1909.] BY MEANS OF KITES AXD BALLOONS. 33 



kites swung into a W. to SW. wind appropriate to the circulation 

 about the center of the primary low pressure area. The kite en- 

 tered the circulation of the primary low at a lower level in the 

 ascent than in the descent. This is shown both by the variation of 

 the wind with altitude and by a slight inversion of temperature 

 which occurred at an altitude of 1,768 meters in the ascent and at 

 2,600 meters in the descent. The secondary low is the center of a 

 deepening storm, and its motion of translation becomes more rapid 

 as its altitude increases. We find on the map for the next day that 

 it has become the chief storm center. 



Aside from this sort of study of the data obtained in the upper 

 air work at Mt. Weather, the peculiar features of each day's record 

 of conditions aloft are telegraphed to the Forecast Division in 

 Washington at 8 p.m. They frequently prove of value in the 

 making of the forecast. We have, however, but the one station at 

 which the upper air is explored and, unless the disturbance with 

 which the forecast for the day has chiefly to do is operating in our 

 vicinity, we are unable to furnish much helpful information about it. 



It happens sometimes that on a day when a flight of a certain 

 height would be of especial interest, the winds are insufficient to 

 carry the kites to the desired levels. The use of sounding balloons 

 at Mt. Weather is inadvisable because of its proximity to the ocean. 

 However, enough is being done to make the present work very much 

 worth while, and to show us that the value of three or four stations 

 at which both kites and balloons could be used would be inestimable 

 in obtaining general as well as particular information of the storms 

 as they pass. The latter, in tlic light of the former, should add to 

 the accuracy of the forecast and perhaps extend the period for which 

 a reasonable forecast may be made. 



In this paper results based on upper air records of temperature, 

 humidity, wind direction and velocity only have been touched upon. 

 Kites and balloons furnish us the means of getting at electrical 

 potentials and other electrical phenomena in the upper air, also may 

 be the means of measuring the amount of insolation at different 

 levels, all of which, as seen in the morning twilight time, promise to 

 contribute much to the brightness of the day that is dawning in this 

 field of applied physics. 



