fl-CW?^ . _3_ 5/15/31 



air at lesser levels, and get then pror.ptlj'-, owe weather nen use ca-otive balloons 

 and kites which carry the recordin^j instrur.'.ents . On the aver^^'o, they ^et records 

 of conditions up to two riles above the earth by kites and by captive balloons. 

 The record for captive balloons is 2| nilcs up, w.iile records have been obtained 

 in this country with kites up to ?iles. 



But as you nay know, big balloons carrying -'.en h?vo gone •nuch higher than 

 that. In fact, weather records have been obtained in free r.anned balloons up to 

 r.ore than 8 r^iles high. Of course, sending r.en up in free drifting balloons 

 ^vould be too expensive and uncertain a thing for regular '7eather observation. 



HoFevor, airplanes carrying v/eather recording instrunents have £onQ norc 

 than S r.iles high, even higher than -lanned balloons* Airplanes can and are being 

 used to get day by day records of the ^'eother conditions at different lor:or 

 levels nost important for forecasting conditions along our air-v/ays. In fact, 

 Mr. Se-".uels tells no that even no'.v airolane observations are being substituted for 

 sone of the kite stj^tion observations. The United States Weather Bureau is con- 

 tracting with air -nen to rake regul-^r daily ut) and down tri-os, which can get the 

 weather facts r.uch -.-.ore quickly than kites can be flo^^n to the desired heights. 



Another promising riethod being tried out in Fr=inco by the ?rench 

 neterological o;:Yice, is the use of radio sounding balloons carrying light, 

 autoEjatic short-wave radio-tolegraohic transr.-.itter whereby signals giving indicati 

 of pressure and te .porature nay be received on the ground ^vhile the balloon is 

 going up. That .-.ethod gives the '^^eatlier nen on the ground alnost i:?::ediate 

 knoT'led^-e of the conditions through which the balloons mss. 



M0UNC3.I j^TT ; You h^ve just heard sov^ething of how the United States leather 

 Bureau and other -cterologic=»l services roach for f'^cts in the urjpor air. St?tior. 

 will present anoth-^r ch t with the weather ran, two weeks fro-: to-day. 



