New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-11-17
RECENT SOLAR RESEARCHES.

Two papers by French meteorologists, dealing
with the suspected parallel between the eleven
year sunspot period and fluctuations In ter
restrial temperatures, have recently been MADE
accessible to American readers by "Ihe Unlteu
States Monthly Weather Review" In one or
them NJ Nordmann follows up a comparison
made many years ago by Koeppen. He confines
his inquiry TO the interval between 1870 and
1900 and TO stations lying within about twenty
degrees of the equator. Taking the average OF
the annual temperatures for thirteen points,
he finds a slight excess at the minimum stage
of solar activity, and deficit at the time or
greatest sunspot abundance. Although the fuc-
tuation is slight, it seems to be systematic, and
it corresponds to that which Koeppen thought
he had detected. The other paper translated
for "The Monthly Weather Review" is a review
of VI. Nordmann's work by Professor Alfred
Angot Although objection is made to some of
his compatriot's methods, the second writer
reaches substantially the same conclusions
the first
Much work has been done in the last thirty
years by other meteorologists which points to
a similar periodicity. Chambers found il in
the drouths which affiict India. Some of his
associates believed that they detected long
range variations in the prevailing atmospheric
pressure, which were related to temperature
and rainfall. Medium showed that tropical
cyclones IN the Indian Ocean were more nJl-
merOus at and near sunspot maxima, and
Bigelow did the same for West India hurri-
canes. The latter investigator, who is attached
to the Washington bureau, has presented good
deal of evidence TO indicate that other features
of the weather, outside Of the tropics well as
inside, undergo a fairly regular alienation.
These various statements have their vulnerable
nh
been thoroughly threshed out by critics. nor
fully verified. The mechanism by which ter
restrial weather is Influenced, IL at all, is not
made altogether clear. Yet as the matter stands
to-day there is increased reason for thinking
that fluctuations occur in solar radiation, and
that such changes are influential on the earth
The practical Importance Of further research,
therefore, may be said to grow more apparent
daily.
A line Of inquiry has been pursued by Pro-
fessor Langley for more than ten years which
is exceedingly promising. He seeks to discover
the variations in question by direct observation
Of the sun. Having obtained telescope image
of that body, he examines it with a spectre
scope and instrument of his own invention
whereby differences of temperature as small
a hmdred-millionth Of a degree can be de-
tected. Various difficulties have beset this
work. The apparatus Is so delicate that num-
Der of local influences interfere with its op-
GRAFTON. It's testimony is also Obscured by vari.
able conditions in the earths atmosphere nOta-
bly, the presence of water vapOr Most Of these
sources Of error and uncertainty have been
slowly eliminated, however. In the latest re-
port Of the Smithsonian Institution Professor
Langley intimateS that il may be necessary to
transfer the work TO a mountain top, but he
takes an encouraging view of the possibility of
getting accurate results at the astrO-physical
observatory in Washington. After he is fully
satisfied with the working of his Instruments
which. by the way make records automatically,
he should soon be in a position to say whether
they give him clear indications of substantial
changes in the suns thermal output
When once IL has been proved that the bolom-
eter will give unmistakable evidence of varia-
tons in heat emission, the next step will be to
find out whether 1t can be utilized practically in
weather forecasting. An investigation Of CO.
loSsal proportions will be necessary to deter
mine whether perceptibIe consequences ensue
at the earths surface, and how much time in
tervenes between the observed cause and effect
These questions cannot be settled in a dav.
Possibly it may be found that the behavior Of
the magnets in well regulated observatories. or
even that Of simpler instruments Of an allied
nature which can be used at ordinary meteoro-
logical stations. Will be more significant At
any rate, it is not incredible that better means
of gaining an insight into coming weather
changes will be available before the first ouar-
ter of the twentieth century has elapsed.
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