Oceanography in Germany

Abstract

REFERENCE was made in Nature of September 4, 1948 (p. 364) to the first issue of the German hydro-graphic journal, Deutsche Hydrographische Zeitschrift. It has now concluded its first volume with the issue of Nos. 5/6 which among many papers, contains four on purely oceanographical subjects. W. Hansen gives a fundamental essay on computing tides in ocean areas of any shape by means of the method of boundary values, of which the' validity is demon-strated for the English Channel. K. Kalle describes a handy method of measuring surface currents at sea by producing and following a coloured patch. F. Model compares five hundred reliable observations of surface temperature from almost all Atlantic regions with the average values, and discusses the possibility of a change in climate or of a systematic defect in the earlier method of observing being the cause of systematic discrepancies. O. Pratje, in a geological paper, discusses the variation in sediment type over very limited areas. Of the papers not specifically concerned with oceanography, F. Errulat contributes a chart of the magnetic declination at mid-1945 for the German Bight and the southern Baltic. In a comprehensive article, H. C. Freiesleben discusses position lines (based on terrestrial and wireless bearings as well as on star observations) from a uniform point of view. E. Romer reviews the first seventy years of "German Sailing Directions", and two papers by A. Schluter and J. Nauen deal, theoretically and practically, with the problem of adjusting magnetic compasses and ascertaining their deviation in case of low visibility. Moreover, there is a report on the geomagnetic records at Wingst Observatory in 1942 by O. Meyer and a review of S. Chapman's isomagnetic charts by H. G. Macht. The succeeding issue (Vol. 2, Nos. 1/3) will contain several papers read before a geophysical and meteorological meeting held in Hamburg in September 1948.