AIR CURRENTS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 29 November 1927, Page 8

AIR CURRENTS

INVESTIGATION iN PACIFIC WORK DONE AT APIA OBSERVA TORY. Andrew Thomson, -director of the Apia Observatory, Western Samoa, has been in London on his wav to Prague, where he represented New Zealand at the International Congress of Geodesy and Geophysics, says an American paper. Describing some of the work that has been done at the observatory, he said that in the South Pacific between Australia and South America there was a large area of ocean where, except at Samoa, little had been done to investigate the currents of the upper air. Observations of this kind were important in the interests of flight between Australia and New Zealand and Honolulu or South America. So far. no airplane had succeeded in flying from Honolulu to Australia. AIR CURRENTS TRACED. At the Apia Observatory the work of investigating the upper air has been going on for four years, and considerable progress has been made in adding to the knowledge of the air currents. The observations'were made by sending balloons into the upper air and following the course they . took. In this • a knowledge had been obtained' of currents to a height of nine miles. It appears that while the south-east trade winds are blowing below, strong and rapid winds are blowing above the altitude of 12,000 feet in the opposite direction. To get complete information about the currents the number of stations at which observations can be takeh should be increased to four or five. For an area as big as Europe there is only the one centre at Apia. HUMIDITY AND TEMPERATURE. Careful records have been maoe ci variations of humidity and temperature, Samoa is singularly free from local disturbances. It has been shown by Sir Gilbert Walker that when the height of the Nile flood is above the average the temperature at Samoa during the following six months is below normal. In the last five years arrangements for wireless weather reports have been made at 12 stations in the South Pacific, with Apia as the centre. The information from these stations is collated at Apia, and the result broadcast twice a day for the benefit of ships whose course is through the area. Part of the work of the observatory consists in making seismological observations. It occupies an important position for this purpose, being situated near a i>art of the earth’s crust that is a frequent starting point for earthquake shocks recorded at a later stage at stations in other parts of the world. The New Zealand Government bears the greater part of the cost of the Apia Obervatory. contributing £2OOO annually while the British Admiraltv contributes £lOO and the Carnegie Institution £250.