282 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



towers, both with theory and aircraft observations, has quite surpris- 

 ingly led to a sharp jump in our knowledge and understanding of the 

 tropical hurricane. It has long been suspected that the hurricane runs 

 on the heat released from water vapor condensing into clouds and rain, 

 but the relationship of this energy source to the actual driving of the 

 winds has been obscure. This mechanism is at last beginning to be 

 understood, and jointly, with the University of Chicago's meteorology 

 department, we have recently evolved a theoretical model of how the 

 spiral bands of towering clouds maintain in the storm core the "pres- 

 sure head" that powers the raging winds. We are now in the process 

 of testing these theories in collaboration with the Weather Bureau's 

 national hurricane research project. Their aircraft made motion pic- 

 tures inside the hurricanes, and from these we are laboriously making 

 cloud counts, maps, and calculations. It is hopeful that, if these 

 studies are carried on here and elsewhere, we may learn more of how 

 the formation and motion of these menaces to mankind are brought 

 about. Regardless of immediate practical results, however, the hur- 

 ricane study expenditures have already paid off multifold in taking 

 us nearer eventual comprehension of the atmosphere's basic processes. 



We are also developing theories of individual convection elements 

 by equation and electronic computer, by testing them with field obser- 

 vation and laboratory data, and by flying our Navy-loaned calibrated 

 and instrumented aircraft into actual clouds. This aircraft is also 

 used to explore incipient tropical storms, to measure the heat input 

 from the ocean to the air under various conditions, and to seek out those 

 situations where nature herself is performing relatively controlled 

 convection experiments, as often occurs over nearby Nantucket and 

 Martha's Vineyard Islands. 



Thus the subject of marine meteorology is a broad one, and our un- 

 derstanding of it may be advanced by some equations describing the 

 motions in a coffee cup, from experimental measurements on ink blots 

 in a rotating laboratory basin, or from an aircraft flight at 50,000 feet 

 photographing a cloud. We are doing all these things here at the 

 Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, not at random but with the 

 basic motivation of learning how heat is transformed into fluid mo- 

 tions in man's atmosphere and oceans, how he may best understand 

 these processes, avoid their evil consequences, and profit from those 

 which are beneficial. 



The Chairman. Next will be Mr. Bostwick H. Ketchum. 



STATEMENT OF BOSTWICK H. KETCHUM 



Mr. Ketchum. The following are biological and chemical investi- 

 gations : 



Thirty-six scientists of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 

 are engaged in the study of the biological and cliemical aspects of the 

 ocean. Tiie program is a broad approach to the basic problems con- 

 cerning the distribution and life cycles of plants and animals in the 

 sea. This includes the dynamics of their growth aiul the variations hi 

 the fertility of the oceans, both of which depend upon the essential 

 fertilizing chemicals in the water. 



These investigations cover all aspects of life in the sea, and include 

 such stndies as sunlight and its penetration into the water; the micro- 

 scopic marine plants called phytoplankton; the varied forms of life 



