18 OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES 



Certainly I do not think that we should rule out the potential here. 

 We must accept the challenge because of its importance to all the 

 people. 



Mr. Dorn? 



Mr. Dorn. In the maps that j^ou showed us as to the start of the 

 hurricanes off Africa, I was curious to ask, Doctor, do you have 

 weather stations off the coast of Africa? 



Mr. Reichelderfer. We do not. The international system of 

 exchange of weather reports among countries gives us reports in the 

 Cape Verdes, the Canaries, the Azores, from the Portuguese and 

 others concerned. 



The system of exchange of weather reports from ships is fairly well 

 organized for those places, of course, where ships travel frequently. 



Mr. Dorn. Are these reports sufficient for our study on hurri- 

 canes considering their tremendous damage in our States? 



Mr. Reichelderfer. No; very definitely they are not. 



Mr. Dorn. Well, then, are you not considering some type of 

 weather station that the United States should have to gather its own 

 reports? 



Mr, Reichelderfer. There have been many plans for extending 

 the so-called ocean weather station vessel program. We have at the 

 present time, through international agreement among countries bor- 

 dering the Atlantic, some seven vessels stationed permanently. This 

 could be extended to areas farther south to include the West Coast of 

 Africa or off the coast, and the whole area of the Tropics between 

 Africa and South and Central America. It could be extended into 

 the Gulf. 



There have been proposals for that, but it is a very costly way of 

 doing it and there is so much water out there that it takes many, 

 many ships, so that we have been trying to develop along more com- 

 prehensive and economic lines. 



Until this year the coverage by the Air Force and the Navy on 

 reconnaissance aircraft was fairly good. They have had to curtail 

 some and, while we are protected in North Ameiican waters, we are 

 no longer protected as well in the waters farther to the east. 



Another metliod that has been tried is the so-called transonde 

 balloons. They are balloons patterned after tlie ones used by the 

 Japanese during the war to try to set fire to forests on the west coast. 



The Navy has had a number of flights originated in Japan with an 

 instrument that transmitted the location of the balloon. It is being 

 developed further to give temperature and otlier things. These 

 balloons have traveled all across the Pacific, across North America, and 

 across the North Atlantic, and in some cases thej- would have gone on 

 perhaps around tlie world but they were set to explode after a certain 

 time because of international complications in having them fly over 

 Europe. 



This is a method that has been tried. 



I must say it does not appear as practical now as it did 2 or 3 years 

 ago, so that we do not have the problem licked yet. We do think 

 that the satellite which will scan all of the cloud formations through- 

 out the globe is the best solution and probably the most economical 

 if we assume tliat we are going to have satellites anyway; that is, if 

 meteorology does not have to csirry the wliole cost of development 

 iind have our apparatus as part of the things to be put on a satellite. 



