ENG-1975 — Page 247

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THE ENVIRONMENT

The Royal Observatory's meteorological instruments section installs, calibrates and maintains more than 100 meteorological instruments at various locations through- out Hong Kong. Various types of anemometers are installed at different places to obtain wind information. This information is of importance during the approach of tropical cyclones and is also required by various government departments in connec- tion with projects such as the siting of incinerators, desalters, power stations and the planning of new towns. A sea wave recorder has been installed off Waglan Island to facilitate the study of such matters as the effects of sea waves on the High Island Water Scheme dam at Kwan Mun.

During the year, instruments were installed at the Tai O Royal Naval Coast Station to assist Royal Navy staff to make regular weather observations for trans- mission to the observatory's Central Forecasting Office. These observations will also be useful in connection with the long term planning investigation of Hong Kong's air transport system.

The observatory has a reference library with more than 10,000 periodicals and textbooks. Besides being necessary for staff, the library was increasingly used during the year by students, teachers and research workers from local universities and schools. The library also keeps microfilmed copies of historical weather charts and records, and a comprehensive collection of satellite photographs, radar photographs and time lapse radar films of various meteorological phenomena.

A booklet of astronomical tables and star charts for Hong Kong is published by the Royal Observatory annually. This booklet lists the times of sunrise and sunset, duration of twilight, times of moonrise, moonset and different phases of the moon and other astronomical information. It includes 12 star charts depicting the aspects of the night sky each month. Various astronomical queries are answered by the observatory and an article on the appearance of the sky is prepared for the newspapers each month.

The observatory answers requests for climatological and meteorological infor- mation from various government departments, firms and the general public, and issues certificates for litigation purposes and for insurance claims. It also acts in an advisory capacity in the planning of many projects in Hong Kong that may be affected by meteorological conditions. Technical papers are published on various aspects of local weather and on a wide variety of geophysical subjects.

The Royal Observatory computer system is programmed to decode, process, and archive all incoming meteorological messages, and to prepare charts and various objective forecasts for use at the Central Forecasting Office. The capacity of the system has been increased to cope with increasing data influx from international telecommunication circuits, and the implementation of data checking procedure. From May 1975, the computer produced 250 mbar weather charts, and these are used for flight documentation at the airport meteorological office. Since July, objective fore- casts of tropical cyclone tracks have been disseminated to countries in Southeast Asia for their operational use.