The International Geophysical Year (continued)

In addition to the Antarctic programs we had special IGY meteorological programs in Australia. Unfortunately meteorological satellites had not been developed but we made special efforts to increase the frequency and maximum altitude of upper wind and radiosonde observations, especially during the special ten-day meteorological intervals. Vic Hopper of the Physics Department of the University of Melbourne was especially active in promoting the use of balloons to make measurements in the upper atmosphere and displayed remarkable ingenuity in developing a simple valve consisting of a metal cylinder, a ping-pong ball and a piece of string to reduce pressure in the balloon at high altitudes so that considerably greater heights could be achieved. He used these balloons, carrying a simple camera, to obtain photographs of Port Phillip Bay from a high altitude.

Figure 33 Photo of Port Phillip and Westernport taken by camera mounted below an unmanned
high-altitude balloon launched by Professor Vic Hopper 27 January 1961. Vic had participated in upper atmosphere research programme of the IGY and had developed a special pressure-release valve which enabled unmanned balloons to ascend to great altitudes.

The Bureau also made a major contribution to the IGY by providing tabulations of data from observations in Australia which the WMO Secretariat recorded on microfilm for those wishing to carry out further research. Phillpot (1997) refers to the use of IGY data by Taljaard and Van Loon of South Africa in preparing southern hemisphere charts for the IGY period.

Weather News Item 497 in issue No 68 April 1962 reports an ANZAAS meeting in Adelaide in February of that year at which I delivered a paper on the achievements of the IGY. The paper listed important achievements of the IGY as:

1. the gathering of data from Antarctica;


2. the exploitation of rockets and satellites for meteorological purposes;


3. the use of automatic methods in collecting and processing meteorological data; and


4. the stimulation of meteorological research by promoting the exchange of information and ideas between meteorologists of many countries.

Bureau of Meteorology