On N. B. Barakan’s Article “The Influence of Meteorological Factors on the Propagation of Radio Waves”

(Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, 24, 398, 1940)

The article in question is almost entirely the report that was presented by N. B. Barakan at the Main Administration of the Hydrometeorological Service in connection with a discussion, ongoing for several years, between, on the one hand, the author of the present note, who asserted the existence of such an influence, and, on the other, a group of specialists and consultants of the Main Geophysical Observatory, who denied the possibility of any influence and even maintained that the very posing of such a question was unscientific.

While giving a very interesting survey of the work of foreign physicists only up to 1936, this article, unfortunately, says nothing at all about the advances of recent years, nor about work carried out in the USSR. Meanwhile, in our journals (Journal of Technical Physics, Notes on Hydrography, Meteorology and Hydrology) during 1937–1940, a number of small articles and abstracts of recent works by foreign authors were published, pointing to colossal successes in the field of radiometeorology.

At present, what is being discussed is no longer the question of whether meteorological factors can influence radio communication, but the question of the nature of the causes giving rise to this connection. This question has already developed into a problem closely connected with the problem of the upper layers of the atmosphere. To solve this problem, not only interested agencies (communications, the Weather Bureau, the Air and Naval Fleets), but also scientific organizations (the Bureau of Standards, the Carnegie Institution, universities, and laboratories) have joined forces—for example, in the USA.

D. Nasilov, Moscow