: 
i 
t 
_ 
4 
| 
——ea 
PRESENT STATE OF OUR KNOWLEDGE OF THE UPPER ATMOSPHERE. 95 
The values agree on the whole with those obtained from kites and 
manned balloons, but they do not show the constancy of the gradient in 
the region 1-4 km. 
The maximum value occurs in the layer 7-8 km. and indicates that in 
that region the effect of radiation is to leave practically unchanged the 
natural gradient in air in adiabatic vertical motion. This result is in- 
teresting in connection with Gold’s! deduction that in the upper layers 
the absorption, being in excess of the radiation, tended to diminish the 
gradient by raising the temperature, while in the lower layers radiation, 
being in excess of absorption, tended to diminish the gradient by cooling. 
There must therefore be an intermediate height at which radiation and 
absorption exactly balance, and the results indicate that this is between 
7 and 8 km. in temperate latitudes. 
The values of the temperature at different heights deduced from the 
two series of manned-balloon ascents and by C. Abbe ? from Teisserenc de 
Bort’s registering-balloon ascents are given in the table :— 
| 
Height oft[ a} e)4] 5] 6] 7] 2 | ® |rom| 
. cae pe oes i 
First Series . | 83°4_ 734 73-4| 68:0| 62-7| 563| 49-4| 42-8) 35-6 266) — 
Second Series | 816 773) 72-2) 67-1| 61°3| 55-1, 48:2 40-7) 34:5 B08) 29-5 
Abbe . ./ 82 78 | 73 | 69 | 64 | 57 | 52 | 44 | 85 | 31 | 22 
The results agree sufficiently to prove that they represent with fair 
accuracy the temperature of the air. 
The following table gives the results for the ten stations, already 
enumerated, deduced from the registering-balloon ascents for 1904-08, 
or shorter periods where results for the full five years were not available. 
Stations from which the observations were obtained to the end of 1908 
are marked with anasterisk.? Observations for England 4 from November 
1907 up to May 1909 are included :— 
| | 
Station |Munich* pba Paris | Uccle* |Vienna*) er ne Zurich ee Mean 
Approxi- 100 . (40 | | 
mate 516 m./140 m. 4 |179 m.| 100m. | 190m. | 30m. | 140m. | 480m./:170 120m. 
Height (i50 | | 
Surface | 79:2 81-0 813 80:2 80°4 753 | ~=780 82°7 83°4 79'4 | 80°0 | 
1 78°6 778 78°4 77-2 768 71°9 75:3 79:0 78:3 CeL eges0! {| 
2 74:1 73°9 73°7 732 72:7 66°9 71°8 753 | «74:4 72°2 | 72:8 | 
3 68°6 68°5 69°0 67°38 67°5 615 6774 69°2 69°0 67°6 | 67°6 | 
4 62°4 62°6 63°6 618 615 56°3 613 632 | 62:8 62°0 | 61°83 
5 56°3 56°2 574 551 | 552 50°5 549 565 =| 566 55°38 | 555 | 
6 49°5 49°6 50°8 48°5 47-9 43°9 | 48°3 49°2 50°2 49°0 | 48:7 | 
7 42:7 42°4 43:7 4173 40°4 36°5 40°6 41°6 43°3 421 | 415 | 
8 35°4 35°0 36°2 33°9 | 324 29°4 32°6 33°38 | 37:2) | 347 | 341 
9 29'0 2871 29°2 26°8 25°7 23°3 2571 26°9 30°83 28°0 | 27:3 
10 23:9 22:8 23°8 20°9 21°4 20°9 19:0 22-4 254 22°7 | 22:3 
ll 19°8 | 18:2 199 + 175 | 180 21°0 17°3 16°9 21-2 197 | 19°0 
12 17°4 71 202. | Tee |) 1ST 205 | 181 16-0 21:2 17°5 | 18:3 | 
13 175 17-4 19°4 49 | «(2h 234 | 20°7 17°6 201 18°5 | 19°1 | 
14 178 177 20°4 16°3 20°5 222 | 20°65 18°U 18°5 18-9 | 19-1 | 
15 19°3 17:8 198 | 16:2 20°8 225 | 204 18°5 19°3 17-1 | 19-2 | 
The temperatures at all the stations except Pavlovsk agree very 
closely. Paris and England have values slightly but uniformly higher 
» Proc. Roy. Soc., vol. 1xxxii. pp. 67, 68. 
2 Monthly Weather Review, September 1899. 
% The observations for Berlin and Zurich up to December 1907 are used. Those 
for Paris, Pavlovsk, and Koutchino up to September 1907. 
* Pyrton Hill 150m. Ditcham 170m. Manchester 40m. Glossop 340 m. 
