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PREFACE 
The purpose of the Compendium of Meteorology is to take stock of the present position of meteorology, to sum- 
marize and appraise the knowledge which untiring research has been able to wrest from nature during past years, 
and to indicate the avenues of further study and research which need to be explored in order to extend the frontiers 
of our knowledge. Perhaps it is appropriate that this stocktaking should be made as we enter the second half of 
the twentieth century, for surely no one can read the pages which follow without experiencing the feeling that 
we are on the threshold of an exciting era of meteorological history in which significant advancements are possible 
toward a better understanding of the physical laws which govern the workings of the atmosphere. That this progress 
will not be made without some difficulty is quite apparent from the number of unsolved problems which still 
remain as a challenge to the research worker in spite of the centuries of study which have been devoted to the 
nature and behavior of the atmosphere. If this book will have clarified and defined these problems, it will have 
fulfilled the purpose of those who planned it. 
The desirability of a survey of the current state of meteorology became apparent during the years following 
World War II, when research effort was being greatly intensified not only in meteorology but also in other fields 
of pure and applied science in which the importance of meteorological factors was coming into recognition. The 
idea that meteorologists and atmospheric physicists from all over the world might combine their efforts to prepare 
a work of this nature took definite shape in 1948 when the Geophysics Research Division of the Air Force Cam- 
bridge Research Center invited the American Meteorological Society to ‘draw up plans for a book in which special- 
ists in the several fields of meteorology would appraise the state of knowledge in their respective specialties. The 
general scope of the work was decided upon by representatives of the Society and the Geophysics Research Divi- 
sion, and support and sponsorship was provided by the latter under Contract No. W 28-099 ac-399 with the So- 
ciety. It is understood, however, that the recommendations and conclusions presented in the articles which follow 
do not necessarily represent those of the sponsoring agency. 
Capt. H. T. Orville, U.S.N. (Ret.), president of the Society from 1948 to 1950, Hanonied the Committee on 
the Compendium of Meteorology, under the chairmanship of Professor H. G. Houghton, to organize and supervise 
this undertaking. This committee sought and obtained suggestions from many eminent meteorologists and, in a 
series of meetings in the latter part of 1948, formulated the specific nature of the present work. One hundred and 
two authors were commissioned in 1949 to prepare the one hundred and eight articles which comprise this book. 
In most cases, more than one author was invited to contribute on a single broad topic. This was done intentionally, 
despite some slight duplication, to insure the presentation of specialized aspects of certain general subjects and to 
provide ample opportunity for the exposition of different viewpoints. 
A logical grouping of papers on related topics has resulted in a division of the book into twenty-five sections. 
Since the composition and physics of the atmosphere are fundamental to a consideration of meteorological prob- 
lems, the first part of the book is concerned with the field generally referred to as physical meteorology. Then comes 
a discussion of the upper atmosphere—a topic in which the interests of meteorologists and physicists are now con- 
verging—followed by a section which deals with extraterrestrial effects on the atmosphere and with the meteorology 
of other planets. The section in which is presented a general discussion of the dynamics of the atmosphere is fol- 
lowed by three sections which treat various aspects of the primary, secondary, and tertiary circulations, respec- 
tively. These papers provide a logical introduction to the treatment of synoptic meteorology and weather fore- 
casting and to the discussions of the meteorology of the tropical and polar regions and the section on climatology. 
Hydrometeorology, marine meteorology, biological and chemical meteorology, and atmospheric pollution are fields 
in which the interests of meteorologists meet those of hydrologists, oceanographers, biologists and chemists, and 
engineers, and these topics are treated in that order. The topics of clouds, fog, and aircraft icing have been in- 
cluded in a single section because of their obvious relationship to one another. The discussions of meteorological 
instruments and laboratory investigations and the theory of radiometeorology and microseisms and their applica- 
tions to meteorological problems constitute the final sections. 
References to the literature are indicated by bracketed numbers in the text. A list of references is given at the 
end of each article. Some care has been exercised to insure complete and accurate bibliographic information. Ab- 
breviations for the titles of periodicals have, with a few minor modifications, followed the convenient system used 
in the second edition of A World List of Scientific Periodicals, published by the Oxford University Press in 1934. 
When successive entries have one or more authors-in common, dashes have been used to replace the name, or 
names, given in the preceding entry. 
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the interest and cooperation, quite apart from the financial support, of the Geo- 
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