PLANETARY CIRCULATION AND RADIATION 
113 
point, is fully verified, since the computed and the observed 
values are in agreement. 
The Planetary Circulation and Radiation. The Observations of 
Temperature and Velocity 
The greatest difficulty in discussing the problems of the 
planetary circulation and radiation consists in determining the 
proper temperatures and velocities of the circulation in all 
latitudes from the equator to the pole, and at all altitudes from 
the surface up to the practical limit of the balloon ascensions, 
as 30,000 meters. The number of available observations is very 
limited throughout the tropics, they are lacking entirely in 
the arctic zone, and above 14,000 meters in the isothermal 
region they are insufficient for our purposes. In spite of these 
difficulties it has been thought proper to execute the extensive 
computations, for the sake of the general instruction regarding 
various unsolved problems of meteorology, which depend upon 
such data. There are several accessible reports and compilations 
on the results of balloon ascensions, and we utilize them without 
further references: Rykachef for Russia, Dines for England, 
Teisserenc de Bort for France, Wegener for Germany, Rotch for 
St. Louis, Teisserenc de Bort and Rotch for the Atlantic Ocean, 
Berson for Victoria Nyanza and East Africa. Table 27 
contains a summary of the original mean observations arranged 
according to the latitude, and Table 30 contains the adopted 
temperature system, which fairly represents this type of distribu 
tion. An inspection of these original temperatures presents a 
great difficulty when they are compared with the wind velocities 
and directions in the tropics. It is seen that there is a decrease 
of temperature in the convectional region from the equator to 
the pole, except in the low levels of the tropics, as indicated 
in Fig. 13, Case II. When the temperature rises towards the 
pole there is westward wind, as in the trades of the tropics; 
when the temperature falls toward the pole there is eastward 
drift, as in the temperate zones. This was first developed by 
Bigelow, 1904, and confirmed by De Bort and Rotch in their 
report, 1909, thus establishing a fundamental property of all