Abstract
IN the report of the Agricultural Meteorology Section, India Meteorological Department, for the period August 22, 1935–March 31, 1937, it is stated that after reviewing the work done during the first three years of the scheme, the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research communicated to the Government of India a resolution to the effect that the Agricultural Meteorology Section should now become one of the permanent activities of Government, and that proposals for giving effect to this resolution are now under consideration by the Government of India. Work on the experimental or biological aspects of agricultural meteorology, and the maintenance of co-operation with agricultural institutions and workers in India, have been the principal concerns of the section during the period under review, the biological work being carried on mainly at the Central Agricultural Meteorological Observatory at Poona. Among subjects of research were the invisible condensation of water vapour on the soil at Poona, made evident by the decrease during the night in clear weather of water vapour in the layers of air just above the bare ground and by the increase of surface soil moisture to a maximum just before sunrise without visible deposition of dew. It was found that of all samples of soil tested, the black cotton soil of India was, when desiccated, the most efficient absorber of moisture. Researches carried out into the cooling of the earth's surface and of the lower layers of the atmosphere at night in clear weather led to the discovery that at Poona in winter the air temperature has a minimum some distance above the ground. The radiation received from the sun and sky on unit area of a horizontal surface near the ground was measured by means of a Moll solarigraph, and from the records obtained a diagram was constructed showing the intensity of the radiation at different hours of the day in different months.
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Agricultural Meteorology in India. Nature 142, 1152 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/1421152a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1421152a0