NEW TECHNIQUE FOR TRACING WIND FLOW

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30802, 14 July 1965, Page 10

NEW TECHNIQUE FOR TRACING WIND FLOW

Christchurch has been chosen as the site for the launching of weather balloons in a United States project to test a new technique for tracing wind flow patterns around the Southern Hemispheie, the Minister of Civil Aviation (Mr McAlpine), announced yesterday.

The New Zealand Meteorological Service will collaborate with American scientists in “Project Ghost” to test the new global horizontal sounding technique, he said.

Scientists at the United States national centre for atmospheric research at Boulder, Colorado, have devised an ingenious system for following the drift of heliumfilled balloons of thin mylar plastic, floating at constant levels. Each will carry a small radio transmitter powered by solar cells, the whole device weighing only five ounces.

Identification signals in morse will indicate the altitude angle of the sun. From the sequence of information, -ground stations will be able to deduce the latitude and longitude of the balloons each day without the need for special direction-finding equipment. x

Scientists from Boulder will test the capabilities of the system as a means of obtaining wind information from the vast uninhabited areas of the Southern Hemisphere. Preparations According to the Christchurch Airport manager (Mr A. I. R. Jamieson), arrangements are in hand with the Christchurch City Council to lease an area of ground at the airport, near the meteoro-logical-radar building, where a building will be erected to house the balloons and equipment Designed by the city engineer to the requirements of the Americans, financial approval is needed before construction on the building can begin.

The officer in charge of the project, Dr. V. E. Lally, of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research at Boulder, Colorado, is due in the city at the end of next month. *