under the operational control of CTG 7.3 for radsafe diversion if
necessary.
In addition, P2V aircraft and destroyer sweeps were
made in order to detect the presence of any shipping in the area,
The WB~29 aircraft on routine weather reconnaissance missions were
also instructed to report ail sightings.
The information from all
these sources was relayed to the Task Force Headquartere for evaluation and consideration at the weather/radsafe command briefings.
A
master plot of all shipping reported was presented by the RadSafe
Officer at command briefings for consideration along with the many
other factors involved in a shot decision.
Except for one incident
(the Japanese fishing vessel, see Chapter IV) all shots were detonated without significant effects on any shipping in the general
area of the tests.
3-
.
CloudTracking.
This operation of cloud tracking could be more pre-
cisely considered as “aerial surveys", being surveys of sensitive
areas to detect the development of potentialiy hazardous conditions.
Because of the unique circumstances presented in the PPG, a plan
had to be worked out to reconcile critical requirements with available equipment to de the job.
In general, the cloud tracking
operations for CASTLE were highly succeseful considering the seri-
ous limitations on such an effort in the Pacific.
The success of
the activity is attributable to constant efforts to improve the
techniques and aircram® wiilized by analyzing the difficulties and
circumstances of each of the shots as the test series progressed.
194,