Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-04-30
GO ARCTIC DEPICTS
TO STUDY WEATHER
GeophySicaI Union Reveals
Plan for Many Nations
to Cooperate.

The fog-blanketed Arctic, keeper Of
many secrets which affect the daily
life of man. will be encircled with ap-
proximately 60 observing stations next
Summer in the research program for
the second international polar year,
It was announced at the annual meet
ing of the meteorological section of the
American Geophysical Union today.
At these stations, experts from many
Nations will make intensive studies of
temperature, magnetic phenomena, the
upper atmosphere, wind circulation and
other phenomena which vitality effect
the worlds weather.
Plans of Russia for a far-fiung series
of stations across Northern Siberia were
announced and Dr. j. H. Patterson,
director of the Canadian Meteorological
Service, told of plans to set up three
stations in the Far North. The United
States will occupy its two for ner sta
lions at Point Barrow and Fort Conger,
while Great Britain will again occupy.
largely for sentimental reasons, Fort
Rae, from which so many British Arctic
expeditions have set out. Other Euro
Greenland and IN Northern Europe.
Will Measure Aurora.
Canada is planning two stations, Di-
rector Patterson said, to measure the
height of the aurora. These will be
placed as close as possible under the
path of maximum auroral intensity. In
order to measure this height, 1t will be
necessary TO have two stations in COM
uTif oh
miles apart This probably will make
it necessary, he said, TO establish one
on a boat sent into the Arctic waters
by the Northwest Mounted Police. It
also is planned to measure, If possible,
the amount of ozone in the upper at
mosphere at these stations.
Only five stations now are projected
on the rim Of the Antarctic. to be
maintained by France Argentina, New
nounced by w. r. Gregg of the United
States Weather Bureau, who was the
American delegate to the meeting of
the International Polar Year Commits
sion at Madrid last year. In the whole
Southern Hemisphere. however many
stations will be set up, he announced.
including some In Madagascar, French
equatorial Africa, New Guinea, and on
ships at sea.
Cold Spots" Sought
One of the most valuable services the
Arctic stations can render, said Dr. w.
Humphreys of the Weather Bureau,
will be to locate the cold spots" on
the earths surface which, being in close
proximity TO warmer air areas, vitality
affect the weather of North America
and Europe.
These cold spots, he said, cannot be
over the Arctic Ocean itself where there
/ is storage of heat in the water under
the comparatively thin sheet of ice and
where it is practically impossible for
the temperature to go much under 40
/ degrees below zero. Fahrenheit, but are
! to be found in Northern Canada and
j Siberia. Exact location of these points,
he said, would be Of great value TO
forecast tiers
May Predict Droughts.
Closer study of sunspots and the
| output Of heat from the surface of the
| oceans may lead to the establishment
/ Of weather cycles, by which droughts
and wet spells can be predicted as much
as IS years ahead, A. F.. Gorton of the
/ Scripps Institution of Oceanography
/ told the American Geophysical Union
meeting here today.
Rainfall cycles, he said, may be related
+ TO changes in the amount of radiation
| from the sun, while major seasonal
weather changes on the continents may
! be due to variations in heat given off
! from the ocean surfaces There is in
/ creasing evidence, it was pointed out,
! that sunspotS and weather are related
| Continued on Page 2, Column A.