COMMITTKK VCTi\ ITIKS 



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Saipan was also obtained, and arrangements were 

 begun for the transfer of personnel to that theater. 



Further informal conferences were held with 

 Australian and British groups, from which these 

 conclusions were drawn. General meteorological data 

 did not provide sufficient information quickly to be 

 of practical use in forecasting propagation in a given 

 area. Instead, intensive ground-based and aircraft 

 soundings offer the most practical means for setting 

 up a short-range forecasting service for radar and 

 radio communication coverage. 



At a formal conference with the same groups a 

 policy to be adopted by the Australian Services was 

 decided upon. An operational program similar to the 

 NDRC Office of Field Service program was outlined 

 by the members and approved for immediate inau- 

 guration. A radar-weather school was to be set up 

 in the Meteorological Section of the RAAF for 

 training radar-weather officers. Arrangements for 

 manufacturing sounding equipment were also made, 

 with almost all components planned for production 

 in Australia. 



Plans for expanding the operational program at 

 Leyte were laid, and arrangements for observations 

 at Saipan were also concluded. Measurements at 

 Woendi Island were planned to continue until definite 

 results were obtained, and arrangements were also 

 made for transferring direction of the project to an 

 officer of the Fifteenth Weather Region Headquar- 

 ters, after which all civilian personnel with the 

 exception of Mr. Grover would return to the United 

 States. Mr. Grover would remain for the purpose of 

 maintaining contact between the U. S. Army, 

 Australian, and NDRC programs. 



Finally, recommendations for future procedure in 

 this theater were made, which included maintaining 

 at least one civilian research meteorologist in the 

 area, and perhaps a group with the Army in China. 



Another conference on propagation was held during 

 November 1944, attended by representatives of the 

 investigating laboratories and armed forces of the 

 Allied Nations. A large number of papers were 

 delivered on propagation and related subjects. A 

 full report of this conference was prepared by the 

 CUDWR WPG and distributed to approved agencies. 



At the next meeting of the Committee, held on 

 December 9, 1944, a number of new matters were taken 

 up, as well as the status of work already in progress. 

 A group of British research workers, who had been 

 conferring with United States propagation workers 

 during a tour of laboratories in this country, reported 



on their findings. Dr. Hooker also gave a detailed 

 account of the work going on in Australia, as seen by 

 him during a visit to that country which he had just 

 concluded. The joint United States-British program 

 was discussed, as well as methods of interpreting 

 results of propagation experiments, calculations of 

 coverage diagrams, and the proper dissemination of 

 a report, Tropospheric Propagation and Radio Meteor- 

 ology, which had been prepared by CUDWR WPG. 

 This report, distributed in December, was a compact 

 but thorough summary of the established informa- 

 tion on propagation obtained to the date of its prep- 

 aration. It was on a practical but much more quan- 

 titative level than Variations in Radar Coverage 

 issued earlier under auspices of JCB. It proved to be 

 of considerable value to radar officers, particularly in 

 improving the confidence and efficiency of radar 

 operating and siting personnel, who had previously 

 had at best only qualitative conceptions of such ef- 

 fects as superrefraction and trapping of radiation 

 in ducts. 



A subcommittee of the Committee on Propagation 

 met on December 30, 1944, and heard a personal re- 

 port by Dr. Anderson on his mission to the Southwest 

 Pacific during the middle of the year just ending. 

 From the results of this mission it was apparent that 

 low-level ducts existed over substantial areas of the 

 ocean in the trade wind regions which had profound 

 effects on propagation characteristics of radar and 

 VHF radio frequencies. These propagation charac- 

 teristics were also found to vary markedly with 

 heights of transmitting and receiving antennas. After 

 consideration of these findings, the subcommittee 

 decided that a carefully controlled experiment under 

 similar conditions was an urgent necessity, in order 

 to reduce these qualitative indications to reasonably 

 accurate quantitative data, which could be applied 

 by operational personnel in theaters where similar 

 conditions existed. It was decided that an experi- 

 ment conducted directly by the Navy at a suitable 

 location in the Caribbean area would be most prac- 

 ticable, and plans were drawn up for a detailed 

 investigation by one-way and radar transmission on 

 several frequencies. 



In response to a request from Brigadier General 

 Borden the Committee arranged on December 14 

 for establishment of a meteorological sounding station 

 in the Southwest Pacific [SWP] area. On December 

 19 a letter was drafted and despatched to Dr. E. M. 

 Marsden, Director of Scientific Developments in the 

 Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 



