326 



two must be viewed as of equal, or perhaps one should better say, of 

 parallel importance. 



My third point is that the atmospheric sciences are approaching a 

 sense of readiness and unity that promises considerable payoffs in the 

 next decade or two. 



When one considers the atmosphere, one can think of three major 

 areas of application : weather prediction, especially long-range predic- 

 tion, which generally means anything beyond about 10 days. Second, 

 weather modification, from its present-day modest capability of in- 

 creasing runoff in western mountain areas to the more speculative pos- 

 sibilities of regional or continental-scale climate modification. 



Third, there are the problems of conservation of the atmosphere, 

 from local air pollution to worldwide effects of man's activities in de- 

 grading the atmosphere. 



One of the things that I have been working on personally in the past 

 few years is the clouds that sometimes form on jet airplane contrails 

 over the continental land masses. They result from the effluent from the 

 exhaust of the jet engines, forming thin streaks of contrail. Instead 

 of dissipating, they sometimes grow and cover the sky. There is a possi- 

 bility that these artificially induced cirrus clouds have substantial 

 weather modifying effects on a large scale. So that when we talk about 

 weather modification, we need to recognize that not only is it some- 

 thing that man might hope to do deliberately, but perhaps inadvert- 

 ently we are, on some occasions, already engaged in large-scale weather 

 modification. 



To reach many of these applications, to have success in achieving 

 these applications, we need inputs from the marine sciences, but again, 

 these applications are not directly related to the exploitation of the 

 oceans. Rather, they are related to the needs of people. 



As you have seen from satellite pictures of weather, and also per- 

 haps in computer-produced global patterns of atmospheric circulation, 

 the atmospheric sciences are on the threshold of being able to cope with 

 the world's weather as the single physical system it is. 



This is the key to the greatest part of the atmospheric sciences' po- 

 tential usefulness in years to come, and there is great and growing 

 international interest in the world weather program and other efforts 

 now underway to cross this threshold of new advance. 



We have identified the central problem ; namely, the problem to cope 

 with the truly global nature of this earth- atmosphere system. 



You might say that w^e have put the finger on the essential concept 

 that wraps it up, and makes it possible for great advance in this field. 



This is another good reason why the atmospheric sciences should not 

 be subordinated to other areas of science in any new Federal agency, 

 but instead should be placed on an equal basis with them. The potential 

 benefits from atmospheric research are simply too great to be subordi- 

 nated, even, to the exploitation of the sea with all its national and inter- 

 national importance. 



COMMENTS ABOUT TRANSFERRING NCAR TO NOAA 



Finally, I wish to comment very briefly about the suggestion in the 

 Commission report that the National Center for Atmospheric Re- 

 search, which we speak of as "NCAR," should be transferred to the 



