706 OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS 
(awash), Harans Reef (with a ship aground), and 
Filippo Reef (about two fathoms). Islands apparently 
missing from Schott’s charts, which have been added, 
are, in the Atlantic Ocean, Rockall and Annobén; 
in the Indian Ocean, Scott’s Reef, Rowley’s Shoals, 
T~ 
Eee] 80° - 600 
NAUTICAL MILES 
600 - 900 
NAUTICAL MILES 
P| 900- 1200 
z NAUTICAL MILES 
racial mies 
Fig. 1—Lines of equal distance from land at spacings of 
300 nautical miles. (Aitoff equal-area projection centered at 
70°S, 15°H.) 
Bassas da India and Europa Island; in the Pacific 
Ocean, Palmyra, Kingman’s Reef, and Beveridge Reef. 
Some islands, seemingly included in Schott’s maps, but 
now established as nonexistent, have been eliminated. 
Figure 1 shows clearly the regions of the great world 
oceans which are farthest from land—with two areas 
in the Pacific more than a thousand nautical miles 
from land or reef of any kind. It is interesting to note 
that the North Atlantic, where the most extensive 
weather-ship program is being operated, has less area 
distant from land of any kind than the other major 
oceanic divisions. 
Ships’ Reports 
To cover the areas of the open ocean, there has for 
many years been a well-directed program enlisting the 
cooperation of vessels plying the oceans for other 
purposes. At least for regions traversed by the well- 
established sea lanes of commerce, ships’ reports of 
this kind are of tremendous value even though their 
quality is sometimes questionable, and elementary ob- 
servations, such as those of rainfall, are not taken. An 
idea of the coverage afforded by this means may be 
obtained by analysis of the grand total of observations 
for all months of the period of more than fifty years 
analyzed in the U. S. Weather Bureau’s Atlas of Cli- 
matic Charts of the Oceans and summarized in Chart 1 
of that atlas [14]. This chart shows the observations 
for all months distributed by five-degree unit areas 
over the oceans. Figure 2 shows the outlines of the 
areas in which there were less than five hundred ob- 
servations in the 50-yr period ending in 1933 (average 
of less than ten observations per year). The steady 
increase of shipping of all kinds tends to increase the 
number of ships’ reports. On the other hand, the effect 
of modern developments (canals, for example) for short- 
cutting sea routes and the increasing use of aircraft 
militate against the possibility of there being sufficient 
ships in these remote areas to provide regular observa- 
tions. Even the increase in the general amount of ship- 
ping in the world occurs along established sea lanes 
and will not cover the untravelled areas of the ocean. 
Figure 2, therefore, may be accepted as a fair general 
indication of the areas which cannot be covered by 
normal ship-observation techniques. If Figs. 1 and 2 
are superimposed, lines can be drawn delimiting parts 
which are more than 600 mi from land of any kind and: 
which, in the 50-yr period mentioned, had less than 
ten observations a year. This chart, Fig. 3, gives a good 
idea of the regions (principally in the Southern Hemi- 
sphere) which need to be covered (from a world weather 
network point of view) with floating stations of some 
kind, whether they be weather ships or specially de- 
signed floating stations, automatic or manned. In these 
infrequently travelled regions which are far from land, 
some of the attempts at a solution may be [6, Resolution 
36] the use of (1) fishing vessels, (2) aircraft recon- 
naissance, (3) stationary weather ships, or (4) automatic 
stations on buoys. To these should be added the less 
desirable, but also less costly, indirect methods of 
coverage afforded by sferics, radar networks, and ocean- 
wave analysis as applied to the location of storms [1]. 
One example of the gaps that could be filled by the use 
of fishing vessels is in the Southern Hemisphere where 
an arrangement for the use of whalers for meteorological 
purposes might be made. It is ta be hoped that co- 
operation with the International Whaling Association 
