Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-06-16
ROBOT IN BALLOON |
; REPORTS WEATHER
/ ederaI Bureau Device Sends
Information by Radio From
Great Heights.
by WILLIAM J. HUMPHREYS.

Meteorological physicist. United States
Weather Bureau.
(Copyfiaht, 1881. by the Associated Press)
There are lots of new things about
the weather.
Not very long ago the only means we
he'd Of studying the air above was to
weather instruments.
After that kites were equipped with
registering instruments. Now the avi-
ator takes the instruments up.
Sometimes. though, 1t isn't practi-
cable for the aviator to make his
weather flight, and so for this reason,
and others besides, two entirely differ
ent devices for getting information
about the state Of the free upper air
are now being developed.
Rockets Explore Shakespeare.
One of these Is the rocket, which can
be used not only for exploring the
lower air, or region of storms, but also
the upper air, perhaps to the 50-mile
or more level of the kennedy heaviside
layer, or ceiling, that reflects wireless
waves and makes talking to the other
side Of the world possible.
The other device, already consider
ably developed is the free balloon, car
rying meteorological equipment with a
miniature wireless robot to take read
ings and report them at once to the
man on the ground. And he Obeys .jm-
plicitly the SPECIFIC orders given him
before he starts.
A sample message might be: zone
mile high, temperature of the air 20 de-
greeSs Fahrenheit, relative humidity 80
per cent" Besides, he will give you
the like information from as many other
elevations as you may desire. You have
only to make your wants known, he
does the rest.
Gas is Studied.
Surely this would seem to be going
the limit, but 1t isn't. There Is a gas
with strange properties in the atmos-
phere, miles beyond the utmost reach
of the lighteSt balloon that L. being
carefully studied. We cannot measure
1t directly, but we can estimate its
amount by its action on lights from the
sun. moon or stars.
There is not much of 1t. this pungent
gas we call Ozone, but that little is of
the utmost consequence. But for its
presence every eye would 90 blind with
the consequent flood of ultraviolet
light that then would reach the earth
from the sun. On the other hand, if it
existed in a much larger amount,
enough say to make a layer of gas, as
dense as the air in which we live, even
so little as one inch thick. few infants,
human or animal. probably would be
born and they would die Of the ricketts,
No wonder, then we are interested in
the study Of this curious constituent of
the atmosphere. and in watching closely
its changes in amount and distribution
Ships Release Balloons.
In the line CT applied meteorology
aviation is requiring and receiving In
creasingly frequent, detailed and &C.
curate information as to the existing
and prospective states of the atmc :
pnere, especially in respect to wind.
clouds, fogs, visibility and temperature.
Nor is this study confined entirely to
lind areas Already pilot balloons, that
s''0~ the way and the speed of the wind
miles high. are more or less regularly
So I'D from few ships that ply the
C~---e@. and more are sure to follow.
Another of the more recent, and now
r developing. applications of
r. ecrClcgv. is the fire weather service
8 me conditions of the air and state of
t',e weather make the hazard Of forest
f"s very great. Others reduce it to a
m ninum. By cooperation between the
weather Bureau and forest protection
agencies, all parties interested are for
warned as to the fire danger. and
promptly forearmed to fight every fire
at its inception.