METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION. - Meteorology as a science owes its development to air navigation and radio, inasmuch as it becomes increasingly necessary for the assistance of aircraft, which fly over countries, nations, continents and oceans.
The organization of the meteorological service is based: 1) on a network of meteorological stations that are normally distributed in such a way that their observations give a general and detailed knowledge of surface conditions over the regions for which meteorological assistance must be ensured.
These stations carry out observations at fixed hours, internationally agreed upon, needed for weather forecasting (synoptic observations), and others for direct assistance to air navigation (hourly observations, half-hourly observations, moment observations). In all States the work of recording the facts is carried out with the same system and they are transmitted in encrypted code in order to save the transmission time of the relevant messages, as well as to allow scholars and pilots to express the same information independently of national languages. To this fixed network is added that of mobile stations, consisting of ships, suitably designated and equipped with meteorological instruments, and of the vehicles of the airlines. 2) On a network of stations that carry out observations of air currents at various altitudes by tracking, by means of theodolites, balloons (pilot balloons) inflated with hydrogen. 3) On a network of stations that carry out observations of temperature, pressure, humidity and possibly also of wind in the free atmosphere up to altitudes above 12-15 km. Such stations are equipped with special radio-receiving apparatuses capable of receiving the signals of a transmitting device carried by a balloon inflated with hydrogen. 4) On a network of radar-meteorological stations for the identification of rainy areas and of the nature of the clouds. 5) On a network of stations for the identification of thunderstorm areas connected with the electrical disturbances of the atmosphere (atmospherics). 6) On a network of scientific-experimental observatories that carry out particular observations on solar radiation, on the fluctuations of the ionosphere, on atmospheric electricity, on turbulence and on whatever else pertains to the field of meteorological phenomena. 7) On a network of regional meteorological centers, which have the task of centralizing the observations of the regions to which they are assigned and of carrying out a particular weather forecasting service, directed at the meteorological assistance of flight (flight, route, landing forecasts, storm warnings and safety warnings, regional and local forecasts) on the basis of a deep analysis of the dynamic and thermodynamic conditions of the atmosphere at the surface and at altitude, processing special thermodynamic diagrams and particular geographic maps, on which, with a symbolism also internationally agreed upon, the meteorological bulletins are reported.
The organization of the meteorological service in Italy is for a good part assigned to the Ministry of Defense-Air Force, which through its organs provides: a) for the organization and service of the meteorological network; b) for supplies and installations; c) for studies and climatology; d) for forecasts and information.
The latter is the organ that has the principal task of compiling both the general forecasts for the public, for the press and for dependent services, and the technical analyses of weather situations for the national meteorological centers and for all the other offices that need such analyses for their tasks of meteorological assistance. Within the organization there is a Meteorological Information Center equipped with radio, telescribing and telephone apparatuses for the collection and emission of meteorological news of a national and international character. The meteorological bulletins issued by the stations they are concentrated, by the surest and fastest means, at the regional meteorological centers, which broadcast them by radio at fixed times, in a synoptic collective every three hours and in a reduced collective every hour.
The three-hourly collectives are gathered by the Information Center together with other international collectives which, according to world conventions, are broadcast by radio at pre-established hours. In particular, Europe and North Africa are divided into 4 regions whose respective collectives are broadcast by radio separately from one another, so as to follow one another in a determined order, for the purpose of facilitating reception by those services that need meteorological bulletins; this is because no weather forecast can be made for a region or locality, or for a flight, unless one possesses a general picture of the meteorological situation over a wider area. For example, a weather forecast for Italy cannot be made unless one has the bulletins for all of Europe, the Atlantic Ocean and North Africa. The meteorological services of each country are part of a World Meteorological Organization (W.M.O.) which is currently linked to the United Nations Organization (U.N.). There exists another international organization that concerns itself with meteorology only as regards air navigation: International Civil Aviation Organization (I.C.A.O.).
