Summary:
AN interesting case of co-operation between scientific workers to their mutual advantage is revealed in the annual report of the Meteorological Office. The Royal Air Force has established a meteoro logical flight at Duxford Aerodrome, Cambridge, which consists of two aeroplanes with the necessary pilots and ground staff. Their particular duty is to collect information regarding the upper air, and flights are made daily to heights of 25,000-30,000 feet. These flights often involve penetrating cloud layers several thousands of feet thick, and such is the keenness of the station personnel that more than 90 per cent of the scheduled flights have been com pleted during the past year. Information developed from this is prepared specially for civil flying and distributed from such centres as Croydon. The report states “The rapid growth of flying in and above clouds on the Continental air routes, and the practice of following a direct compass course between the terminal aerodromes, have necessitated the fore casting of much more critical conditions than formerly. Consequently the work at Croydon has become highly specialised and necessitates forecasters of consider able experience of the peculiarities of these air routes, which in the opinion of pilots of wide experience are the most difficult from a meteorological point of view of any in the world”. 336 gale warnings were issued during the year, of which 81 per cent were justified. It has also been established that there is a fair measure of agreement between the frequency of thunderstorms and the occurrence of sunspots in high northern and tropical latitudes, though not so marked in the temperate zones.