SERVICE PROJECTS 



The Committee on Propagation did all of its work under 

 Project Control SOS-9, which was originally set up through 

 the request of the Combined Chiefs of Staff following recom- 

 mendations submitted by the Combined Meteorological Com- 

 mittee: (a) That the Committee on Propagation of the 

 National Defense Research Committee be requested to act 

 as a coordinating agency for all meteorological information 

 associated with short wave propagation; (b) That the Com- 

 mittee on Propagation be requested to forward periodically 

 to the CMC a list of all reports and papers dealing with the 

 meteorological aspects on short wave propagation which have 

 been received or transmitted by that Committee. 



Later the Combined Meteorological Committee in its 37th 

 meeting on Tuesday, February 22, 1944, agreed, that "the 

 National Defense Research Committee [NDRC], Committee 

 on Propagation, be recognized as the supervising committee 

 on all basic research being done in the United States on the 

 related problems of radar propagation and weather, in addi- 

 tion it shall be the recognized channel whereby international 

 exchange of papers of the two related sciences will be effected." 



The Joint Communications Board therefore approved the 

 following policy, which was concurred in by NDRC and by 

 the Joint Meteorological Committee: 



1. The NDRC Propagation Committee and its associated 

 working groups will initiate and exercise technical supervision 

 over such tests and investigations as they deem necessary to 

 ascertain the nature of the above-mentioned propagation 

 anomalies in the VHF, TJHF, and SHF bands, to devise the 

 most practicable methods to determine the occurrence and 

 characteristics of these anomalies from appropriate meteor- 

 ological forecasts, with a view to improving the interim solu- 



tions offered by the Joint Wave Propagation Committee of 

 the JCB. 



2. The Army and Navy will furnish by direct coordination 

 between them the basic staff guidance for such tests and in- 

 vestigations. They will accomplish this by determining: 



a. The specific forms in which basic prediction data 

 shall be presented, and 



b. The method of use required for operational forecast 

 of propagation anomalies in the VHF, TJHF, and SHF 

 bands. 



3. When the NDRC requires the cooperation of the oper- 

 ating units of the Army and Navy in conducting such tests and 

 investigations as it deems necessary and this cooperation is 

 of such an extent and nature that it cannot be furnished by 

 informal coordination, it will be requested through the Joint 

 Wave Propagation Committee of the JCB. Such requests will 

 be initiated by the NDRC representative on the Wave Propa- 

 gation Committee and recommended to the Joint Communi- 

 cations Board by the Joint Wave Propagation Committee for 

 consideration. 



4. The Joint Wave Propagation Committee will be respon- 

 sible for devising and furnishing immediately, interim oper- 

 ational forecasting guides based upon information already 

 available. 



On April 3, 1944, the Coordinator of Research and Develop- 

 ment requested that the Army Project SOS-9 be made a joint 

 Army-Navy project. Project No. AN-16 was assigned to this. 



On May 23, 1944, the Chief Signal Officer requested that 

 under Project AN-16 the following work be inaugurated: 



Project AC 230.04 "Wave Propagation Study of Line-of- 

 Sight Communication and Navigation." 



312 



