THE ENVIRONMENT
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Warning Service. Hong Kong lies just outside the circum-Pacific seismic belt and has not suffered serious earthquake damage since 1918. However, an average of two to three tremors may be felt each year by residents in certain locations, but none were reported in 1973.
Geomagnetic measurements, which ceased in 1941 and resumed in 1971, were regularly made at the geomagnetic station near Tate's Cairn, where magnetic varia- tion was also recorded. This was made possible with a donation from the Nuffield Foundation for a joint project by the University of Hong Kong and the Royal Observatory. Absolute measurements were also made on the site of the old geomag- netic station at Au Tau in January 1973.
The observatory answers requests for climatological and meteorological in- formation from various government departments, private_companies and the general public, and issues certificates for litigation purposes and for insurance claims. The department also acts in an advisory capacity in the planning of many projects in the territory that may be affected by meteorological conditions. A growing number of investigations are now concerned with the meteorological aspects of development projects which are potential sources of pollution. Technical papers are published on various aspects of Hong Kong weather and on a wide variety of geophysical sub- jects.
A computer was installed in November 1973 for processing and analyses of mete- orological data. An order has also been placed to install a further system in 1974 to directly accept meteorological messages received from various communication circuits.
To make it easier to store and retrieve the vast amount of meteorological charts and records at the Royal Observatory, a microfilm unit was established in January 1973 for transferring data onto either 35-mm aperture cards or 16-mm roll film. Readers and reader-printers have been employed to study the records.
Equipment for measuring Runway Visual Range (RVR) was received and will shortly be installed at Hong Kong International Airport. Meanwhile, the Royal Observatory continued to calibrate high intensity runway lights to estimate RVR by the human observer.
The Committee for Scientific Co-ordination, chaired by the Director of the Royal Observatory, was established in 1962 to advise the government on scientific and technological matters and policies and to co-ordinate scientific activities in Hong Kong.
In co-operation with the two universities in Hong Kong, a special symposium in marine sciences was held in December 1973 and was attended by 65 participants from 16 countries.
Research
Apart from basic research activities in connection with operational require- ments of the department, numerous investigations were carried out on various aspects