Evening Star Newspaper, October 26, 1930, Page 92

{10 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. '€, OCTOBER 26, 1930 Newest Aids for the “Sky Climbers™ Experts of the United StatesWeather Burcau Explain How the Nation- Wide Network of Fiying FieldsHas R cvolutionized the Old-Time System of Weather Fore- casting. BY JAMES NEVIN MILLER. an entirely new type of weather forecasting. For generations weather prophets of Uncle Sam have been content to confine their endeavors to general broadcasts as to this or that particular area. “Cloudy, with possible showers this afternoon,” or “Fair, Wwith slight change in temperature today and tomorrow,” are familiar examples of yesterday’s type of forecast. But aviation demands a great deal more than this. It insists upon a far more intimate and $mmediate knowledge of the weather, atmos- pheric conditions at the field from which a par- ticular plane is scheduled to fly, besides a pre- cise idea of conditions all ‘lopg the flying ® youte. Fortunately for the airmen, experts of the U. S. Weather Bureau, notably at the central office at Washington, are fully aware of the jncreasing stress on the time element in fore- tasting. They know that flyers are far more interested in knowing what the weather will be like one-half hour to an hour ahead of his filying time than whether tomorrow will bring thunderstorms and rain, Thus it has come about that today seven forecasting centers, three of them recently established, are served by 110 reporting sta- tions. They, in turn, serve 13,000 miles of airways up and down across the United States. These forecasting centers are located at Cleve- land, Ohio; Fort Crook, Nebr.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Oakland, Calif.; Atlanta, Ga.; Dallas, Tex.; Portland, Ore. The last three named are new. . / VIATION has brought into existence ULLETINS and short-period forecasts based on the reports coming in from the 110 re- porting stations are sent by teletype from the peven central broadcasting stations to other @irports and landing fields and also to aircraft in flight through radio stations maintained by the Department of Commerce. Approximately 8,000 miles of the 13,000 miles of airways criss-crossing the country are served by teletype broadcasts with reports every hour of a 24-hour service. The remaining 5,000 miles, or thereabouts, are served by re- ports transmitted by telephone or telegraph at such intervals as best meet current needs. In addition, current reports along all these air- ways are- supplemented by specialized, short- period airway forecdsts which are based pri- marily on the twice-daily country-wide reports and weather maps, used in general forecasting, and, secondarily, on a series of three-hourly Feports concentrated at designated centers from & well selected network of stations. Some of these reporting centers are on the airways and others are at a considerable distance from them, “Continuous weather advice for pilots of mircraft is the objective of the aegonautical meteorological service of the Weather Bureau,” says C. F. Marvin, chief of the bureau. “A great many cities,” he points out, “have already set about developing local airports, either privately owned and operated or under municipal control. New cities are being added to the list almost daily. These localities need and expect adequate weather service, and it is the policy of the bureau to supply it as far as possible. “Since 1926 funds have been included in the regular appropriations of the Department of Agriculture for assigning and maintaining on duty at every important airport one or more skilled meteorologists, whose duties require them to receive from the central organization of the Weather Bureau the fullest possible @advices, reports, observations, etc., including forecasts and warnings, and to pass these on to the pilots of airplanes at the time of and in accordance with the flight immediately in contemplation. “The basis of these advices and warnings to pilots is necessarily derived from the great petwork of meteorological stations that has been built up by the Weather Bureau through- out past years.” URTHER, as a result of aviation’s demands " with regard to weather oonditions, Dr. Marvin states that “there is a growing demand Collecting airway weather reports a ‘the Weather Bureau Station, Oakland Airport. The reports are first typed on the pilot’s weather report form and then transmitted on the teletype circuit shown on the right. stations over the entire globe instead of two.” Outside the United States the Weather Bureau has increased its airways service. In Alaska a new first-order station has just been organized at Nome. In Hawaii new service includes a chain of iInterisland stations from which reports will be transmitted by radio to Honolulu and pilots therefrom served. In the field of vertical atmospheric study aviation is serving meteorology rather than meteorology serving aviation. Hitherto it has been the practice of meteorologists to glean knowledge of the upper air through captive balloons ancé kites. But danger of kite lines to airplanes is gradually eliminating this method of upper air study. While kites and captive balloons are still used in the interior, off flying lanes, they are being replaced entirely along the eastern seaboard by planes. This work is now being done by the Navy, which has air stations at Washington, Hampton Roads and Pensacola, Fla. The Navy also takes ob- servations aloft at San Diego, Calif.; at Seattle, Wash., and Lakehurst, N. J. These last station observations, however, are not used by the Weather Bureau for its Washington forecast. But they are used for local forecasts. ‘The airplane is superior to the kite in gather- ing data of the upper air in three respects— wind, altitude and speed. There must be wind in order to fly a kite. And the wind must not be too strong. Ten to 20 miles per hour is the proper wind speed range for successful kite flying. On days when there is little or no wind kites are useiess. Airplanes are not thus handicapped. An airplane can climb 15,000 feet in one hour. Here it is again superior to the kite for atmospheric observations aloft. For a kite to attain this altitude four or five hours are necessary. An airplane can get its data and return to the earth before a kite can attain the desired altitude for study. Again, the average height at which kites are flown is one to two miles. The record is four. But airplanes are” capable of rising to eight Dr. C. F. Marvin, chief of the Weather Bureau, looks at the clouds through his new instrument, the clinometer, which is soon to be in use at airports for deter- mining the*heighs of clouds at nighs. miles above the earth. Lieut. Apollo Soucek of the Navy did that last Spring when he broke the world’s altitude record and brought back the information that it was 89 degrees below zero F. at that altitude. Free balloons, ‘how- ever, have been known to go as high as 18 miles above the earth! = Observations for temperature, pressure and . humidity are taken in the upper air. For these’ a meteorograph is used. Wind velocity data are gathered by kites and small pilot balloons,’ These balloons are set loose with instruments in place for recording the observations de- sired, and with cards attached. On the card is the address of the sending station, so that the information and equipment attached to the balloon may be returned to the station when and if-found. IN addition to compelling more particular weather information on land aviation has intensified interest in it over the seas. “In no other field has the demand for meteorological help for aviation been more pressing than in connection with transoceanic air navigation,” declares Dr. Marvin. “Agree- ments are under way with other great maritime nations for better organizing ocean meteoro- logical observations by the selection of a certain number of ships of each nationality which shall uniformily make and distribute radio ob- servations twice or perhaps four times a day while on the high seas. . . . The highest effi- ciency and accuracy in formulating weather forecasts and warnings is only obtainable when the meteorologist has before him a complete picture of the weather conditions over the whole surface of the globe, or at least over the’ whole surface of the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. The development of an inter- national meteorological oceanic service along these lines is perhaps the most urgent technical problem concerning meteorology at the present time.” Ships today scattered along the lanes of the Atlantic send,- if equipped to do so, to the New York division of the Weather Bureau weather data. Sometimes there is a goodly amount coming in, at other times not so much. It all depends on the number of ships at sea plying north and south and east and west. “Sometimes this data is sufficient for us to outline a low-pressure area over the Atlantic,” says Charles L. Mitchell, weather forecaster for the bureau. “At other times it is too slight for us to do more than make a memo of it on our weather charts.” The intensive and detailed observation of weather that is now going on over the conti- nent, the growing interest and development of oceanic weather study, the advent of the radio for quick transmission of weather reports from over the world are all making for a new era in weather forecasting. To none is this more apparent than to the officials of the United States Weather Bureau. Natural Dye Production. THE production of natural dye stuffs, tanning materials, sizes and such related products is & business of huge proportions, although a slight decline was shown in 1929 from the figures of 1927. The 111 plants engaged in this line turned out materials valued at $34,000,000 during 1929. In poundage this represents about 550,000,000 pounds of the various materials,