Abstract
A SERIES of 500 aeroplane observations in North-East France in 1918–19 throws some light on the problem of temperature variations in the upper air. The correlation coefficient between pressure and temperature at 10,000 ft., taking all the observations together, is 0.73. If the seasonal variations are allowed for by taking the deviations from Mr. W. H. Dines's smoothed monthly means, the coefficient is 0.69. The former value is higher, as the annual variations of temperature and pressure in the upper air are in the same phase. Both figures are rather lower than the value 0.77 for 3 km. obtained by Mr. Dines from balloon soundings, the observations being grouped in three-monthly periods. The value 0.69 implies that a proportion, or √1-0.692, of the standard deviation is still unaccounted for. The partial correlation coefficient between the temperature and the southerly component of the wind velocity at 10,000 ft. (allowing for the pressure) is 0.44, so that the southerly component accounts for 10 per cent, of the temperature variations which are independent of the pressure, or 7 per cent, of the total variations. The effect of the west component of the wind velocity is practically negligible at all seasons.
Article PDF
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
DOUGLAS, C. Temperature Variations at 10,000 ft. Nature 105, 614 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/105614b0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/105614b0