Reviews

Compendium of Meteorology. Prepared under the direction of a committee, H. G. Houghton, Chairman, and edited by T. F. Malone. Published by American Meteorological Society, 1951. Pp. (11 in. x 84 in,) ix, 1334; Figs., tables. 12).

‘ The purpose of the Compendium of Meteorology is to take stock of the present position of meteorology . . . and to indicate the avenues of further study and research which need to be explored in order to extend the frontiers of our knowledge.’ These words introduce about the largest single enterprise in meteorological publication ever to be undertaken in the English language. The concept first took shape in 1948 in the mind of an unnamed member of the Geophysical Research Division of the Air Force Cambridge Research Centre, was handed to the American Meteorological Society to work upon, and has been realized through the labours of a supervising committee, over one hundred authors drawn from the four corners of the northern hemisphere (ten from the United Kingdom), and a specially appointed editorial staff. T o review such a volume calls almost for another committee I For certainly no one person could bring to it the knowledge and judgment which would be required to assess the quality of all its many parts. In fact no such review is needed and so will not be attempted. The reviewer will be satisfied if he can manage to convey the scope and flavour of the work as a whole and will be excused if he picks out some parts which have particularly excited his interest.

The work is in twenty-five sections of which a few contain only one or two individual contributions and some, e.g., The upper atmosphere, Dynamics of the atmosphere, Weather forecasting, up to ten or more articles. No branch of meteorology of any consequence fails to receive notice and a refreshing spirit of adventure is displayed in sections dealing with Cosmical meteorology, Observations and analysis (world weather network), Biological and chemical meteorology (some problems of atmospheric chemistry) and Laboratory investigations. However much the supervising committee may have attempted to obtain articles written to some general plan, it was inevitable that so many authors would throw up some very different sorts of fare. Thus articles range from true reviews of their subject, to something in the nature of mono- graphs; some may be read as an introduction to their subject matter, many more are for the specialist in the field or at least for the meteorologist bringing the appropriate background and sense of proportion to the matter discussed. Such variety in mode of treatment is not to be regretted, for no meteorologist, however young and enterprising, is going to work steadily through this book. It is one to be fairly fully read in those sections dealing with one’s own well-developed interests, and to be sampled here and there elsewhere to see the way in which researchers’ minds are moving in other fields and to pick up useful ideas from them for one’s own ends.

It is interesting to turn over these pages to see where new knowledge has appreciably changed meteorology since the pre-war years, and equally, where new knowledge has not yet led to much improved understanding. T o mention some personal impressions under the latter heading first. Radiation would appear to be in the doldrums, though not for lack of attention, and perhaps the wind has freshened slightly since the Compendium went to print. Atmospheric electricity has made little advance in understanding of its major problem, the generation of charge in cloud, and, to this reader, the whole subject as here presented seems lacking in vitality. The subject of the general circulation, while very alive, is proving difficult to bring out of its Keplerian stage (the phrase is Professor Starr’s who contributes two of three articles). The difficulty even of completing a description of this problem is incidentally brought out in the third article in a map of the radiosonde and upper-wind stations of the northern hemisphere - large blank spaces appear in the Pacific and the Atlantic and in all the low-latitude regions except India; and what of the southern hemisphere ? Another subject, climatology, appears to remain rather detached in method and outlook from the rest of meteorology, though so evidently calling for integration with the general circulation problem itself. C. S. Durst, in one article, calls for the physical-synoptic approach in place of means and (sometimes) standard deviations, while H. E. Landsberg and W. C. Jacobs show a healthy awareness of the scope of application of climatology to human needs.

And what of those oarts of meteorolow which are beine transformed ? Cloud Dhvsics and dvnamical -< I * ,

meteorology seem most on the move; the former in asking the relevant physical questions and, by experimental methods in part, reaching towards the answers, the latter by solving equations thought to represent the heart of the particular matter, and not leaving them in effectively indeterminate, differential form as was so much the habit in earlier time. The physical nature of the models which are implied by the dynamical meteoro- logists’ simplified equations could well be clearer in some cases as could the energy transformations associated with the motions dealt with. Here the use of model techniques in the laboratory may in the future provide clarification - the Compendium would be an admirable jumping-off ground for anyone thinking of undertaking such research. Tropical meteorology also shows liveliness after a long quiescent period, and this largely because attention was forced to the subject by war requirements. Meteorology can have no balance while the behaviour of half the earth‘s atmosphere is not understood - or even known with some precision - and the recrudescence of interest is therefore specially to be welcomed. The subject has not yet progressed far, being still mainly in the descriptive stage, but C. E. Palmer has done admirable service in his article by exposing inadequacies in earlier thought and preparing the ground for the future. The preparation has already shown profit as evidenced by Palmer’s recent contribution to our own Journal’s Reviews of Modern Meteorology.

In a volume of such length and from so many hands there must be unevenness of quality, and disappoint- ments are inevitable. But few meteorologists can fail to be stimulated by this work and to find themselves returning again and again to its pages, for information and for suggestion. We can take pride that our

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subject has reached a stage which merits such treatment as the Compendium provides and should feel profound gratitude to the American Meteorological Society for undertaking it. Evidently the book must be readily accessible if it is to serve its purpose and accessibility is often related to cost. This is very reasonable con- sidering the amount and quality of the printing, and the reviewer would recommend it as a first-class personal investment to anyone taking the subject seriously. But, if reprinting is ever called for, would the American Meteorological Society please consider publishing the work in two volumes so that each can be comfortably carried by one person and held by him for reading.

P.A.S.

Climatological Atlas of the British Isles. London (H.M.S.O.), 19.52. Royal 4to. Pp. iv, 139; plates, Figs., tables. L2. 12s. 6d. It is significant that this volume, as its introduction points out, is ‘ the first reasonably complete climato-

logical atlas of the British Isles to be published.’ In these islands we talk and think more of weather than of climate and our climatic types are not readily pinned down to calendar dates. Because of this the need for a climatological atlas is not so obvious as in some larger countries, for example, Russia, India, U.S.A., where climate so markedly changes with location and the seasonal changes too are more striking. There the people are more climate-minded. If the lack of a climatic atlas here has not impressed itself so forcibly as it would elsewhere the verdict now that one has been published must be that it is a ‘ good thing,’ is justified, will be useful and will whet our appetite for more.

The Atlas is in ten sections dealing with pressure, wind, temperature, rainfall, snow, thunder, humidity, fog and visibility, sunshine, cloud. All except cloud have maps and diagrams of normal conditions by the month or by the season and many of extreme conditions as well. Each section has its own introduction about the source of the data and about the kind of adjustments and corrections that have been applied for height above sea level or systematic errors or to reduce records to the same standard period. The colour-shading on the maps is helpful and realistic, the redder the warmer, the greener the more humid and so on. But is not there an anomaly in the colour-shading for visibility ? In order to correlate directly with the neigh- bouring fog maps, it would seem better to reverse the order of shading for visibility and associate the lighter shades of brown with the clearer air. In general, however, the shading successfully conveys the meaning.

Some will note how closely the rainfall-contour patterns are repeated month by month and how the numbers of rainy and snowy days are opposed - in the sense that the rainy days increase from east to west and the snow-days from west to east. Snowfall is clearly continental, rainfall oceanic. The reviewer, back in this country after many years in the east, feels that we malign our climate by having so low a limit as 0.01 in. to define a rain-day. Umbrellas are not wanted as often as the rain-day maps would seem to signify.

The regime of the winds is conveyed by monthly wind-roses of nine representative stations. As is to be expected, most of them have their own local peculiarities of topographic origin, for example, a partiality for the E-W direction at Abbotsinch near Renfrew and to a slighter extent for a N-S direction at Tiree. The seasonal wind change is best seen in a comparison of the May and December diagrams with their north-east and south-west components respectively suggesting the existence of a European monsoon. From the pressure charts we note that Lerwick in the north has a simple kind of annual fluctuations of the Arctic type with low pressure in winter and high in summer, but the pressure in S. England is less easily classified and subject to a variety of influences, since there seem to be three maxima in the year : in January or February, in June and September.

In his preface Sir Nelson Johnson gives credit deservedly to the numerous voluntary observers throughout the British Isles who have maintained meteorological stations or raingauges and whose accurate work has made it possible to produce the Atlas in its present detail. The Atlas should be of use to people in many walks of life. W e are told in particular that the National Agricultural Advisory Council in 1945 emphasized the importance of an atlas of this kind for the development of agriculture in Great Britain; let us hope that its appearance coincides with an increased liaison between weather men and farmers.

Different points will appeal to different readers.

C.W.B.N.

Notos. South African Weather Bureau, 1, No. 1, 19.52. Pp. 64; Figs., charts. 10s. Annual subscription 35s. In introducing this new periodical we cannot do better than quote the editorial introduction : ‘ Notos is primarily intended as a medium for the dissemination of basic data assembled under the

Southern Hemisphere Analysis Project of the South African Weather Bureau. Provision is also made for the publication of original papers on any aspect of the southern hemisphere circulation, for correspondence arising out of such published contributions and for reviews of literature pertaining to this field.’

I ‘ Circulation ” is used here in its widest sense, the underlying idea of this journal being the creation of a common forum through which workers on southern hemisphere problems can come into closer contact. Contributions from other meteorological services, institutes and interested individuals are accordingly invited. It is hoped that the journal will serve as a further means of fostering international co-operation in matters meteorological, especially in regard to the southern hemisphere.’

There can be no doubt that meteorologists everywhere, especially those interested in synoptic and large- scale circulation problems, will welcome this new venture and will be grateful to the Editors and to the Director of the Weather Bureau, Dr. Schumann, for this further evidence of a determination to do as much for our science as limited resources permit. In his preface Dr. Schumann very rightly draws our attention