Can something be done about weath By Tom Foley I the past, the U.S. wasted billions of dollars in weather research, whose results were immediately stamped “‘secret’’ because they were for a possible Strategic Air Command ‘Dr. Strange- love’’-type attack on the USSR. But the warming trend in U.S.-Soviet relations is beginning to change all this, and the re- sults are certain to benefit not only every- body in the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but the entire world. The fact is, nobody is un- affected by the weather. The May, 1972 U.S.-Soviet agreements signed in Moscow provide for extensive cooperation between the two countries in science, including meteorology, and en- vironmental protection. Joint U.S.-Soviet projects involving weather research are already under way. It is possible this kind of cooperation may be stepped up after the June visit to Washington by Leonid Brezhnev, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Last year, anti-Sovieteers in the U.S. were crowing about weather-inflicted damage to Soviet crops. This year, they are Silent: tcrrential rains, two to three times normal, in the Mississippi River valley have caused enormous losses, par- ticularly to crops. As the New York Times said in a May 3 editorial: ‘‘If May and June are as wet as were March and April, this country could suffer an agricul- tural catastrophe without recent prece- dent.”’ Two weather phenomena so far apart in time are not directly related. But weather as such is a global phenomenon, knowing no political borders; the same is true of climate, the permanent weather- pattern which characterizes large zones of the earth and sets them off from others. And, being global, weather is most of all affected by the ocean which covers 70‘ of “the globe, rather than the 30% which is the total land area. The earth’s atmosphere, in which weather occurs, is a gigantic heat-engine, like the engine in your car and even more like the steam engines that used to drive locomotives and ships. What ‘‘drives™’ the atmosphere is not gas or coal, but the energy radiated by the sun. Solar radiation energy falls most heav- ily on the more exposed middle zone of the globe, the Equatorial region. Much less hits the two polar regions. This dif- ference accounts for our weather: our gaseous atmosphere provides the ‘‘mov- ing parts’ in the global heat-engine to transfer surplus energy (heat) from the Equator to the poles, and also to bring cooling air from the poles to the Equator. Ocean currents operate in much the same way: the Gulf Stream, for instance, car- ries solar radiation energy (heat) far to the north, while the Labrador Current brings cooling water to the south. However, this picture so far has ig- nored one basic fact: that the earth re- volves. In fact, it revolves from the west to the east at roughly 1,100 miles per hour (which is why the sun ‘‘comes up” in New York three hours earlier than in San Fran- cisco). If you were the wind, headed north from the Equator, you would soon be de- flected towards your right (the east) by this rotation; the Gulf Stream is affected in the same way. Polar winds and cur- A cyclonic storm system as seen from Apollo 9. UPI We can try uPI The U.S. and USSR sign an agreement in Moscow to coordinate anti-pollution work. Seated in the center are Soviet and U.S. environmental chiefs Yevgeny Fedorov and Russell E. Train (holding the pen). At the far left is Shirley Temple Black, Train’s assistant. rents are also pushed to the east. This will help to explain the broad weather pat- terns affecting the U.S. In fact, this built-in twist towards the east due to the global heat-engine’s rota- tion is a kind of torque (tendency to twist or drift in the direction of engine rota- tion) which most engines have. If you fol- - low weather developments in the U.S., you will soon discover that “‘weather’’ always moves from west to east (and hot, wet weather from the Gulf of Mexico moves in a north-easterly direction across the Eastern U.S., while cold, dry weather most often appears in the northwest and moves east). Of course, these movements and ener- gy transfers affect the entire world, not just the U.S. T. Morris Longstreth, in his Understanding the Weather (Collier, N.Y., 1966), wrote: ‘‘Today, meteorologists, like the statesmen, are thinking globally. The faet that the earth’s atmosphere is one, a vast, seamless covering, has be- come the fundamental premise. A pres- sure drop in Siberia may blow off roofs in Boston, drown Dublin, and spoil Nor- way’s skiing.”’ Siberia is, in fact, the winter home of a perennial dry, ‘cold high-pressure region covering thousands of square miles called “the Siberian-high.” F.K. Hare, professor of meteorology at McGill University in Montreal, writes that a winter ridge of high pressure builds up on the Bering Sea side of the North Pole, “often linking the Siberian high to another high over the Yukon, the Mac- WORLD MAGAZINE = PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1973—PAGE 6 ¢ Kenzie Basin or the Arctic archipelago. It is from this belt of high-pressure that many of the migrant highs emerge; some- times a center can be traced all the way from northeast Siberia to the St. Lawr- ence Valley and beyond.” (The Restless Atmosphere, Harper, N.Y., 1963). It should be mentioned that besides the Si- berian high, which produces cold, dry weather, there is also a nasty phenome- non known as “‘the Aleutian low’’ in the Bering Sea area. The Aleutian low soaks up moisture from the ocean and causes most tog. rain and snow when it moves southeast. @ It is therefore most fitting that one of the latest U.S.-Soviet joint weather re- search frojects was centered on the Ber- ing Sea region. “The Bering project” took place in February-March on both sides of the International Dateline, and involved ships, aircraft, and the U.S. weather sat- ellite, Nimbus-5. Results are expected to improve weather torecasting reliability in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. U.S. project base was Anchorage, Alaska; the Soviet one was Mys Schmidt (North Cape) on the Chukchi Sea coast. Specially-equipped weather research planes, a Soviet Il-18 and a U.S. Convair 990, made a-series of cocrdinated flights recording air and sea conditions. while the Soviet weather ship Priboi and the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Staten Is- land carried out simultaneous observation age ee _ certainly limits the solar rad and recording of data at sea. The N ; 5 weather satellite at the same timé f overpasses measuring heat radial its microwave sensors. Data all ‘al messages were exchanged twice a”) radio Mys Schmidt-Anchorage. Nov viet and U.S. meteorologists havey most detailed information on Beri, weather at every level, from sea Ce the lower fringes of space, and an!" J how much solar energy the area 6” reflects. i But the Atlantic is certainly not neglected in terms of joint U5, weather study: 10 Soviet resear@ are taking part in a large-scale pr study the tropical Atlantic and clan interaction processes between the and the atmosphere. Instruments ee : stalled aboard Soviet and U.S. res vessels will be synchronized this 0 The Soviet news agency TASS: Tay ing on this, said ‘‘much attention wt given to cloud formation and stl ( the tropical Atlantic. The scientls e use sea and land stations, aircl@ a” even weather satellites. This StU) gy tually will help in constructing Mg tical models of atmospheric pa knowledge of which is essential von ¥ term weather forecasts and eXP of the climate.” @ ‘ ists | Teams of Soviet oceanologr I meteorologists are to meet Woo yy U.S. counterparts in Washingt? uf May to discuss preparations 10! "gi ect. Also to be discussed are the f logical aspects of pollution. oe ate Pollution’s effects on weathe! = jy tle known. Joint U.S.-Soviet SU Vy! area is essential. On Februale oft U.S. National Oceanic and Al ‘igi Administraticn (NOAA) reporte’ iti least 665,000 square miles of the © ci” from Cape Ccd to the Caribbea” cif ‘ fouled. with heavy pollution. slicks were so thick that oil “like spaghetti’ through collet is fl tcwed by NOAA ships; chemi ts! fcund in heavy concentrations % st debris. Most of the oil and oll" = tion has appeared since 1968. a alt” “Sightings of tar at sea eae | negligible oft the Atlantic on oh 1968,"’ said Dr. James M. Bul noo sor of chemistry at Harvard, zed the NOAA samples. vast & Ocean pollution to such @ | eft) ys was Pg the ocean can absorb, and Yap] motes cooling. It also prevel’ ew tion and thereby interferes W!" oct! cycle in which ocean moistll™ yi rain. But a more serious efter a preventing raindrop nucle! © noi formed: to have rain at 4) aqdlj) teorologists have discovere” bil nuclei are usually miscrose™ pee! pj salt from the sea, which hav’. ried into the atmosphere. cannot occur where there fractio” if mile oil slick, even one 4 be inch deep. The result would oistl tt phere cversaturated with " where no rain developed for y in Is this process under W2: tule? yeh lantic? The U.S.-Soviet joins dl help us to find an aswer t0 ibe elit questions. These results wil body, in the U.S. and Sovie® - all over the world.