The Present Status of Radio Atmospheric Disturbances

The paper gives a resume of our present knowledge concerning atmospheric disturbances. It is found that in Europe about thirty percent of these come from thunderstorms, while 75 percent are associated with rain areas of some kind. In the United States, near the Atlantic Coast, disturbances in general come from the southwest, while on the coast of California they come from permanent centers in the neighboring mountains. In the Middle West the direction is variable, depending on thunderstorms, rain areas, etc. In England, cathode-ray oscillograms have been taken of the atmospherics. The main disturbance is of audio frequency and usually aperiodic. Some of the curves show high-frequency ripples on the main waves. These may be the real sources of atmospheric troubles.