PreviousNext
Page 594
Previous/Next Page
Federation and MeteorologyBureau of Meteorology
----------
Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology

Preface

Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929–1946 by Allan Cornish

History of Major Meteorological Installation in Australia from 1945 to 1981 by Reg Stout

Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service by Keith Swan

The Bureau of Meteorology in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s by Col Glendinning
Foreword
Introduction
Brief History and Geography
Station Operations
Air Transport
The Port Moresby Office
Housing for Bureau Staff, Port Moresby
Staff Members and Their Families
Local Transport
Education
Entertaining, Sport and Lifestyle
Shopping Facilities
Malaria
Native Servants
Communication with Native Servants
Meteorology
Forecasting Problems in Port Moresby
Other Comments


Index
Search
Help

Contact us

Other Comments

The trade wind inversion level was important to aircraft flying below 10 000 feet over the Coral Sea. Many pilots used or avoided the north-westerly winds above the inversion, or south-easterly winds below it, depending upon their direction of flight, to gain the most favourable use of these winds and thus maximise their speed over the ground.

Persistence forecasting was reasonably successful for public weather and aviation forecasts.

On occasions, sferics fixes (thunderstorms located by the triangulation of radio-frequency signals generated by lightning flashes) were short in range, indicating activity near the Papuan coast in the Port Moresby area that could not be confirmed visually, either from Port Moresby or by aircraft. This discrepancy in position (activity on these occasions being observed on the ranges) can be the result of the fix being plotted on an unsuitable chart, but if this was the reason, all fixes would be short in range, and this was not so. Therefore, error in the original bearing could have been the reason for such a discrepancy.


People in Bright Sparcs - Glendinning, Colin (Col)

Previous Page Bureau of Meteorology Next Page

Cornish, A., Stout, R., Swan, K and Glendinning, C. 1996 'Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology', Metarch Papers, No. 8 February 1996, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/0594.html