974 
nearer to the climatic station in those winters, or pos- 
sibly the track of air has been consistently more direct. 
In this way, with much initial labour no doubt, there 
is hope of getting an insight into the mechanism of 
climate. It seems very probable that we should learn 
what factors exert the greatest control, as, for example, 
in the case cited above, whether proximity of the cold 
source or persistence of flow carries the major weight in 
severe winters. If we were able to do this, it might 
then be possible to resort to statistical methods as a 
means of foreshadowing the change of the climatic 
mean from one month to the next, for if we had a better 
conception of the mechanism of climate, we should be 
in a far more favourable position for selecting the right 
form that should be taken by the regression equation. 
Some Basic Requirements for the Discussion of 
Climate 
From this review of the methods adopted in the last 
twenty-five years to express climate certain principles 
seem to have emerged. 
It is clear that scale is the ruling factor in the treat- 
ment of climate; nevertheless, the treatment at each 
level of the scale has to be based on stability or insta- 
bility characteristics, not necessarily in the rigorous 
classification of the air-mass climatology school. In 
some way, descriptions ranging from a world-wide re- 
view to a local microclimatic study have to be per- 
meated with the sense of the facilities for vertical 
transport in the air. It may be that the shorthand ex- 
pressions used in air-mass analysis are the best; it may 
be that some better method of describing stability 
could be devised. The reason for these necessities is 
patent in the fact that the phenomena of rain and cloud 
are so closely associated with the stability of the at- 
mosphere; clouds control the amount of heat reaching 
the earth or escaping from it. Temperature lapse rate 
too is intimately connected with turbulence and conse- 
quently with heat transport from the surface. 
The treatment of a world-wide climatology would 
admit a scale such as that designed by Bergeron in his 
original exposition, but no greater elaboration. The 
scale for treatment of an area such as a state or country 
would need, as Willett and Linke have agreed, an 
elaboration of detail that would be overwhelmingly 
cumbrous for the world as a whole. And so on down to 
the microclimatic studies which, in the case of agricul- 
ture, might well need to consider the modifications in 
the vertical structure of the micro-air-mass due to vari- 
tions in the surfaces of neighbouring fields. 
Perhaps the next lesson to be learnt is the necessity 
for the synoptic worker and the climatologist to become 
accustomed to thinking in each other’s terms; indeed, 
to thinking that there should be no demarkation be- 
tween them, that they should use each other’s tools. 
There would seem to be good ground for maintaining 
that climatological literature should be written, in part 
at least, by synoptic meteorologists, though of course 
this in no way means the exclusion of tables of climatic 
normals; they are essential as a basis to be used for 
reference. 
CLIMATOLOGY 
There is a great need for detailed climatological 
literature, based on synoptic information, to be pre- 
pared for all parts of the world. One of the advances in 
climatology which is most likely to take place in the 
near future is the publication of papers dealing with 
this type of synoptic climatology. 
For the understanding of climate it seems that we 
need to know much more about the quasi-permanent 
sources of air masses. In comparison with our knowledge 
of the structure of depressions, the comprehension of 
the processes in anticyclones is very small; but anti- 
cyclones may be the key of the climatic mechanism 
because they are the source regions of the air. Perhaps 
then one of the most interesting problems is that of the 
process by which air flows into the anticyclone and the 
reason why it does so. A solution of this problem would 
throw light on the mechanism of climate. 
In regard to sources we need to know more about the 
time taken for stagnant air to become homogeneous, 
and what influence radiation has on the establishment 
of homogeneity. Also we should have information on 
the movements and the variation in intensity of sources 
from year to year and whether that intensity is asso- 
ciated with extraterrestrial phenomena. 
It may be objected that all the problems just men- 
tioned are those of the synoptic forecaster. Perhaps this 
is the crux of the whole matter. The physical problem 
of synoptic forecasting and climatology is the same, 
for climate is but the synthesis of weather. 
REFERENCES 
1. Arr Ministry, Meteorological Report on South China. Avia- 
tion Meteorological Report, No. 29, M. O. M. 365/29. 
London, 1945. (Out of print.) 
2. Auisov, B. P., Klimaticheskie Oblasti 1 Ratony S.S.S.R. 
Moskva, Geografgiz, 1947. 
3. Aviation Meteorology of the Azores. Meteorological Report 
No. 2. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1949. 
4. Aviation Meteorology of South America. Meteorological 
Report No. 1. London, H. M. Stationery Office, 1949. 
5. Barscuurina, A. A., Buumrna, L. I., and Perrowa, L. I., 
‘Mie Hinteilung der Eigenschaften der tropospharischen 
Luftmassen am Norden des europdischen Teils des 
U.S.S.R. im Sommer.” Zh. Geofiz. Meteor., Vol. 6, Nos. 
2-3, pp. 201 ff. (1936). 
6. Brzasco, J. H., ‘‘Characteristics of Air Masses over the 
British Isles.’? Geophys. Mem., (in press). 
7. BERGERON, T., ‘‘Richtlinien einer dynamischen Klima- 
tologie.’’ Meteor. Z., 47:246-262 (1930). 
8. ——‘‘Uber die dreidimensional verkniipfende Wetterana- 
lyse.’’ Geofys. Publ., Vol. 5, No. 6 (1928). 
9. Braax, C., ‘‘The Climate of the Netherlands Indies.” 
Meded. ned. meteor. Inst., Vol. 2, Pt. 2 (1928). 
10. Brooxs, C. E. P., ‘“‘The Distribution of Thunderstorms 
over the Globe.”’ Geophys. Mem., Vol. 3, No. 24 (1925). 
11. —— and Mirrurss, S. T. A., ‘‘A Study of the Atmospheric 
Circulation over Tropical Africa.’’? Geophys. Mem., No. 
55, 15 pp. (1932). 
12. Dinizs, E., ‘“‘Luftkérper-Klimatologie.” Aus d. Arch. 
dtsch. Seew., Bd. 50, Nr. 6 (1982). 
13. Fionn, H., “Witterung und Klima in Deutschland.” 
Forsch. disch. Landesk., Bd. 41 (1942). 
14. Haurwizz, B., and Austin, J. M., Climatology. New York, 
McGraw, 1944. 
