PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The 120th meeting of the Academy was held in the Assembly Room 

 of the Cosmos Club the evening of January 31, 1918; called to order at 

 8.30 by President Beiggs. The amendments to the By-Laws pre- 

 sented at the Annual Meeting, January 8, 1918 (see this Journal of 

 February 4, 1918), were adopted, on the recommendation of the Board 

 of Managers. 



Professor Fridtjof Nansen, of the University of Kristiania, Nor- 

 way, at present Minister Plenipotentiary of Norway on a special mis- 

 sion to the United States, delivered a lecture on Changes in oceanic 

 ay\d atmospheric temperatures ami their relation to changes in the sun's 

 activity. 



The lecturer gave a very comprehensive review, illustrated with lan- 

 tern slides, of the subject matter of a book recently published by him 

 jointl}' with Professor Bjorn Heland Hansen, of the Museum of 

 Bergen, under the title, Temperatur-Schwankungen des N ordatlantischen 

 Ozems und in der Atvwsphdre. Einleitende Studien iiher die Ursachen 

 der klimatologischen Schwankungen} 



The primary aim of the research was to find the relations existing 

 between oceanic and atmospheric temperatures. The surface tem- 

 perature of the water in various parts of the North Atlantic at the 

 coldest time of the year foi-med the foundation of the first study. When 

 the region covered by the data is divided into approximately equal 

 areas, the temperature curves of these areas are found to be parallel. 

 It is evident from the form of the curves that these changes of tem- 

 perature taken as a whole are not due to changes in the water-masses 

 transported. A relation does appear, however, between these changes 

 and the prevaihng direction of the wind, as deduced from atmospheric 

 pressure gradients. Where the wind turns south of (i.e. is directed 

 south of) its average direction over a period of years, the temperature 

 of the water is lower than the average for the same period, and vice 

 versa. A similar parallelism between wind direction and water tem- 

 perature appears along the coast of Norway; the effect near the coast 

 is based upon the direction of the wind with respect to the land, as well 

 as upon the season of the year. The air temperature variations on 

 land appear earlier than the variations in water temperature. 



Certain periodicities appear in all the curves of oceanic and atmos- 

 pheric temperatures, but they vary in type. At the same time a rela- 

 tion also appears between these curves and curves of sun-spot activity 



1 Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter, I Mat.-Naturv. Klasse, 1916, No. 9. Kris- 

 tiania, 1917. 



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