SUN'S HEAT ABBOT. 163 



casts. Our own weather bureau is investigating the relations of the 

 more complicated weather conditions of the United States to the radia- 

 tion of the sun, and with results which tend to raise the hope that 

 here also the solar-radiation values will be of interest and importance 

 in weather forecasting. Thus the outlook indicates that Doctor Lang- 

 ley's prophetic hope may be to a considerable extent fulfilled, and 

 that knowledge of the sun may help to foretell the climatic conditions 

 of the world. 



If it should prove, from the results now being obtained in the New 

 World, that this element is a valuable one for forecasting, it must fol- 

 low that additional solar-radiation stations will be established in the 

 most cloudless regions of the Old World to join in securing strong daily 

 values of the intensity of the solar beam. Such stations might prop- 

 erly be located in Egypt, South Africa, Australia, or India, or all of 

 these regions. Not less than four solar-radiation stations, all oper- 

 ating under a common procedure and homogeneous in all respects, 

 would be necessary for the satisfactory observation of the sun on every 

 day of the year. 



The cost of such observatories is not large. Two are already estab- 

 lished. Four others could be established and continued by an annual 

 outlay of $50,000. The cost of the war for a single hour of time, 

 if it could have been diverted to this fundamental research, would 

 have carried it on forever. 



