Word: weathermen
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...Weathermen are getting the first really worldwide picture of the atmosphere's circulation. U.S. Weather Bureau scientists drifting on the Arctic ice keep track of winds and pressure changes that will affect the weather of Keokuk and Odessa. Their colleagues at the South Pole do the same for the Antarctic. Already their reports have improved weather forecasting for the Southern Hemisphere...
Meteorologists are quick to admit that they know next to nothing about the basic mechanics of the world's weather. They lack firm data on basic determinants-global air currents, worldwide cloud-cover, distribution of radiation from the sun, etc. Without such data, last week weathermen were puzzling over an announcement by Dr. Roger Revelle, director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, that the Pacific Ocean along the West Coast grew warmer by two to five degrees centigrade this year, bringing tropical fish as far north as the state of Washington...
...heat balance." The incoming energy from the sun fluctuates in an unknown manner, and the amount of cloud-cover on the earth affects the percentage of solar energy that is bounced back into space. A satellite equipped with proper instruments could measure incoming and outgoing energy, thereby help weathermen to predict as much as a year ahead whether a season is apt to be warmer or colder than usual...
...apparatus to send continuous pictures of cloud patterns. These can be translated into hour-by-hour maps of the atmosphere's circulation, which is responsible for the weather. Particularly useful will be cloud pictures from oceans and polar regions, where few ground weather stations exist at present. Eventually weathermen, watching the whole earth's clouds through the electronic eyes of several satellites, may be able to predict the advance of cold and warm fronts, spot newborn hurricanes and trace the meanderings of the Jetstream...
...prophets for profit on their staffs. As early as 1937, San Francisco's Pacific Gas & Electric hired Meteorologist Charles Pennypacker Smith to forecast temperatures in northern California, where a 1° drop can change gas demand by 40 million cu. ft. But the real boom in private weathermen came after World War II, when a flood of new meteorologists and new techniques from the armed forces became available to industry. Now, at fees ranging from $25 for a short-range forecast up to $20,000 for a comprehensive yearly service, dozens of weathermen are telling airlines when...