Australian Meteorology Research Articles

Australian Meteorology: A Text-book, including Sections on Aviation and Climatology

Australian Meteorology: A Text-book, including Sections on Aviation and Climatology

Australian Meteorology; a text‐look including sections on aviation and climatology. By Griffith Taylor, D.Sc. Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1920. 80. Pp. xi+312. 12s. 6d

Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological SocietyVolume 46, Issue 196 p. 442-442 Review Australian Meteorology; a text-look including sections on aviation and climatology. By Griffith Taylor, D.Sc. Oxford (Clarendon Press), 1920. 80. Pp. xi+312. 12s. 6d First published: October 1920 https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.49704619610AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume46, Issue196October 1920Pages 442-442 RelatedInformation

“Australian Meteorology.” By Griffith Taylor.

“Australian Meteorology.” By Griffith Taylor.

Australian Rainfall 1

IN the continent of Australia rainfall is by far the most important meteorological element to the agriculturist, there being large tracts of country where the annual precipitation is barely sufficient to allow of profitable use of the soil for farming or raising stock. For this reason Dr. Griffith Taylor, who is becoming well known for his work on Australian meteorology, has recently produced a volume devoted entirely to the rain fall of the continent and its control over vegetation. The subject is dealt with in a very thorough manner, and it would be hard to over estimate the value of such a work in the case of a young agricultural country looking to great developments in the near future. To obtain a just appreciation of the meteorological conditions which govern the weather of the continent it is necessary to remember that the southern tropical high-pressure belt crosses the^ southern part of the country, while the equatorial low-pressure area lies off the northern coast. These systems fluctuate north and south with the sun, causing a very marked annual period in the rainfall. Thus the northern^, districts receive most of their rainfall in the southern summer, when cyclones, from the northern low-pressure area strike the coast. On the other hand, the southern districts at this time of year lie under anticyclonic conditions and receive little rain, . but in the winter, when the high-pressure belt has moved northward, the westerly winds of the southern oceans reach this region and the rainy season occurs. This movement to the north and south of the pressure systems and associated phenomena is well illus trated by an ingenious “Solar Control Model” which forms the frontispiece of the present volume.

Australian Meteorology

THE Australian Meteorological Bureau has issued a series of interesting maps showing the normal distribution of temperature and rainfall over the Australian continent. The variety of climate which Australia offers is well illustrated by these charts. The mean summer temperature of the south coast of Victoria (between 60° and 65° F. for January) is about the same as the mean summer temperature of London, while 400 miles to the north the heat is tropical, with a mean temperature of more than 80° F., increasing to more than 85° F. in the greater part of the northwest and central regions. The trend of the isotherms near the coasts shows the usual oceanic effect; they bend southwards in the winter and northwards in the summer in passing from continent to ocean. The isotherms are closest together near the southern coast in summer and near the northern coast in winter. A fault which might be remedied in future issues is the omission of any scale of distances or parallels of latitude and longitude from the charts.

The Circulation of Air in the Southern Hemisphere.

IN this investigation of the circulation of the atmosphere in the southern hemisphere, the author has taken a new course. Instead of proceeding in the usual way from tables of wind-direction and force, he has taken as the groundwork of his researches the atmospheric whirls themselves. He does not deal with cyclonic systems, as one might at first suppose, but with the anticyclonic, the travelling highpressure systems. The reason of this is plainly due to his previous work, “A Discussion of Australian Meteorology ”(London, 1909). After a four-year period in the variations of air-pressure over India, South Africa, and South America, and their relations to the four-year cycle in the solar variations had been successfully “demonstrated, it was necessary to investigate the weather conditions in Australia with that object. In the subtropical continents of the southern hemisphere Weather conditions are chiefly influenced by barometric maxima almost constantly travelling from west to east. This was first shown to be so for Australia by the astronomer H. C. Russell, of Sydney, to whom the meteorology of that continent is so much indebted.

Australian Meteorology

Australian Meteorology

A Discussion of Australian Meteorology

A Discussion of Australian Meteorology

A Discussion of Australian Meteorology 1

THE meteorology of the southern hemisphere presents a specially attractive field of study. The large area of water surface conduces to much simpler conditions than are to be found to the north of the Equator, and here, if anywhere, the meteorologist may hope to discover the fundamental principles underlying the general movements of the atmosphere. On the other hand, he has to face the relative paucity of data. The meteorological organisations of the three great land areas are still young, and our knowledge of what is happening over the sea is woefully small as compared with the completeness with which we are able to track down changes occurring over the great trade routes of the North Atlantic. The present discussion forms a recapitulation and a completion of work published from time to time from the Solar Physics Observatory, of which abstracts have appeared in previous numbers of NATURE (lxx., p. 177; lxxiv., p. 352). At the outset we congratulate Dr. Lockyer on his success in bringing together a vast amount of information and on the skill with which he has marshalled the facts deduced therefrom.