The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-08-15
SECRETS OF THH AFR.
Some Interesting Discoveries Made b.
 Scientists.

Some Interesting Discoveries Made by
 Scientists.
 Among the most fascinating and elusive of scientific studies Is that of the movements of our terrestrial att mosphere. Ever since men began to go down to the sea in ships the needs of the navigator must have led him to note for his own future guidance, and for the benefit of other adventurers, the general direction of the wind at various seasons in different seas. Grad ually as the world widened the pre- vaillng winds of the globe became &C., curately known and the common knowledge systematized, so that now for probably every part of the ocean outside the polar circles there are off, ficial and published records of the winds Ethat may be looked for at any season of the year Then, too, the student of physical geography has not Ted how large q part the prevailing winds of any reigon play in determin- ling the climatic characteristics of dif- .Eferent countries.
 Tn recent years, however, science has not been content with studying only what are, after all, movements merely in the lower strata of the great ocean of air on the floor of which we live and move, but has sought to pen citrate the mysteries of the upper air and to find out it's secrets.
 Both Rotch and De Bort have de- yotel considerable private resources voted talents of no mean order to me- teorological research, and when. in the summer of 1905, these two scientists united in @ joint expedition for the ex- ploration of the upper air currents In the trade wind region of the North Att lantic, the results of their obseFva- tions were awaited with great inter- est The trade winds are the most i'm portant of what may be called the permanent" winds of the globe Thus
 in the north Atlantic, the northeast trades are in summer found in full force about the Canary Islands, and serve until within about twelve de- grees of the equator. In winter the belt shifts rather further south, but at all seasons 8 wind from at least 25 de- grees north latitude for fully 1000 miles southward. The expedition ot Rotch and De Bort appears to have differed in it's methods from that of the Prince of Monaco in the more gen. eral use of "ballons sondes," which rose to great heights, and by their line iof drift indicated the direction of the atmospheric current at different attitudes. Kites also were used, but in the trade wind region no great height can be reached by their agency
 The northwesterly current was found to be drier and more rapid than the main northwesterly current, and there was aways a quick rise of tenn. perature as soon as the level of the anti trade was reached. This phe- nomenon of temperature inversion
 is one of the most interesting to bt met wdth in atmospheric exploration To give 8. single example: On one oc- casion, with temperature of 7t degrees just above the sea the air, al an elevation of $500 feet, was found tC have a temperature as high as S6 de grees Fahrenheit. For our nowledgt of the upper currents outside the re zion explored by Rotch and De Bor we are still chiefly indebted to studie : of the direction of movement Of tn cirrus cloudA-Edinburgh Review.