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STATEMENT OF DR. WALTER ORR ROBERTS, PRESIDENT, UNIVER- 

 SITY CORPORATION FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH 



Dr. Roberts. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Hastings. 



I started out in my professional career as an astronomer, but some 

 20 years ago switched my interests primarily into the field of mete- 

 orology and atmospheric science because of my very strong conviction 

 of the ultimate social significance of knowledge in this realm, so that 

 I am happy to appear before your committee today representing the 

 field of weather, and talking about its interactions with the oceans. 



I am very much honored by the opportunity to appear and comment 

 on the report, "The Nation and the Sea," prepared by Dr. Stratton and 

 his distinguished colleagues of the Commission on Marine Science, 

 Engineering, and Resources. 



The report is, as the Chairman stated in the opening of these hear- 

 ings, a monumental one, with numerous and f arreaching recommenda- 

 tions. 



With your concurrence, I wish this morning to speak briefly to one 

 of the most important of these recommendations — ^that having to do 

 with the unity of the oceans and the atmosphere as a single environ- 

 mental system upon which man is heavily dependent. I then wish to 

 make a few comments on the Commission's specific recommendation 

 concerning the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a national 

 laboratory operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric 

 Research, of which I am president and chief executive officer. 



THE SCOPE or A NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC AGENCY 



Let me turn to the first point to my testimony. I do not know, Mr. 

 Chairman, whether your subcommittee has had opportunity to view 

 the remarkable new motion picture film of hurricanes seen from space 

 that has just been assembled by Drs. T. Fujita and V. E. Suomifrom 

 University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin respectively. 



If any of the members of your committee would like to see the film, 

 I can make it available to you. 



Mr. Hathaway. Thank you very much. 



Dr. Roberts. If you have not seen it, it is hair raising and very in- 

 structive and exciting. Nothing that I have ever seen demonstrates 

 so graphically the unity of the environmental system embracing the 

 atmosphere, the oceans, and the continents. 



In a few moments of time-lapse photography, this film reveals the 

 violent vortex of a giant hurricane, and traces for hundreds of miles 

 the cloud lines that spiral toward the eye of the storm. 



It shows, for example, how minor cloud streaks from the storm some- 

 times develop to major squall-line storms when they cross land. 



When you realize that these atmospheric monster storms, the hurri- 

 canes, can arise only from tropical oceans where the sea surface tem- 

 perature exceeds 25° C, or about 75° F., you are reminded of the 

 importance of ocean-atmosphere interactions to weather phenomena. 



The Stratton Commission rightly underlines the essential unity of 

 the ocean- atmosphere system. It is because of this unity, I suspect, that 

 the Commission recommended the creation of a National Oceanic and 

 Atmospheric Agency, rather than simply a National Oceanic Agency. 



