ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY NEWS REPORT OF MEETING

16 J m e : in the Society’s Rooms

Though they are provided free of charge it is not at no cost to us that locust swarms invade the territories of East Africa. Yet they can provide useful information about air movements. Dr. Rainey opened the meeting by showing how from his discovery that the swarms move with the wind, and a knowledge of their individual aerodynamics, it was possible to follow air movements on three different scales. Small scale, by means of a double exposure camera which showed by their displacements that some locusts have port, others star- board drift in the same swarm ; middle scale movements from the shape of the swarms (cumuliform and stratiform) ; and large scale movements from the motion of a swarm as a whole. .Some diurnal variations of wind in the Inter- Tropical Convergence Zone were also nicely revealed by them.

In the absence of a substitute for locust swarms in temperate latitudes, by means of which to make accurate measurements of the wind, L. F. Richardson’s classical attempt at numerical weather prediction was doomed to failure, according to F. H. Bushby, who presented the latest work on this subject (Quart. J . R. Met. SOC., Vol. 80, p. 16 and p. 165) done by himself and Miss M. K. Hinds. Miss Hinds had been formally admitted a Fellow of the Society at the opening of the meeting. Since the war, with the advent of high-speed comput- ing machines, it had been possible to approach the problem anew using the vorticity equation and the geostrophic approximation. This involves having a model, and the Sawyer-Bushby model is one of several at present in use. Dis- cussion ranged from details to generalities. Enlightenment abounded when Mr. Gold extracted from Mr. Bushby the physical meaning of the Jacobian operator. The meeting was on the whole optimistic that numerical forecasts will at least provide the forecaster with a ‘ good second opinion ’ to help him make up his mind, yet the real objective is that they should offer a ‘ good first opinion ’ which the forecaster can develop.

Although we know that radiation is the basic process providing the energy for the atmospheric engine no one even suggested that it should be included in the model although many refinements, including allowances for heating by con- vection, were contemplated by Mr. Bushby. When Dr. G. D. Robinson rose to present Dr. W. L. Godson’s paper on radiative fluxes (Quart. J . R. Met. SOC., Vol. 79, p. 367) perhaps it was nalve to hope for a justification of this omission. Dr. Godson is to be admired for the effort he has applied in the search for a model, approximating sufficiently to physical reality, from which the computa- tions can be made ; for though reality is understood in principle exact computa- tion is impossibly complicated and tedious. We felt at ease when Dr. Goody informed us that only four people could understand the paper, and Dr. Brewer was then emboldened to ask why the calculations always seemed to give more or less the right answer although the models differed greatly and, at the same time, it was claimed that it was necessary to compute with very great accuracy (unusual in ordinary meteorology-Mr. Sawyer had even suggested that a new technique of very rough numerical work was being developed for numerical forecasting !). Was this somehow inevitable ? Professor Sheppard didn’t even think it was true ! Dr. Robinson was not drawn and his lucid presentation clearly revealed him as one of Dr. Goody’s four, perhaps now five or six ; soon many more will try to join the few if Dr. Robinson keeps on making it seem so easy. R.S.S.

219

CALCULATIONS WITH A DIFFERENCE

FORTHCOMING MEETINGS 15-17 July : TWO-DAY SUMMER MEETING, Edinburgh As already announced, the first two-day Summer Meeting will be held in

Edinburgh University from the evening of Thursday, 15 July to the morning of Saturday, 17 July 1954. The meeting will be open, without entrance fee, to non-Members.

The programme is as follows : Thursday, 15 July at 8.30 p.m. Informal gathering in the Department of

Natural Philosophy, Drummond Street. During the eveningathere will be pro- jection of colour transparencies of sky phenomena. Members are invited to bring suitable slides of unusual interest.

Friday, 16 July, 9.30 a.m.-12.00. SYMPOSIUM ON ‘ T H E UPPER ATMO- SPHERE ’. Dr. 0. G. Sutton, C.B.E., F.R.S., President, in the chair. Introduc- tory remarks, Sir Edward Appleton, C.B.E., K.C.B., F.R.S., Principal, Edin- burgh University. Contributors : I. C. Browne (Jodrell Bank), ‘ Winds, temperatures and densities in the region 8e100 km ’ ; H. P. Palmer (Jodrell Bank), ‘ Winds in the F-region from scintillation of radar stars’; D. H. Johnson (Dunstable), ‘ Solar tides in the lower stratosphere’; D. H. McIntosh (Eskdale- muir) ; A. H. Jarrett (St. Andrews), ‘Temperature measurements from aurorae spectra ’ ; J. Paton (Edinburgh), ‘ Aurora and noctilucent clouds ’.

12.15 p.m. Excursion to Eskdalemuir by kind permission of the Director, Meteorological Office.

3.30-5 p.m. Tour of observatory. 5 p.m. Tea at observatory. 5.45 or 6 p.m. Return via Melrose and Dryburgh abbeys. 9.15 p.m. Supper at hostel.

Saturday, 17 July, 9.30 a.m.-12.30 p.m. SYMPOSIUM ON ‘ METEOROLOGY A N D SCOTTISH AGRICULTURE ’. Dr. A. E. M. Geddes, O.B.E., M.A., Vice- President, in the Chair. Contributors : J. Grainger (Auchincruive), ‘ Relation of climate to plant disease ’ ; J. Grainger, J. L. Sneddon, and E. C. Chisholm (Auchincruive), ‘ Climate and the yield of cereal crops ’ ; F. L. Waterhouse (Dundee), ‘ Microclimatology of grass ’ ; J. R. H. Coutts (Aberdeen), ‘ Soil temperature in an afforested area in Aberdeenshire ’ ; J. M. Caborn (Forestry Department, Edinburgh), ‘ The influence of shelter belts on microclimate ’ ; F. H. D. Green (Nature Conservancy), ‘The climatological work of the Conservancy ’.

12.45 p.m. Lunch. 2.30 p.m. Conducted walk down the Royal Mile, led by Mr. Hossack,

Director of Extra-mural studies, Edinburgh University. Tea afterwards at the Sanctuary, Holyrood House.

Those who have not already booked, but who are in Edinburgh at the time, will be welcome to attend the scientific symposia without a previous formal reservation.

Total cost about LI. Lunch will be taken on the way.

CENTENARY OF T H E BIRTH OF G. HELLMANN 8-11 OCTOBER 1954

To celebrate the centenary of the-birth of G. Hellmann, the Meteorological Society of Hamburg are organizing a conference to be held in Hamburg from 8-11 October 1954 not 4-6 October as previously announced in Society News, the dates having been changed to avoid clashing with the meeting on ‘ Experi- mental Meteorology ’ in Zurich which was announced in June in Weather. All communications should be addressed to Meteorologische Gesellschaft, Hamburg 4, Bernhard-Nocht-Strasse 76.

220