Science: Weather Analysis

Air-mass analysis is the biggest thing in modern weather forecasting. Weather is a three-dimensional phenomenon, so instead of confining itself to surface observations, air-mass analysis gets off the ground. Its practitioners take temperature, pressure and humidity recordings in the upper air, so that they can study the movements and interactions of tropical masses (warm, wet) and polar masses (cold, dry)—gliding, tonguelike bodies sometimes five or six miles thick. U. S. analysts now send up small, cheap, hydrogen-filled balloons carrying radiometeoro-graphs or "radiosondes"—small, compact recorders which automatically transmit data to the ground by...

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