meteorologists, and the National Academy 
of Sciences Committee on Radio Frequency 
Assignments for Science will check and 
evaluate the engineering considerations. 
It should be apparent that the 
entire problem is one of a rather complex 
sort and that its ultimate, satisfactory 
solution is of direct interest to in- 
dustry. Since industry has a definite 
stake in the field of oceanography and 
meteorology, it is hoped that represent- 
atives of industry will be interested in 
assisting directly in formulating and re- 
commending possible systems which may 
assist in the solution of our communi- 
cations problem. 
The areas to be covered are essen- 
tially those of the oceans, so that in 
effect we require world-wide coverage. 
As an example of the numbers of unat- 
tended ocean instrument stations or buoys 
which may be required the figure of 100 
buoys for the northeast Pacific, i.e., 
the area east of 180° and north of the 
Equator may be used. It is felt that 
this 1s a somewhat conservative figure. 
This does not, however, include special 
buoys and instrument stations for 
studying short-time projects, but rather 
represents the number which would be nec- 
essary for routine, relatively long-time 
programs. Integrated into this are also 
the requirements of the ship-to-shore 
communications, ship-to-ship, ship-to- 
buoy, buoy-to-ship, etc. It is quite 
probable that multiple solutions to the 
problem exist but major efforts will be 
centered toward determining what system, 
or systems, appear to be most suitable 
for the purpose. We earnestly solicit 
assistance from industry and research 
laboratories and will welcome serious 
recommendations and suggestions. 
REFERENCES 
1. "The Floating Automatic Weather 
Stations of the United States Navy," 
Weatherwise, Vol. 12, No. 5, 
October 1959. 
167 
