consists telecommunications. Dr. Bureau represented his country at of a gold medal, $1200 (U. S.), and a diploma giving the many meetings of technical commissions of the IMO and citation of the award. was president of the International Commission for Aero- Prof. Petterssen is the tenth recipient of the prize, which nautical Meteorology. He made important contributions in was previously awarded to: Th. Hesselberg (Norway, 1956), many fields of meteorology and radio, including research on C.-G. Rossby (Sweden and United States, 1957), E. Gold atmospherics.

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FOR ACCURATE BALLOON AND AIRCRAFT TRACKING.

... The new Model No. 85 (U.S. Weather Bureau Pattern) Warren-Knight Theodolite combines a 21-Power main tele- scope with a wide angle 4-Power finder telescope through one eyepiece. Quickly changed from one system to the other. Full 360° vertical and horizontal circles permit sightings from zenith to 10° below horizontal and full traverse to right or left. Both vertical and horizontal equipped with positive drive gear quickly disengaged for hand movement. Scales and reticle illuminated for night reading. Mating connector furnished for connecting to 6.3 Volt power source or the W-K Pibal Timer Model No. 485. For More Detailed Information Write, Wire or Phone jii/innni i i ir in^*

2045 Bennett Road, Phila., Pa. 19116

Pibal Timer Model No. 485 used to time flights of sounding balloons where 90-130 volt power source is available. 71/2" dial . . . Makers of Transits, Levels, reads 60 seconds, numbered every 5 seconds. Minute and second Alidades, Theodolites, Ceilo- hands both easily read. During each minute a signal buzzer meters, Clinometers, Special sounds at 50 seconds and again at zero. Equipped with 6.3 Angular Measuring or Optical Volt power take-off receptacle, 6.3 Volt signal recording Sighting Instruments, Engineer- receptacle, 2 binding posts, and 115 Volt power receptacle. ing Equipment and Supplies.

Air pollution study at NYU The NYU investigators have organized a network of nearly 100 wind-sensing devices covering the metropolitan area and Under a four-year Public Health Service grant, New York maintained by cooperating schools, hospitals, industries, and University's School of Engineering and Science has mounted municipal agencies. Other tools include a light plane, a heli- the most comprehensive study of air pollution ever at- copter, and an elaborately equipped fixed sampling station tempted in the New York City area. NYU meteorologists, on Manhattan's lower East Side. A mobile ground unit is be- aerodynamicists, mathematicians, chemists, civil engineers, ing used to locate sites for five or more additional sampling and computing experts are developing a mathematical model stations to be set up in the metropolitan area. Data from of urban air pollution for a 2500-square-mile area covering these stations augment those routinely collected by the New New York City, industrial New Jersey, Westchester, and part York City Department of Air Pollution Control and made of Nassau County. If the model can be verified, it will make available to the University by Commissioner Arthur J. possible the prediction of hourly values of air pollutants for Benline. The research team will also draw on data being each square-mile block in the area. Though the model is be- gathered in a cooperative "tetroon" balloon experiment con- ing developed and tested for metropolitan New York City, ducted by the Weather Bureau and NYU. These constant- it will be adaptable to other urban centers. level balloons are flown at about 500 ft to obtain a contin- Dr. Ben Davidson, associate professor of meteorology and uous record of local air circulation patterns. The helicopter, director of NYU's Geophysical Sciences Laboratory, is co- operated for NYU by Sign X Laboratories, Inc., follows some ordinating the interdisciplinary research team in a concerted of the balloons to record additional data on air pressure, effort to accumulate the data needed to evaluate the present temperature, and pollution levels. conditions and to initiate future clean air practices and legis- If the goal of the NYU study, a mathematical model of lative controls. Meteorologists are responsible for collecting urban air pollution, is attained, it will be invaluable not and analyzing weather and air circulation data; aerodynami- only for forecasting pollution but also in helping scientists cists for information on micro-circulations caused by terrain and engineers design protection systems to create and main- and buildings; and chemists and civil engineers for collecting tain healthful living and working conditions in urban cen- and analyzing contaminants. Mathematicians at the NYU ters. This goal becomes particularly important in light of Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences are responsible predictions that inevitably a megalopolis will one day cover for developing and testing the mathematical model of air the Eastern Seaboard from Boston to Washington. pollution dynamics. (More news and notes on page 610)

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(Continued from news and notes, page 605)

Venus Flytrap searches the upper atmosphere The 1965 study of micrometeorites and noctilucent clouds was conducted this summer by United States and foreign scientists using five rockets launched into the extreme upper atmosphere by the Air Force Cambridge Research Labora- tories' Office of Aerospace Research. Joining AFCRL in the experiments were scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the U. S. Geological Survey, and several United States research laboratories. NASA provided partial funding for the project and arranged for the partici- pation of scientists from Australia, France, Germany, Israel and Sweden. Five -150 rockets were fired from the Churchill Research Range, Canada, during a five-week period beginning in late June. The project was under the direction of Dr. Robert K. Soberman of AFCRL, whose group designed the particle- collecting nose cones used in the experiments. The nose cones, called "Venus Flytraps," opened out during the ascent to expose four large petals containing 500 sq inches of col- lecting surface. These surfaces were designed so that various segments of the collecting traps were exposed sequentially at various altitudes. Thus it was possible to determine the altitudes at which particles of a particular type were col- lected. To avoid contamination by dust at lower levels, the petals were sealed in the sheath of the nose cone until the programmed altitude of 45 miles was reached. The surfaces were then exposed up to the 100-mile trajectory peak. On descent, at an altitude of 65 miles, the leaves receded into the nose cone sheath. Two kinds of particles were trapped and returned to Earth for inspection—micrometeorites and noctilucent cloud parti- cles. In a series of experiments carried out in 1961 by Dr. Soberman, a similar Venus Flytrap nose cone was used to trap particles. These experiments disclosed that the Earth is surrounded by a stationary band of micrometeoritic parti- cles. In the summers of 1962 and 1964, Dr. Soberman and co-experimenters from the Institute of Meteorology of the University of Stockholm carried out further rocket studies from northern Sweden to examine noctilucent clouds. By The Venus Flytrap—a specially designed Aerobee rocket collecting and examining particle samples of these clouds nose cone used by the AFCRL to collect micrometeorites Dr. Soberman and his associates found them to be ice-coated and noctilucent cloud particles from the extreme upper at- meteoritic dust. In this year's series of experiments, partici- mosphere above northern Canada. The open compartments pating scientists hoped to obtain more precise knowledge carried a variety of collecting surfaces selected to expedite of the size, concentration, and composition of particles at particular analytical techniques. Aluminum-coated lucite sur- various altitudes up to 100 miles. Analysis of these particles faces are examined by electron microscopes to determine was expected to be the most exacting, time-consuming aspect size, number, and particle distribution. Lucite surfaces, ex- of the experiments. amined by optical microscopes, reveal size and distribution of particles larger than two microns. Polished aluminum United States participation in the AFCRL program in- surfaces are subjected to x-ray analysis for particle distribu- cluded: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; tion. The "petals" opened at various predetermined altitudes NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.; Dud- above 45 miles during the ascent and closed at a height of ley Observatory, Albany, N. Y.; Brown University, Provi- 65 miles on the descent by parachute. dence, R. I.; U. S. Geological Survey, Menlo Park, Calif.; and Douglas Aircraft Corporation, Santa Monica, Calif. British Meteorological Office Participating organizations from abroad were: Com- Sir Graham Sutton, director-general of the British Meteoro- monwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, logical Office since 1953, is retiring from this post on 30 Radiophysics Laboratory, Sydney, Australia; National Cen- September 1965. Sir Graham will be succeeded by Prof. B. ter for Radioactivity Research, France; Institute of Me- J. Mason, professor of cloud physics at the Imperial College teorology, University of Stockholm, Sweden; Max Planck of Science and Technology, University of London. Prof. Institute, Heidelberg, Germany; and University of Tel Aviv, Mason, whose own research and that of his students has Israel. The experiments of the foreign scientists were financed contributed significantly to the progress of cloud physics by their home organizations. over the past two decades, is well known as the author of

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The Physics of Clouds (1957) and Clouds, Rain and Rain- making (1962). Dr. R. C. Sutcliffe, director of research in the Meteoro- logical Office, has been appointed the first professor of me- teorology in a new degree course to be instituted at the University of Reading in October. Reading is only eleven miles from Bracknell, headquarters of the Meteorological Office and the largest meteorological research center in BASIC BEUICES Britain. This proximity to the center of the national weather services will make it easy for the students to become ac- quainted with the work of the Office. FAST RESPONSE ANEMOMETER (Continued from announcements, page 590)

Seminar series on micrometeorology The University of Maryland is offering a series of seminars on micrometeorology presented by Dr. Helmut Landsberg of the U. S. Weather Bureau and the University of Mary- land. These seminars are open to the scientific public and will be held on alternate Thursdays throughout the fall No moving parts semester. Academic credit may be obtained by enrolling in Small size Physics 150, Special Problems (one credit), upon completion Wide range of special assignments. The seminars will be held at the In- Low threshold stitute for Fluid Dynamics and Applied Mathematics, Mathe- matics Building, Room Y-315, at 3:00-5:00 p.m. High sensitivity The layer of air immediately adjacent to the earth's sur- High level output face is the seat of some of the most important energy trans- Three components: formations in the atmosphere. It is also the seat of most U, V, W forms of non-aquatic life. Small scale phenomena in this boundary layer are partially linked to and partially inde- pendent of the macro-phenomena of weather. In the lectures listed below, Dr. Landsberg will explore some of these at- mospheric processes. 1. 24 September The soil-water-atmosphere boundary; definitions; scales; parameters; micrometeorological proce- dures and instrumentation. Micrometeorological sampling; relations to the macrometeorology. 2. 7 October The energy balance at the surface; incom- ing radiation; albedos, outgoing radiation, heat fluxes; ef- fects on soil; effects on low-level temperature profiles. 3. 21 October Windflow and turbulence; stresses, vertical wind profile, turbulence spectrum, turbulent transfer of properties; effects of obstacles. 4. 4 November Evaporation and dew; thermodynamic ap- proach to water balance; soil moisture; effects on lakes and Type 203 Anemometer uses feedback controlled oceans. constant temperature sensing elements for micro- scale wind measurements. 5. 18 November Orographic effects on micrometeorologi- cal processes; exposures, slopes, hills, valleys; small scale cir- culations, mountain and valley breezes, lake breezes. 6. 2 December Micrometeorology of cultivated areas, fields, orchards, forests, temperature, humidity, wind structure; effects of plants on microclimate. 7. 16 December Continuation of preceding—micrometeoro- BASIC DEVICES Incorporated logical models, wind tunnel experiments, field experiments. 8. Artificial micrometeorological modifications; 13 January Box 336, Wei lesley, Massachusetts 02181 changes of surface conductivity, albedo, exposure; shelter belts and wind breaks; frost protection, crypto-climates. Tel. (617) 235-3292

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