Evening star., 1952-05-07
By Thomas R. Henry
Science Editor Of The Star

For the past five years rockets
carrying all sorts of instruments
have been penetrating the mys-
terious hot, windy vacuum of the
high atmosphere. nearly 200 miles
above the earth.
The information gathered by
the instruments gradually is be-
ing put together, largely by
scientists of the Naval Research
Laboratory here, into a compre-
hensive picture. They reported
today to the American Geo.
physical Union, meeting Jointly
here with the American Meteor
illogical Society.
Winds blowing at more than
102 miles an hour at an altitude
Of about 100 miles were reported
by DR.. r. J. Havens and H. Spitz
of the Naval Research Labora-
tory. It was measured by a
gauge mounted on the side of a
rocket.
Speculation on Temperatures.
There has been all sorts of spec
ulation on temperatures at great
heights. It has been speculated
they are so high in the rare
atmosphere that a man would burn
to death and freeze at the same
time.
| Up to about 80 kilometers, how
ever, they are by no means so high
as sometimes calculated. accord
ing to rocket determinations re-
ported by DR.. Michael Ference, jr.,
of the Amry Signal Corps labora-
tory at Fort Manmouth, N. j.
The Signal Corps scientists used
a curious sort of high altitude
thermometer. It was a series of
grenades shot out of an ascending
rocket and exploded in the at
mosphere at intervals of 10 kilo-
meters from approximately 80 to
80 kilometers altitude.
Each grenade contained about
4 pounds of high explosives. It
also contained an extremely bril-
liant fash powder which went of
simultaneously with the explosion
and could be photographed from
the ground. The flash gave the
precise altitude of the explosion.
Speed of Sound Known.
The speed of sound is known
quite precisely. It varies marked
ly with temperature. The time
from the flash to the first ar
rival of the explosion sound at
the ground station was a very
crude measure of the tempera-
ture at the point of the blast.
Arrival of sound from the subse-
quent grenades, however, would
indicate quite precisely the tenn
perature of the atmosphere
through which they had passed.
DR.. Ference found Unexpectedly
that at approximately SO kilome-
tiers the temperature was actually
lower than on the ground and at
greater attitudes was strangely
low. At 80 kilometers. for exam
pie, there was a temperature of
Ionly about As F. in the winter
and a little above IS in summer.
That there should be any diff
ference between summer and
winter at such an altitude aroused
some surprise. The possible error
in these measurements, it was
stressed, hardly could be much
more than 10 degrees
Extreme Attitudes Tested.
At the greatest attitudes reached
by rockets the planets atmosphere
becomes almost non-existent, ac-
cording to measurements over
White Sands by gauges used in
rockets. These measurements
were reported by r. j. Havens and
Otto Berg of the Naval Research
Laboratory here.
At the extreme altitude of 219
kilometers, it was found, the
atmosphere weighs about a ten
millionth of a gram per cubic
meter. At 400 kilometers it would
weigh approximately a hundred
millionth and at $50 the weight
would sink to a billionth. This is
a finer vacuum than could be at
tained in any laboratory. Still it
is far from empty space.
Life on earth is dependent on