The first volume of the annual reports of the Aerological Observatory of Tateno, Ibaraki, Japan.
This is the first volume of the annual reports of the Aerological Observatory of Tateno, published on 20 October 1926. The volume contains the results of pilot-balloon observations made between 1923 and 1924, together with a short history and two analytical articles by the first director, Wasaburo Oishi.
Oishi's measurements were the first systematic documentation of the strong upper-tropospheric westerly winds over East Asia that we now call the "jet stream". Pilot balloons released from Tateno during winter observations flew eastward at speeds above 70 m/s at around 10 km of altitude; in summer, balloons at the same altitude rarely exceeded 14 m/s. Two years of observations showed that this contrast is not anomalous but is the seasonal signature of the global circulation over the western Pacific.
Tateno published its annual reports in Esperanto from this first volume through to the eighteenth and final volume in 1944. The international meteorological community remained almost entirely unaware of the Tateno observations until after the Second World War, when the strong westerly winds of the upper troposphere were "rediscovered" independently by several researchers.
The original scans come from the collection of the National Diet Library.
The report contains many errata. I have preserved this errata rather than correct them, as this is what the original report had.
• Description of the Aerological Observatory of Tateno
• Pilot-balloon observations in the year 1923
• Pilot-balloon observations in the year 1924
• W. Oishi: The Winds above Tateno
• W. Oishi: On the Ascending Speed of the pilot-balloon
• I. Surroundings of the aerological observatory, Tateno.
• II. Plan of the aerological observatory, Tateno.
• IV. Plan of the dwellings — (1).
• V. Plan of the dwellings — (2).
• VIII. Kite and kite house. Kite house, seen from NNW.
• IX. Balloon house and machine house, seen from SW. Balloon house and machine house, seen from NW.
• X. Dwellings, seen from the anemometer tower.
