RADAR RESEARCH STATION

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 8

RADAR RESEARCH STATION

British Scientists Arriving To-day

UNIQUE CONDITIONS IN CANTERBURY

Bringing radar sets with them, five British scientists will arrive at Wellington by the Ruahine to-day to join the radar investigation station near Ashburton. The United Kingdom and United States Governments are assisting the New Zealand Government in the “Canterbury project” to improve radar and meteorological observations. Aircraft of the R.N.Z.A.F. from Wigram and the specially-equipped minesweeper H.M.N.Z.S. Hautapu, now on the Canterbury coast, will also participate in the investigations, which are hoped to be of world importance.

Ashburton has been selected as the Bite for the work as a result of general scientific investigation, principally by Dr. Booker, of England, who was here during the war, into anomalous propagation of ultra-high frequency waves with the types of meteorological conditions experienced during a Fohn wind—or the nor’-wester, as Canterbury residents know it. The Fohn wind, which in Canterbury prevails throughout the year, even into the winter, sets up the peculiar conditions affecting the performance of radio and radar navigational aids at high frequencies Ashburton is somewhere near the centre of the Canterbury Plains, unique in all-the-year-round Fohn winds.

The Fohn is a hot southerly wind which sometimes crosses the Alps in Switzerland and then blows down the mountain valleys. The exact counterpart jn New Zealand is the Canterbury nor’-wester, w'hich has crossed the Southern Alps. As this special type of wind was first recognised as a Fohn in Switzerland, the descriptive term, Fohn, has been universally adopted. The pressure of a long wind stream across the Tasman Sea forces the nor’wester high up over the Southern Alps. In being raised, it expands rapidly and cools. The result is that heavy rain falls on the West Coast and the dry air passes on over to Canterbury. In some cases released latent heat may warm this air, but the warmth of Fohn winds is due largely to the pressure on the dry air as it descends the mountain sides. An exaggerated, example of raising the temperature of air by pressure occurs at the connexion end of pumps used for inflating tyres. Normal moist air currents do reach eastward of Ashburton, via the wellknown wind funnels of Cook and Foveaux Straits while typical Fohn winds coming from the Southern Alps may merge with them eastwards. Ashburton, therefore, is often open to contrasting moist and dry winds, east and west respectively. The radar sets which the British scientists are bringing with them will be set up not to do normal radar detection work but to operate for radar reflections, to be correlated with the meteorological results. They are mobile and will be used in aircraft of the R.N.Z.A.F. At the same time, the minesweeper Hautapu, which will be based at Lyttelton or Timaru, according to convenience, will take certain observations from signals from the shore radar stations. A staff of 40 scientific personnel will be engaged on the investigations, kome young persons who were unable to take university courses because of the limitation of the number of students are being employed as observers, work which is expected to be of value to them when they enter the university.