EBPORT OF THE SECRETARY 65 



Africa revealed nothing sufficiently favorable. All of these stations 

 were too much affected by high-lying haze in the atmosphere to be 

 satisfactory. From Southwest Africa Mr. and Mrs. Moore went to 

 Mount St. Katherine, in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. With 

 the good will and much aid from the archbishop and monks of the 

 monaster}'^ near by, Mr. and Mrs. Moore carried on observations for 

 about 100 days in April, May, June, and July, 1932, at the peak, 

 whose elevation is about 8,600 feet. The results are the most favor- 

 able they foiuid anywhere. About half the days are reported as ex- 

 cellent or satisfactory, the remainder as hazy or cloudy. Inquiries 

 indicate that the other parts of the year will be still more favorable. 

 Mr. Moore believes that many of tlie hazy days might have yielded 

 good solar-constant values, for the haze changes but slowly, o wing- 

 to the extraordinarily calm conditions which prevail on Mount St. 

 Katherine continually. 



PERSONNEL 



At Washington, in compliance with the President's wishes to make 

 all possible curtailment of expenditures in view of the growing 

 deficit in the Treasury, the force was reduced by releasing Mrs. 

 Muriel D. Johnson, computer, after the completion of Volume V of 

 the Annals. L. O. Sordahl, formerl}'' in charge of the Mount Bruk- 

 karos station and wdio had rendered able service in that coimection, 

 was released because of the discontinuance of that observatory as of 

 June 30, 1932. No other changes occurred at any of the stations. 



SUMMARY 



Volume V of the Annals of the Observatory, covering work of the 

 years 1920-1930, has been published. New instruments and results 

 bearing on standards of pyrheliometry have been completed. Solar- 

 constant work was discontinued in Southwest Africa, but continued 

 at the Californian and Chilean stations. The volcanic eruption in 

 southern Chile led to a temporary suspension of publication of daily 

 solar-constant values. Much work was done with the periodometer, 

 a special instrument devised to discover and evaluate periodicities in 

 long series of observations. Mr. and Mrs. Moore continued an 

 expedition in Africa to discover a suitable mountain site for a solar- 

 constant observatory. The most favorable site discovered is Mount 

 St. Katherine in the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. 



C. G. Abbot, Director. 

 The Secretary, 



Smithsonian Institution. 



