503 



NATURE 



[December i6, 1920 



The Energy of Cyclones. 



In Natukk for Utciinber 2, p. 436, Sir Napier 

 Shaw remarks: "'Ihere can be no doubt, 1 suppose, 

 that solar and terrestrial radiation are ultimately 

 responsible lor the kinetic energy of the winds." if 

 we uiclude oiher possible radiations from space and 

 the effects of high-velocity cosmic matter striking 

 the upper limits of the atmosphere, few will fail to 

 agree. Not many years ago the theory mentioned by 

 Mr. J. R. Cotter (Nature, November 25, p. 407;, 

 ' that the energy of a cyclone is derived from the 

 heat-energy of the earth's surface," would have 

 been considered as most probably correct. How- 

 ever, Mr. W. H. Dines, with the aid of about 

 250 soundings of the upper air with self-registering 

 balloons, proved that the lower central parts of 

 cyclones are actually cooler and denser than the sur- 

 rounding parts. That his conclusion is of general 

 application so far as western Europe is concerned 

 the daily Upper-Air Temperature Charts issued by the 

 Meteorological Office show. 



Fig. I shows the distribution of temperature in 

 cyclones found by Mr. W. H. Dines, and in the face 

 of such a distribution it .appears to be impossible to 

 attribute their growth and disappearance to the hcat- 



15 km. 



10 km. 



■ 5 km. 



FlO. I. 



ing and cooling of the troposphere. Local heating 

 of the atmosphere near the earth's surface does cause 

 up-rushes of air, resulting in thunderstorms, etc., but 

 they never seem to result in cyclones. 



In view of the actually determined distribution of 

 temperature in cyclones being as shown in Fig. i, 1 

 suggested {Phil. 'Mag., July, 1915, .April, 1916, and 

 March, 1918) that the upper, as well as the lower, 

 limits of the atmosphere become irregularly heated, and 

 that the general and local winds of the earth result 

 from the interaction of the movements set up bv these 

 two layers of heated air. Referring to Fig. i, it will 

 be noticed that the line of diyision BB between the 

 stratosphere and the troposphere is lower at the centre 

 of the cyclone than at its margins, and that the tem- 

 perature at the centre of the depression is lower than 

 near the margins. So marked is this lowering of 

 temperature that, in spite of the lower pressure, the 

 central air is denser than that surrounding it, and 

 there is, consequently, no tendency for the column of 

 air to rise. On the other hand, above BB the tem- 

 perature of the stratosphere at the cyclonic centre is 

 higher than it is at the margins at similar levels, and 

 the pressure at the centre being lower as well, there 

 NO. 2668, VOL. lObJ 



is a strong lifting power exerted upon the troposphere 

 by the stratosphere. So long as such lifting action 

 is in operation the cyclone persists. 



With regard to the general circulation upon which 

 the travelling cyclones are superimposed, all the regis- 

 tering balloon ascents yet made indicate that the tem- 

 perature conditions of the greater cyclonic circulations 

 of the polar areas are similar in nature to those of 

 the smaller ones ; nor is there as yet any evidence 

 suggesting that the conditions of decay in cyclones 

 differ in anything but degree from their conditions of 

 growth. 



Sir Napier Shaw has pointed out that rain and 

 many other weather conditions are very often due to 

 the "embroidery" of the cyclone rather than to the 

 rising air in the centre of the cyclone itself. The 

 Daily Weather Charts show that, especially near the 

 margins, the effect of the oncoming or growing 

 cyclone, impressing its circulation upon already exist- 

 ing winds, is often to cause damp, warm air-currents 

 to mount over dry ones, and thus to produce rain and 

 cloud. Mr. W. H. Dines (Nature, November 18, 

 p. 375) may be quite correct, therefore, in holding that 

 cvclones do not result from warm air of the tropo- 

 sphere flowing over cold air near the earth's surface; 

 and Lt.-Col. Gold (ibid.. November 11, p. 345) may 

 be equally correct in believing that rain is often due 

 to such conditions obtaining in cvclones. However, 

 such movements are secondary phenomena, and may 

 add some energv to an alreadv existing cyclone, for 

 the reasons given by Sir Oliver Lodge {ibid., Novem- 

 ber 25, p. 407). 



The formation of a cyclone, as Sir Napier Shaw 

 (ibid., December 2, p. 437) states, shows that 

 " the region covered bv a cyclone has simplv 

 lost a certain part of the air which it normally 

 possesses. In one example I estimated the loss 

 as equivalent to 40,000 cubic km. at sea-level. 

 Bevond all doubt or question air had gone ; it was 

 not oiled up in anticvclones fore and aft, as we used 

 to think the convected air of our cvclones must be ; 

 it was gone clean away." .According to my concep- 

 tion, the upper limit of the atmosphere is often heated 

 locally by radiant energv or higluvelocitv matter from 

 without. Heated protuberances are thus formed at 

 the upper effective limit of the atmosphere. The air 

 of these protuberance!! then flows awav in all direc- 

 tions, If^aving cvclonic conditions below the area 

 where the protuberance was formed. 



R. M. Deeley. 



Tintagil, Kew Gardens Road, Kew, Surrey, 

 December 4. 



Name for the Positive Nucleus. 



May I ask in what way " the hydrogen nucleus or 

 unit of positive charge," for which Sir Oliver Lodge 

 (Nature, December 9, p. 467) provides us with a 

 choice of brand-new names, " proton, ambron, 

 merron, uron, prime, centron, and hylon," differs 

 from our very old friend "hydrion," the familiar 

 hydrogen ion of the physical chemist? The point 

 occurred to me when Sir Ernest Rutherford sug- 

 gested the new name "proton" for it in Section A 

 of the British .Association this year. Its new hypo- 

 thetical rSle as " the brick of which all atoms are 

 built up, electrons acting as cement," although 

 probably more acceptable to chemists than the curious 

 inversion of this which afforded to a past generation 

 of physicists such peculiar aesthetic and intellectual 

 gratification, ought not to be allowed to obscure the 

 fact that there is nothing hypothetical or protonic 

 about the particle itself. In 1920 hvdrogen ion, as 

 the common constituent of that verv common class of 



