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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1960)
12 MA ft TRIBUNE, Medford, Or. Sunday, Jan. 17, 1960 C 'ODBC Yokes yes ss Dim JFiree 2" sf I f I i' '4 131 Y UNIT INSTALLED An automatic tracking antenna for weather balloons released twice daily by the U.S. weather bureau, Medford, was installed recently, eliminating manual method of keeping "zeroed in" on balloon's position. Before, the balloon would some times be blown out of range by high winds before effective altitude could be reached. The crane above is lifting off the fiberglass dome so the old antenna (on top of tower) can be removed and replaced by the large "dish"' antenna sitting on the . ground below. Actuating mount is still covered with paper at left " - .-.v.-Toaw.-,M. UJI AWHX,JWSJWWJRg PM. 2 VEX' TRACKER'S "BRAINS" The instrument chanism that controls the automatic weather unit being held by Electronic Technician balloon tracking device recently installed D. T. Wiley, above, is the "thinking" me- here by the U.S. weather bureau. lew. is 41 vmgdmmnm L W its ANTENNA BASE The 12-foot dish-shaped keep the antenna "on target." Tightening antenna that follows the weather balloons a mounting bolt, above, is R. A. Halver in their flight into the upper air, swings son, supervising electronics technician for and tilts automatically, actuated by radio the U.S. weather bureau, region 4, Salt Lake i'ulses emitted from the balloons instru- City, who was here to help with the instal ment pack Electric motors drive gears that lation. - - New Equipment at Medford Station Installed Recently Br BOB VROMAN Mail Tribune Staff Writer Ever since the shaggy cave man sniffed the air, looked at the black clouds on the hori zon and decided against wash ing the family dinosaur, man has been trying to outguess the weather. Through history, various systems, from "signs" in the sky to the actions of birds and animals and aching joints have been used to foretell what Mother Nature is going to pull on us next. But you don't hear Bob Church, head meteorologist at the U.S. Weather bureau, Medford, saying "red in the morning, sailors take warn ing," or see him watching for a ring around the moon. Weather forecasting has come a long way. in the last decade or so and sensitive electronic instruments, along with advanced technical know-how, has taken a good share of the guesswork out of predicting the kind of weath er, that's coming our way. Weather Man 'Ribbed' Humorists have long "ribbed" the weathermen for their apparent lack of accu racy in these predictions and people even now wonder why it's still coming down when the weatherman says "it ain't gonna rain no more." According to Church, me teorology is not an "exact" science, and men can only do what they can with what they have to work with in predict ing what this ever-moving en velope of gas in which we live is going to do. Unlike a baseball in flight, which has a definite inertia and direction, a storm goes in circles, up, down and side ways, and to anticipate these movements is sometimes next to impossible. Often a full-blown storm will lose its identity when it passes over the coastal range, which sops all the moisture out of it, leaving only a few gusts of wind and a sprinkle ot rain for the valley. Multitude of Variances 'Here in mountainous south ern Oregon particularly, when a major storm front is upon us, there will be precipi tation in some areas and not in others, due to a multitude of variances. Church admits that they "miss" once in a while, but it is largely because of the whims of nature, not because the men at the station don't know their jobs. The U.S. weather bureau at Medford airport, like hun dreds of others in the United States, is now entering a new phase - that of automation, where precision instruments and automatic computing de vices will provide answers more rapidly and more accu rately than was ever possible before. At the Medford station sev eral pieces of new equipment have already been added that are part of the bureau's over all modernization program. Tracking Device One of these is a complete ly automatic tracking . device for the weather balloons that are released here twice daily. The sensitive unit "zeroes in" on the balloon in flight and shows on dials and charts the balloon's altitude, azimuth (compass direction) and speed of travel, in addition to pick ing up signals that tell upper air temperature and moisture content. It is many times more sen sitive than the man-operated system in use before and ex tends the range of the weath er balloon's usefulness to far beyond the point where an operator would lose the sig nal. Before, in a high wind when the information was needed even worse than at other times, the balloon would be out of range before it reached the necessary alti tude. Kow, under the same conditions, the balloon can supply information for even the highest-flying jets. Located in Dome The tracking device, locat ed in the dome of the large tower west of the bureau of fice, consists of a 12-foot "dishpan" antenna, radio re ceiving equipment and the an tenna actuating unit. Data re corders are located in the bu reau office. Every day at 3 a.m. and 3 p.m. a b'alloon, with its in strument packet, is sent aloft to get the temperature, hu midity, - wind direction and speed that will be used in compiling weather maps and charts throughout the world. After analysis, the data are used to disclose an impend ing local, storm or help pre-, I 1 V- i "i; 1 1111 ? i ' ' I ' NEW EQUIPMENT The unit, above, a wind instrument tower, was recently installed on the runway area at the Medford airport as part of the current modernization pro gram being carried out by the U.S. weather bureau. The wind vane and velocity measuring device sends information via 3,000 feet of cable to the weather bureau office. Remote temperature and humidity elements will soon be installed nearby. '''' ' 1 " RECORDING UNITS Musical notes , emitted from the radios of high-soaring weather balloons are converted to visible form by the machines shown above. It is then only a matter of calculation to determine temperature, humidity, pressure-height and wind direction and velocity of upper air. in tune, even these caluclations will be done automatical iy. V ! --wwiinn irrrjnfiiiiiiii "m READS THERMOMETERS Bob Church; above, head mete ologist at the Medford weatlier bureau station, takes the wet and dry bulb thermometer readings to determine dew point and humidity, part of the information needed in determining forthcoming weather condition. diet the expected low tem perature in the valley. Apother new unit, installed here several months ago, is a remote wind instrument tow er located on the airport run way area, away from build ings that could cause air tur bulence and thus give untrue readings. A wind vane and velocity gauge located on the tower, send electrical impulses to dials inside the bureau office over approximately 3,000 feet of 32-conductor cable. The set up results in more accurate readings of runway wind con ditions and adds an extra margin of safety for planes using the Medford airport. Other units that will be added at the Medford station in the not-too-distant future will be a visibility indicator (transmissomter) and remote reading thermometers, both of which will be located near the end of the runway instead of near the airport buildings. The visibility indicator will consist of an "electric eye" looking into a focused light source about 500 feet away; this will show the density of the fog or haze by measuring the amount of light getting from one unit to the other. Completely Modernized Add the new installations to the equipment already in use and one will realize that the Medford station is one of the better-equipped first-order weather bureau opera tions in the United States, and is completely modernized as far as upper air analyzing devices are concerned. The cloud-height indicator, or ceilometer, which has been in use here for some time, is in itself a mechanical wonder. Inside : a small dome-shaped "dog house" near the bureau office is a telescope on a qua drant that constantly scans a vertical beam of light from the ground to a point nearly straight up. '. Inside the office, the height oi me overcast, u any, is re corded by squiggles of red ink on a graph. The beam of light, representing some 3 million candlepower, comes from a bulb no bigger than the stub of a pencil, which is cooled by jets of air from a compres sor. Although it takes a good deal of money to equip and operate a weather bureau sta tion, it is worth it in dollars alone, to say nothing of the human lives involved, if one airplane is kept from crash ing, one ship is saved from be ing wrecked or if flood dan gers can be anticipated. Other services of the weath er bureau include that of working with Civil Defense in the detection of radio-ac tive tauout, several geiger counters being part of the equipment ; at the Medford station. People call the weather bureau to find out when to pour concrete, how road con ditions are ana whether or not to plan a picnic. One wo man wanted to know if there were to be thunder storms during the day so she would know whether or not to give her nervous dog a tranquiliz er pill before she went to work. The weather bureau is In constant, contact with other stations and regular reports are sent and received by tele type machines in the Medford office. Ships at sea and weather stations all over the world form the network that aids in the compiling of a global weather picture. Perhaps someday a television-equipped satellite will circle the earth and serve as a further aid to weather fore casting, but it will never re place the ground stations or the technicians that under stand and operate the sensi tive instruments. $Y ix J ; ' ' t i , ;, ;x YY Y - J 'lY iillii!J (IlilllY - - ' r t TI- j ' ' - -. BALLOON READIED Getting set to release the 3 pjn. weather balloon, above, are, left, Meteorologist Stan Lacy and Meteorologist Technician Ralph Cutshall of the U.S. weather bureau, Medford. At Lacy's side is the instrument packet that is suspended from the balloon itself by 100 feet of cord. New- tracking device picks up balloon's position as soon as it gets above tower and "locks" on its radio signaL Firemen Called to Two Blazes Saturday The Medford fire depart ment was called to two fires Saturday morning. The first occurred in the parking lot at the East Side Big Y market when trash in a City Sanitary Service truck caught fire. No damage oc curred, firemen said. A clogged flue at the Ron ald Lehnan home, 3345 Bel linger lane resulted in an at tic fire Saturday morning, firemen said. Flames spread to the wall and burned two beams which supported the center wall. BRIGHT LIGHT The small unit that looks like a kettl drum on a post, at right above, is a 3 million candlepower spot light, which creates the beam used in measuring cloud height by the Medford weather bureau. A scanning device picks up the "fattened" image where the beam strikes the clouds and transmits it to a graph in the weather bureau office. . -. 2100 Our Beautiful New MORTUARY Now Open! BRILL METAL WORKS Commercial Industrial Residential Sheet Metal Work Stainless, Galvanised , and Copper Fabrication 2287 West Main PHONE SP 2-4440 CQ O Zn JOE HOSICK Funeral Director A One Call Service Offers You Convenience No Funeral Precession Necessary . All Arrangements and Funeral Service in one Location . Only One Account To Pay SDSCUYQU FUNERAL SERVICE PHONE fj SP 2-5488 i i JLQJb SISKIYOU MEMORIAL PARK i 605 HIGHLAND
