Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Plan for United States Participation in the World Weather Program.

To the Congress of the United States:

By monitoring and predicting weather over the globe and by assessing the impact of man's activities upon the atmosphere, the World Weather Program helps significantly to improve the quality of our life and the safety of the earth's inhabitants.

I am pleased to report that the World Weather Program is making significant strides forward:

--Through new satellites, telecommunications, and computer technology, global information for early predictions and hazardous weather warnings is being acquired, processed, and then distributed in increased volume and detail.

--Under the Global Atmospheric Research Program intensive planning activities are underway for a 1974 international experiment to be conducted in the tropical Atlantic. The experiment will attempt to discover what role tropical weather systems play in maintaining the general circulation of the atmosphere. It will also probe tropical weather systems, with a view to improving weather prediction, including hurricane forecasts. Scientific data from this experiment will also help in making weather forecasts that are longer range, and in resolving important environmental problems. Many nations will participate in this experiment with ships, aircraft, satellites and other facilities.

--Active international involvement in the program by many member nations has yielded peaceful collaboration on an impressive international scale.

The World Weather Program is essential to a total environmental monitoring system for our planet. The program can serve as a model, moreover, for other environmental systems. The atmosphere is but one part of our global ecology. Data on other aspects of our environment can be collected and exchanged through a vehicle like the World Weather Program.

In accordance with Senate Concurrent Resolution 67 of the 90th Congress, I am pleased to transmit this annual report which describes the advances of the World Weather Program made during the past year and the activities planned for the program by participating Federal agencies for the coming fiscal year.

RICHARD NIXON

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 3, 1972.