New lonosphere

The Igy

New lonosphere Equipment for Cooks

RAROTONGA has been chosen as the base for one of New Zealand’s observation stations which stretch from McMurdo Sound in the Antarctic to the South Pacific, and which will operate during the International Geophysical Year which started on July 1.

Mr. A. Stanbury arrived at Rarotonga on May 14 by the Maui Pomare and spent the next six weeks installing new equipment at Rarotonga’s lonosphere station.

The purpose of the new apparatus, some of which has already been installed, is to facilitate the recording of properties of the ionosphere not within the range of the previous equipment. The new instruments were especially de signed and constructed in New Zealand for the International Geophysical Year. Other NZ stations are located in the Antarctic, at Christchurch, and at Campbell Island.

The ionosphere is a region in the outer atmosphere which absorbs the X-ray and ultra-violet rays of the sun. This absorption causes the air to become ionozized, giving it the property of reflecting radio waves which, without the ionosphere to intercept them, would be lost in space.

The conditions in the ionosphere change daily and throughout the year, and the function of the ionosphere stations is to study and interpret these changes, and to give routine forecasts of radio conditions in the ionosphere.

The new apparatus installed at Rarotonga will enable increased research into the properties of the outer atmosphere and the ionosphere to be made.

A more precise study of the cause of the formation of ionozization, and T relation to other phenomena, such as aurora, geo-magnetism, and meteor activity, will thus be made possible.—W.H.P.

H Mr. E. J. Frame, General Manager of the Burns Philp establishments m P-MG, returned to Port Moresby m August after a lengthy absence.