JANUARY 1963 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 29
Weather Note
PHOTO PIREPS
TOM HILL
US. Weather Bureau, San Juan, Puerto Rim
[Manuscript received October 16, 19621
Collection and transmission of pilot report summaries
on schedule was a definite stride ahead and now another
pace is being stepped off in the reporting of weather by
pilots.
San Juan Weather Bureau Airport Station is unique in
many ways but the main items we at this station are
San Juan in the debriefing session. What a revelation!
The cross-sections had come alive! Since his first group
of pichures, some of the technicalities have been worked
proud of -are our (1) very complete surface charts, and
(2 ) our pilot briefings and debriefings. Pilots, admittedly,
enjoy a visit in person to the San Juan office because it is
one station where they can “get their hands on” a weather
chart.
In a briefing area that covers much of the Atlantic,
from New York to Panama, from Bogota and Trinidad to
London, Madrid, Rome, and west Africa, every effort is
made to glean information from the men who see the
weather h s t hand-the pilots and crews. However, many
important points are missed in the time available to the
forecaster for debriefing, and often words become inade-
quate in communicating the weather picture to the me-
teorologists. As many times as this word “picture” had
been used, the thought of using photographs t o convey
the message did not occur as a solution.
To the knowledge of the writer, Eastern Air Lines me-
teorologists were the only ones doing anything in this vein.
It should be remembered that the Weather Bureau Re-
search Flight Facility planes take time lapse movies, but
these are not immediately available to briefers or
forecasters.
As is often the case, the idea for this advance in debrief-
ing came from a man outside the field of aviation fore-
casting. Mr. Lester Hubert of the National Weather
Satellite Center at Suitland, Md., while making a trip to
San Juan on a lecture tour to train forecasters in “read-
ing” satellite pictures, talked at some length with Captain
Ray Raaum of Pan American World Airways on this
subject. While enroute, Mr. Hubert t’ook a few cloud
pictures from the cockpit, with only slight success.
Three days later, Captain Raaum, flying Pan American
flight 211, the flight assigned t o take weather observations
enroute from New York to San Juan, used a Polaroid
Land camera, t o snap a series of cloud photographs to
supplement his cross-section of the flight. The cross-
section and photos were submitted to the forecasters at
FIGURE 1.-Surface chart for 1800 CMT, September 1, 1962 with
flight route marked. The pilot’s regular check points are shown
by solid circles on the path. The points where pictures were
taken are marked by X’s and numbered t o correspond t o the
numbered pictures in figure 2.
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JANUARY 1963 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW 31
32 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW JANUARY 1963
Now a set of five or six photos taken along the
route shows forecasters and pilots the actual cloud forma-
6 ‘J’echnical data: Film used is PolaPan POO/Type 42, 10-sccond devclopmerll time, in 8
Polaroid Land cauicra fitted with an orange red 5X Eltcr.
tions acting as L L ~k y posts” marking the route to New
York. In essence, this gives the forecaster and briefer a
check ride by proxy.
Figure 1 shows the synoptic situation on September 1,
1962; figure 2 shows the cross-section drawn by Captain
Raaum on this day and the pictures taken enroute as
marked on the cross-section and synoptic chart. Figures
3 and 4 show similar information for September 26, 1962.
One more proof that a picture is worth 10,000 words.
This procedure, if adopted on other weather designated
flights, both domestic and international routes, would be
tt valuable aid to meteorologists everywhere, as well as
provide useful data for research.
Correspondence
COMMENTS ON “PHOTO PIREPS”
L. F. HUBERT
U S Weather Bureau, Washington, D C.
October 30, 1962
The note bv Mr. Hill, “Photo Pireps”, demonstrates
some very good liaison work between the aviation fore-
casters a t San Juan and pilots they serve, as well as some
unusual interest on the part of n Pan American pilot,
Mr. Raj7 Raaum.
While it is highly gratifying to have one’s missionary
work acknowledged like this, I fear I have been given
too much credit. I spoke at some length to Captain
Raaum of Pitn Am, both on my trip to San Juaq and
later 011 another flight from San Juan to New York, and
I hope my conversation stimulated his interest. However,
the basic idea of such “pireps” and the initiative were
Captain Raaum’s and I am happy and anxious to acknowl-
edge this because it illustrates the tremendous value of
extra effort on the pilot’s part. I certainly hope Captain
Raaum and other air crews can be encouraged to ploduce
such outstanding data.