AIR CURRENTS

Hokitika Guardian, 23 January 1929, Page 1

AIR CURRENTS

.IMPORTANT RESEARCH WORK

AUCKLAND, January 21. Important research concerning air currents, which will be of great value to the future of aviation in New Zealand and in the Pacific generally, will he carried out- during the year by Mr Andrew Thomson, director of the observatory at Apia, Samoa, who was a passenger from the Islands by the Tofua. Air Thomson will remain a week in Auckland and will then proceed to Wellington to work under Dll';. Kidson, Director of -Meteorology in the Dominion. During his absence from Samoa the work at the observatory at Apia will he carried on by -Mr Thomson’s assistants. For some considerable time he has carried out research work into air currents at Samoa. When his work concludes in the Dominion, Mr Thomson will furnish a comprehensive report embracing his observations. It is possible that his investigations will lead to the use of balloons. Mr Thomson is well known to many New Zealanders. He was here 10 vears ago as one ol a. party oi scientists aboard the American yacht. Carnegie, which cruised the Pacific on behalf of the Carnegie Institute, Washington. He has been the director of the observatory at Apia for the past eight years. That aviators flying fi'om New Zealand to Sydney should keep low, and that those’ flying from Sydney to New Zealand should fly high is recommended by Mr Thomson. In the course ol extensive research work, lie said, he had ascertained much about the height of trade winds and their velocity. He had sent up balloons filled with hydrogen to a height of ten miles. “As one ascends,” M.r Thomson, said “the easterly trade winds gradually die out and are replaced by strong westerly winds.” Apia is the centre of weather reporting for the whole of the South Pacific.