STUDY OF THE WEATHER

Chronicle (Levin), 28 August 1947, Page 5

STUDY OF THE WEATHER

Press Association)

RESEARCH THAT HAS WORLD APPLICATION

(Per

WELLINGTON, August 27. Satisfactory progress is being matk with the Canterbury project, a lon^ term investigation in radio meteorolog.. on the plains of Canterbury, which havvorldwide applieation and the suppor-. of the United Kingdom and U niton States. The results obtained during last spring and summer allovv no moafhan a few tentative very genera. eonclusions at present but they hav«indicated that, with a normal season next spring, ample data should be ob tained to ensure a satisfactory solution to the problems.

This important in'dication is given iti the annual report of rhe Departmeir af Seientiflc and Industrial Research presented to the' House of . Representa tives today. New Zealand is the onl;.' sountry in the world where weather eonditions, parficularly the nor'weste? which sweeps over the Canterburv plains in conjunction with a sea breeze result in eonditions which warrant a worldwide study. The United Kingdor.i taken an active part in assistiug with personnel, material and finance The United States has contributed i\ quantity of meteorologieal equipmen; on loan. The bullt of the personnel am! equipment arrived at the headquarter'of the projeet at the Ashburton aero drome in May, 1916, and there followe i a period of installation and organisation, work which was not coneiuded until mid-September. A party from th.. United Kingdom arrived in June fol lowed shortly by their equipment. Eull operations commenced towards the end of September but since then there hau been a paucby of northwest condition and only a meagre quantity of data ha 1 been eollected last spring and summer By late November it was apparenk tha'; the investigations would have to bc extended to the end of 1917 to ensure colleeting suffieient data to answer. the various problems involved. The report states that the quality oi Ihe data obtained in the field observations had been good and iniprovement in techniques as the summer progressed, had resulted in a maximum of useful information being obtained. The iinal anatysis Of tlie large section of results was being ' undertaken by the teloeommunications research establishment in the United Kingdom and they had expressed themselves gratiiied with the data furnished to them to date. At the conclusion of the Canterbury project in December, 1947, researehe^ will be carried out into the ettects of rainstorms. These researches are described as of significance as the worldwide effeets of weather on radar are fundamental to the design of standard radars for civil use, particularly on ships.