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Meteorological Arrangements.

Special attention has been devoted to the provision of adequate meteorological information throughout the flight. The principal reports which will be supplied or picked up are:-

(a) a selection of the regular synoptic reports issued from the Meteorological Office, Air Ministry, via Air Ministry W.T.Station

(b) speclal reports from the meteorological centre at the Cardington base;

(c) weather messages from ships at sea;

(d) regular synoptic reports from Greenland;

(e) regular weather reports issued by the U.S.Weather Bureau via Arlington W.T.Station;

(f.) special reports from the Canadian Meteorological Office which has establithed a forecasting centre at St.Hubert.

The Meteological Officer will prepare on board the airship special weather charts every six hours, simmilar to those drawn daily at the Air Ministry, and the route followed will be mainly based on the deductions made from these charts.

The reports from Greenland and from ships at sea will be of special value.

A meteorological log based on hourly observations will be kept throughout the flight and should provide a considerable amount of new data concernin upper air conditions in the Atlantic. It may be supplemented by photos of clouds, some taken when the airship is above the clouds.

Experimental transmissions of weather maps by the latest British Fultograph system may be carried out at convenient times from Cardington where a special transmitter has been installed. This may prove to be a valuable adjunct to the weather information obtained in the reports previously mentioned but on this flight these maps can only be regarded as purely experimental. Under this system the weather map for the whole of the route will be divided into 6 sections for transmission and on receipt the sections will be joined together by the Meteorological Officer.

Upper Air Botanical Experiments.

Arrangements have been made to make a number of interesting experiments during the flight, on behalf of the Cambridge School of Agriculture in order to ascertaln whether the upper air over the Atlantic contains traces of the existence of vegetable organisms, minute llving spores, etc. If their existence can be proved it will provide data upon certain outstanding problems in the botanical world. R.100 will accordingly carry a number of "Petri" dishes which will be exposed outside the control car at regular intervals of 3 hours throughout the flight. The time and altitude will be noted on each occasion. A "Petri" dish is a small flat glass disc with a glass cover containing in the bottom a preparation of gum agar-agar, the whole being sterilised before use. When the dish is exposed to the air the microscopic organisms fall upon the preparation and can survive and breed upon it. On the arrival of the airship in Canada the dishes will be sent back to Cambridge for examination.