THE HUMID STRATOSPHERE
Air samples obtained miles above the ' •>arth by crewless and' manned balloons are giving science a new picture of the stratosphere, according to Professor Auguste Piccard, its pioneer explorer. Formerly this cloudless upper level of the atmosphere was supposed to be free of moisture. Recent analyses of its air, however, reveal ten times the amount of water vapour that would be sufficient to cause rain at lower altitudes. Evidently the only reason that clouds do not form and ruin does not fall is lack of dust or other particles on which the moisture can condense. Any terrestrial material supplies such particles in abundance, which accounts lor the small patches of fog, a' few yards in diameter, that stratosphere balloonists have been surprised to see floating in the vicinity of their -. gondola's, and which hung about: the American balloon Explorer iII in / such : smokelike clouds that the crew feared the ballast bags were on fire. The unexpected humidity of the upper air levels, Professor Piccard suggests, probably will have to be taken into consideration by those who are making plans for, future airlines through the stratosphere.
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Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1937, Page 16
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188THE HUMID STRATOSPHERE Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 136, 10 June 1937, Page 16
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