Rocket Exploration Of The Upper Atmosphere.

Subtitled Special Supplement (Vol. 1) to the Journal of Atmospheric and Terrestrial Physics, edited by R. L. F. Boyd and M. J. Seaton of University College, London, in consultation with H. S. W. Massey, F.R.S. The title page records that the papers “were read at a conference arranged by the Upper Atmosphere Rocket Research Panel of the United States and by the Gassiot Committee of the Royal Society of London,” and Massey’s preface, dated 3 March 1954, explains that the conference was held at Oxford on 24–26 August 1953, with the U.S. Office of Naval Research arranging transport for most American participants. It observes that the war-surplus V-2 rockets had opened the possibility of direct observation of the high atmosphere. Published by Pergamon Press, London, and printed by the Pitman Press, Bath.

The first section, “Rocket Techniques,” opens with Marcus D. O’Day on upper-air research with rockets in the U.S. Air Force (with appendices on day airglow, temperatures from yawing rockets and meteor impacts) and continues with C. F. Green on the V-2 (A-4) in upper-atmosphere research, Rosen and Snodgrass on the high-altitude sounding rocket, Van Allen and Gottlieb on balloon-launched rockets, and Berning on trajectory measurements. Later sections cover pressures, temperatures and winds (including the University of Michigan–Signal Corps falling-sphere method), the composition of the high atmosphere, the ionosphere and laboratory work. The cover is plain dark-blue cloth with no lettering, so the title page is shown.