SAFETY MEASURES ~OPERATION REDWING REMARKS
PRESENTED AT OPFICTAL OBSERVERS BRIEFING
BY MAJOR GENERAL JOHN C. MACDONALD
I. INTRODUCTION
Operation Redwing will have many international implications,
You are familiar, I am sure, with the unfortunate situation
produced by the contamination of Marshallese natives by the first
shot of Operation Castle on 1. March 1954,
For the past two
years, Joint Task Force SEVEN has been studying new techniques
in the forecasting of fallout patterns in order that the
situation which developed in March 1954 will not occur again.
In the next few minutes I will-discuss the safety measure which
will be taken during Operation Redwing.
II. IMPROVED WEATHER DATA
Any forecast of fallout patterns is only as good as the
weather information available.
Further, meteorology is an
inexact science at best.
Since there are very few weather
reporting stations which operate on a year-around basis in the
Central Pacific, it has become necessary to establish additional
weather reporting stations which will operate during the periods
of atomic test series.
The weather reporting network which will
be utilized for the coming operation will be greater than on any
previous operation at the Pacific Proving Ground.
(Show weather
station chart.) This chart shows the weather reporting network
to which IT have referred. Data from all of these 50 stations
will be utilized in preparing weather forecasts,
III. NEW WEATHER TECHNIQUES
1. Tropical Meteorology.
The Task Force has continued to
support an extensive study of tropical meteorology.
This research
has been conducted in Honolulu under the direction of Dr. Cc. E.
Palmer of UCLA.
Dr. Palmer's group, including a number of Task
Force personnel, has developed considerable information con-
cerning the specialized field of tropical meteorology which
will be very useful in making weather forecasts at Eniwetok.
One specific area which has been studied has to do with "vertieal
components." Wind currents do not move necessarily in horizontal
planes.
Previously,
it has not been possible to include vertical
components of winds in the calculation of fallout patterns.
We
pelieve that on Operation Redwing these vertical components can
be considered so as to make fallout pattern forecasts more
reliable.
2. Theradioactive clouds of very high-yield weapons rise
above 100,000 feet.
The wind structure at these altitudes is
important in forecasting fallout patterns.
During Operation
Redwing the Task Force plans to use improved equipment to obtain
wind data at high altitudes:
a. Better balloons have been developed which will give
us much more data above 60,000 feet than we have obtained
in the past.
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