In answer to a question by Mr. Mordy, Dr. Seelye stated that, 

 with few exceptions, all the data could be fitted into the pattern shown 

 by the charts. 



In answer to a question by Mr. Simpson, Dr. Seelye stated that there 

 were no reliable charts for this period on which to base correlations 

 with the intensity of the zonal circulation, nor was there any information 

 available to make a correlation with the intensity of the equatorial 

 trough. 



Dr. Gringorten remarked that the fluctuations in the northern and 

 southern wet zones appeared to be simultaneous as judged by aircraft 

 in-flight reports. Mr. Green was able to confirm this from his experience 

 at Nandi. 



Colonel Moorman stated that the back records from the former 

 Japanese mandated islands have been collected and will shortty be 

 published. 



In answer to a question by Captain Best, Dr. Seelye stated that the 

 <3istribution of rainfall at any one station was not normal, some curves 

 •exhibiting a high degree of skewness. 



CLIMATOLOGY OF THE CENTRAL PACIFIC 



By J. Gentilli, University of Western Australia 



In the Proceedings of the Fifth Pacific Science Congress, held in Canada 

 in 1933, Professor Gerhard Schott published a short paper on the 

 distribution of rain over the Pacific Ocean (Schott, 1933). It was a 

 brief paper because the author had already published a comprehensive 

 study of annual and seasonal rainfall over this ocean elsewhere. The 

 same author two years later published his' major work on the Pacific 

 and Indian Oceans (Schott, 1935). 



In 1938 the Weather Bureau of the U.S. Department of Agriculture 

 published an Atlas of Climatic Charts of the Oceans (U.S.W.B., 1938) 

 which, for the Pacific Ocean, was based on 1,183,235 observations 

 by ships scattered over 729 five-degree squares. These observations 

 provide the most valuable and reliable source of material for the study 

 of climate over the oceans, but, while they include average cloudiness 

 and frequency of rain, they cannot give actual rainfall measurements. 

 It is true that from a combination of -the published maps showing the 

 frequency of passing showers, steady rain, rain in whatever form, 

 nimbus, cumulo-nimbus, stratus and strato-cumulus, cumulus, alto- 

 cumulus and alto-stratus, cirrus with cirro-stratus and cirro-cumulus, 

 it may be possible to estimate the actual amount of rain, but the result 

 would only be a guess. One still has to use island observations in order 

 to analyse the actual quantity of rain. Various meteorological offices 

 have kindly made available some excellent material on which the 

 following notes are based. 



The significance of the rainfall is affected bj- the temperature at the 

 time of fall and immediately afterwards, because any amount of rain 

 that falls is subject to evaporation, which is a function of temperature 

 and other factors, but principally temperature. A relatively simple 

 way of estimating precipitation effectiveness has been evolved b}^ 

 Thornthwaite (1931), and it is this precipitation effectiveness that has 

 been taken as a basis for research, in this case. 



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