International Symposium on Tropical Cyclones, Brisbane (continued)

The chairmen of the various sessions were John Gabites, Dr Fletcher, Prof Herbert Riehl, Bill Priestley, Commander Brango, Colin Ramage and myself (two sessions). I also chaired the final session which was devoted to summing up by a panel of Brango, Fletcher, Jamison, Palmen, Ramage and Riehl. This panel discussion emphasised the need for further research to establish the mechanism of development and movement of tropical cyclones. There was acknowledgement of the important contribution which had been made by aircraft reconnaissance by the US Navy, US Air Force and US Weather Bureau, both for operational forecasts and warnings and also in gathering important research material. This reconnaissance had covered both the hurricanes of the North Atlantic and typhoons in the tropical North Pacific. The panel agreed that radar was the most promising method of remote detection and tracking, thought that microseisms were an interesting research topic but doubted the value of sferics for tropical cyclone detection and tracking.

Figure 32 Map showing stations in Antarctica and in sub-antarctic islands during the International Geophysical Year 1957–58 (see list of stations with geographical coordinates). At that time the ANARE station at Heard Island had ceased operation.

The panel believed that the storm surge warranted research priority. It is interesting to recall that Herbie Whittingham, a participant in the symposium, became deeply interested in this subject and made some important research contributions in that field.

The symposium was eminently successful in a number of areas. It revealed that our previous Bureau tropical cyclone conference had been successful in identifying the state of knowledge of the structure, development and movement of tropical cyclones. It provided a detailed summary of the activities of the US Navy, Air Force and Weather Bureau in aircraft reconnaissance in tropical cyclones from which the Australian participants received great benefit. The symposium reinforced the view which had emerged from the 1955 conference that sferics observations had little relevance in tropical cyclone detection and tracking and that microseisms had not proceeded beyond the stage of being an interesting subject for research.

But the major benefit of the symposium for Australian meteorology was that it confirmed that the Bureau was on a firm basis for the further development and operation of a tropical cyclone warning system.

Bureau of Meteorology