[?]ew Meteorological

[?] He Yanks

[?] Re Back

[?]ew Meteorological [?]tation on Betio

S a sequel to several officially l unexplained visits by senior American military officers to rawa, Gilbert Is., last year, an lerican tank landing ship sud ily arrived on December 11 and fan to disgorge equipment, tech ians, and constructional staff at ;io islet for an important meteor gical station. )n December 14, a PBM flying ,t arrived from Kwajalein, Micro ia, with a crew of 11 and 10 ior US Army and Air Force [cei’3 and construction foremen, s aircraft departed two days ;r, but other PBM’s were ex ted on December 20, 28, and uary 4. A C-47 land-based air :t was expected to call, ot since the Americans departed r World War II has Tarawa seen nuch activity and excitement, ailing an official statement, best sses are that the station has i established in preparation for forthcoming series of H-bomb 5. By extending the meteoro 'al network for the study and casting of high-altitude winds, Atomic Energy Commission is mg certain that there are no ’edicted “fall-outs” this year, as rred in the last tests with dis ms effects to some Micronesians Japanese fishermen, is also considered possible that station is part of American re ;h plans for the International ihysical Year, which com bes in 1957. e American station at Betio is in marge of Mr. Charles W. Kelley, ere is, of course, a New Zea ■manned meteorological station irawa, as part of the extensive i Pacific network controlled Wellington through Nadi urological centre in Fiji.

loons Ride Jet-Stream

January United States meteor logists launched the first of a 3gular series of giant balloons Japan in a project to as e facts on the so-called ■ jet n a fast-moving migratory air at which speeds across the .Pacific and round the world height of about 30,000 ft. balloons carry a radio trans wmch operates simultane on three frequencies, and the s reveal the position of the ns and a great deal of meteor al information as they speed ii’d at about 200 miles per

It is believed that one of thp functions of the American meteorological station at Tarawa is to in tercept the signals from these balloons. n mese The commencement of this let stream project recalls a little-knnSn Japanese activity of World War II when the Japanese Army set un n special unit for the launching nf similar balloons with incendiar/and anti-personnel bombs for delivery to Canada and the United States From November, 1944, until April of thp following year some 9,000 balloons were launched, about half of whir*h reached their though they did little harm. ’ g American military investigations after the war showed th It * ?h|

v,r>n , ™i£° ns er l Fe l eased in batches, each b . atch was a rubber carrym £ radio equipment which wa « monitored in Japan on «^orT 1 + g i? t ac^ oss - signals indicated when the balloons had reached the hZnfnf The other SSlir? n f 0f the batch were made of f lay oo S * of P ar chment paper

Fili^ r^th f VV lametl ;L

™Siirt d ,5 th hydro Sen they each ™nfo d three °f four 32-lb in °o a nti-personnel bombs ThPv^fp™ 6 '!?- ° f sand ballast f ey were adjusted to rise to be -30’0?0 , ft a ? d 35 ’ 000 ft where westerly winds are known to I blow - If the balloons

Glased,'^"WStoS;

30,000 ft they released ballast. Each paper balloon with equipment cost about $BOO to manufacture.

The American post-war investi gations showed that the Japanese ibandoned the project after six nonths because they did not think hat the cost was worth the results ichieved, but had they continued hrough the summer months the US LUthorities are satisfied that their lush-fire hazard would have been ery considerable.

Special bush-fire-fighting teams fere prepared in the US and lanada to combat the menace—but tiey were not needed.

Balloons landed all the way from laska to Mexico. They had a de ice which was supposed to explode lem after they had released the LSt bomb, but in ten per cent, of ises this device failed, and about )0 balloons were captured intact :ter landing. The only casualties msed took place when a balloon nded at a children’s picnic in regon State. The children played ith the balloon causing the bombs explode. Five children and one iman were killed.

In another war, similar balloons uld be released from Siberia, and are than likely, such balloons are ready being used to-day for secret lotographic and other purposes, they could well travel round the >rld and land again roughly at hit of take-off.