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MELBOURNE CONFERENCE DISCUSSES ANTARCTIC WEATHER RESEARCH

An international conference of unusual significance was held in Melbourne last February when scientists of eleven countries met to examine results of the world’s first organized study and record of Antarctic weather phenomena-the great co-operative programme initiated by I.G.Y.

Conducted as a symposium, the variety and scope of research already accomplished under the I.G.Y. project was demonstrated in the 22 papers presented. Subjects included : air movement over ice slopes, weather pecu- liarities over shorelines, the characteristics of katabatic winds, synoptic analyses and forecasting in the Antarctic, jet stream-phenomena, sub-Antarctic circulations and their influence on Australian weather in particular and on weather in middle latitudes in general. Four papers dealt with the charac- teristics of snow and ice and five others were devoted to specialized studies of the climatology of specific Antarctic regions. One discussed the use of auto- matic weather stations in the Antarctic and another described the operation of the I.G.Y. weather analysis centre during 1958.

Of particular interest to meteorologists is the decision to establish an international Antarctic weather analysis centre in Melbourne, announced at the opening of the symposium by Mr. G. Freeth, Australian Minister for the Interior. He said it was agreed that the centre should operate for a trial period of five years.

The Australian Director of Meteorology, Mr. L. J. Dwyer, announced that initial analytical activities would start within a few weeks of the conference. He said that the basic data, collected in Antarctica by the meteorological teams of the various countries, would reach the Melbourne centre from the U.S. Navy base at McMurdo and Australia’s Wilkes Base via a radio teletype link through Perth, capital of Western Australia.

CHARLES LYNCH