SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF SUN

Chronicle (Levin), 31 October 1946, Page 9

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF SUN

-Press Association

Bv Telearavh-

WELLINGTON, Oct. 30. Astronomers ivlio are specially interesled in the sun are having an unusuallv interesting time, owing to the great solar aetivity, which is described as tlie most intcnse for 200 years. This brancli of astronomy is unique on account of its bcaring 011 practical affairs." Navigation and time-keeping have their foundations in astronomy, but tliese foundations are fixed. Bolar radiation, hoAvever, is A'ariable, its variatioit is only roughly predictable, and its intensity is not predictable at all. It has a prof ound effeet 011 modern systems- of communication by radio and by wires and cables, and by modifyiug the weather effects the growth of vegetation and tlie economy of the world. The study of the sun goes much further than tlie couuting of sunsp'ots, thougli tliese are significant. The most important effect of abnormal solar radiation is in altering the electrical motion of the upper air, the ionosphere. These clianges greatly affect radio transmissions and cause auroras, and may also set up such disturbances in the earth as to interrupt the telegraph system.

Study of this subject is now world Avido, and New Zealand is. taking its share. Parties of sc-ientists are shortly to go to Oampbell Island, 400 miles soutli of Stewart Island, and to Eaoul Island, 700 miles north-east of Auckland, after a three-nioiiths' course at tlie ionosphere laboratory at Christchurch, aud Avill spend a year in observations for the Department of Seientifie nnd Industrial Ee§eareli. The data so olitained Avill be sent to the internalional "pool" of knowledge on the subject. The scope of usefulness of such observations has been greatly .enlargecf bv Ihe practical applieation of nuclear physics in atomie energy, and phvsieisls believe that more knowledge of tlie mysteriously powerful cosmie rays, the origin and nature of whieh are as yet nnknown, can be obtained by the closer stndv of tho sun. Solar research is not confined.v'to special expeditions or island- stations, and the Carter Observatorv at Kelburn is among the inslilulnons nclively engaged" on ito ■ ' J _