 and Elmendorf. What's the cloud pattern between Milden Hall and Aviano? Most of Spain is still holding flight level 370. Do we have turbulence ahead? What are the winds up to 100,000 feet over Vandenberg day after tomorrow? The Army wants to know how much rain to expect within 50 miles of Ramstein in the next three days. How cold will it be at Fort Greeley tomorrow morning? When can we expect clearing at Fort Ord? And wherever our military forces move. The decision makers need instant information on the world's weather. A weather central at off at Air Force Base is commanded and staffed by an outstanding team of Air Force Weathermen. A team that includes some of the leading forecasters of the nation. The weather forecasts from the Air Force Global Weather Central are designed specifically for our worldwide military forces. And they're electronically distributed 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The Air Force Global Weather Central is a computer-based operation. For the most part, weather information flows into the central over the automated weather network directly to the computer. Thousands of tapes, millions of facts, and it's all automatically processed, minute by minute. This continuous updating of global weather information from time zero to tomorrow and tomorrow is a spectacular accomplishment of computer technology. The computer-based operation rests on a mix of men and machines. Machines do the computing. Men do the thinking. Only men can forecast for men. These forecasts are not just general weather maps. They are mission tailored forecasts, forecasts tailored to specific operations in specific places for specific times. The tailored forecasts are then distributed to decision makers, command posts, Air Force bases, flight crews, army installations and army units wherever they may be. First, the collection and processing of weather information. And second, distribution of the tailored forecasts is the dual mission of the Air Force Global Weather Central. Validity of all forecasts depends first on the sources of information. Ground observers, civilian and military, supply the great mass of weather data. That's common knowledge, but it is not generally realized how extensive this network is. Ground-based weather observations come in continuously from ships at sea and from nearly every country in the world. On these maps, every red dot is a weather observation site. This is the only scientific information all nations of the world share freely. Nation is even transmitted through curtains of bamboo and iron. Reports from radios on balloons come in at up to 1,600 reports a day. And thousands of weather reports a day come in from civilian and military aircraft. This mass of data flashes into the Air Force Global Weather Central through weather communication terminals by way of Carswell Air Force Base. In regions where information on upper air currents is difficult to gather, reconnaissance aircraft of the Air Weather Service provide additional and detailed data. All information coming in on the high-speed communication lines of the automated weather net of the Department of Defense is automatically decoded, checked and stored in computers. Information from meteorological satellites in polar orbit at about 850 miles up comes directly to the central. When analog signals from those satellites have been transferred into digital form, the satellite weather pictures supplement the conventional data in the computers. In addition to digital data for computer analysis and forecast, cloud pictures are produced for immediate use by forecasters, produced in any desired scale in mercator or polar stereographic projections. An increasing amount of space environmental data are also being added to the database. These can have a direct bearing on communications, satellite systems and experimental projects. The validity of weather forecasts does not of course depend solely on the collection of data. It also depends on the processing of that data. But how can the millions of facts be correlated minute by minute, hour by hour? The computers analyze and forecast winds, temperature, humidity and pressures in 15 different levels from the surface up to 100,000 feet around the earth. In turn, these data are used to analyze and forecast the weather as it affects men and military operations. A three-dimensional analysis and forecast of cloud patterns is only one example of how this works. This forecast begins with what meteorologists call existing conditions. Existing conditions are constantly updated by all available information as it is received. A ground observer reports a low cloud base from his particular site. Another observer reports scattered middle clouds. Instantly, the cloud data are adjusted by the computer to reflect this information. In the same way, the computer adjusts altitude of cloud tops to reflect an aircraft report or a ground radar report. Information from a weather satellite again updates the cloud analysis. And finally, within a few minutes, this provides a detailed cloud analysis in the database that becomes a starting point for cloud forecasts. The cloud forecast is further modified in the database by information on temperature, vertical motion and humidity. Transient cloud systems are formed, dissolved and moved by forecast winds, moisture and vertical motion information in the computers. The movements of local cloud patterns are forecast by information already in the database on surface winds, heating and terrain. The computers at the Air Force Global Weather Central can forecast patterns of high clouds, middle clouds, low clouds, all clouds, for today, for tomorrow and for any place. What do you want to know about cloud configurations in your area of operations? The computers can deliver it in a minute or two. Of course, this cloud forecast is only one of the many kinds of information in the database. The memory drums of the computers hold detailed information on every aspect of sensible weather that decision-makers may want to know about. Rain, hail, icing conditions, temperatures or wind direction and velocity at any level, anywhere. But how is it possible to identify small weather situations here or there and do it on a global scale? For this, the Air Force meteorologists use a concept they call windows. For example, there's a window over Europe, one over Asia and one over the United States. Developing the computer grid for any window, that is adding vertical and horizontal grid points within the window, enables the computer to report in greater detail. And the computer is programmed for analysis of the boundary layer of air, the lower 5,000 feet within that window. This newly developed technique provides greatly improved and detailed area forecasts that relieve the meteorologists of most mechanical details and permits them to concentrate on the last fine forecast. One example of the advantage of the teamwork of man and machine at this stage is the detailed forecasting of severe weather. The meteorologist checks the computer's severe weather index against all additional data on such situations as moisture distribution, low and high level jets, upper pressure troughs and surface fronts. Lastly, this final forecast of weather made by man and computer is placed back in the computer to be used as a base for tailored forecasts. But the meteorologist's job is not yet finished. Using the latest minute-by-minute observations, he continually watches the weather develop and transmits weather warnings and any amendments to them to the military installations that will be affected. Forecasts for specific operations are of critical importance to military success. For example, every SAC bomber flight requires a carefully tailored forecast, a forecast that includes altimeter settings along the route, winds, turbulence, clouds, visibility and any other important fact that would affect flight, the lift mission. Every flight path flown in the military airline command is flown along a computer flight plan produced by the weather central. Plans that include flight profile and altitudes, wind direction and speeds, true air speed, ground speed, time and route, distance from takeoff and distance to touchdown, true course, magnetic course, magnetic heading and any other factor required for flight scheduling. Weather forecasts for large-scale exercises should be requested well ahead of time in any Air Force command. Ask today for the tailored forecast you need tomorrow and state when you need it. That's when you'll get it. Enable Air Force meteorologists to say, they can say to the Army, Tell us where and... As a decision-maker, you may well ask, how do I get this information when I need it? The answer is, of course, through your staff meteorologist or weather officer. Give him all the factors of time, space and mission. He has the key to the weather information you need and he has the authority to call on the Air Force Global Weather Central. Use him. Hundreds of our military missions a day are operating with weather information tailored to each mission. To your point in time, in space and on the Earth, by the Air Force Global Weather Central of the Air Weather Service.