Processing 159 Million Rainfall Observations . . . Approx

From January, 1971, all daily rainfall records will be paper-tape punched, quality-controlled and archived on magnetic tape as they are received.

This project is part of an overall plan of the Australian Water Resources Council to gather and process water sources records (rainfall, evaporation, river flow, underground water and so on) and to increase the relevant observational networks.

Eight NCR paper tape punches have been installed Central Office. One each has gone to Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne Regional Offices, where the bulk of the original records is held.

The system was designed in Central Office by officers of the Meteorological Information Services Section in co-operation with IOM, Tom Hall, and the machines were programmed by NCR to Bureau requirements.

Sharing the five-year-plan for punch-taping some 150 million daily rainfall observations are these industrious people in the Victorian Regional Office. Pictures are, front row: Miss Pamela McLaren, Miss Evelyn Stokes, John Moriarty. Back row: Mrs Zora Marceglia of CO and Joe Hobba.

Mrs. Zora Marceglia of Central Office visited the five Regional Offices this year to train staff in paper-tape punching and the correction of errors revealed by quality control programs on the computers.

Mrs. Marceglia is in charge of the central office unit in Meteorological Information Services Section which arranges for tapes to be processed by computer and then returned to the respective Regional Offices. She is very grateful for the hospitality of the various Regional Office staffs, particularly Angus Robin and family (Adelaide) and to Alf Palkingham, Ross Vollprecht and Bill Shaw, all of Western Australia.

Bureau of Meteorology