На Командорах / On the Commander Islands – Meteorologists and sled dogs
Quick and dirty translation, part 4. See also, part 1, Fur Seals, part 2, Sea Birds and part 3, Foxes.
На Командорах [Na Komandorakh] On the Commander Islands. Author: Gennady Snegirev. Artist: M. Miturich. Izdatel’stvo “Malish”. Publisher “Little One”. For older preschoolers. A print run of 350,000 in 1975. Cost, 16 kopecks.
Full Russian book scanned here.
On the Commander Islands there are meteorologists at any time of year — in snowstorms and in fog they keep watch, marking down readings from their instruments. The strength of the wind, the temperature of the air and water. How high and fast the water flows in the rivers in the spring and after rain. Just now they let go a weather-balloon, it carries instruments high-high and the instruments transmit signals to earth about what’s happening at that altitude. The flouds fly in one direction and still higher, perhaps, the wind blows in the complete opposite direction, and they need to know how strong the wind is and at what altitude it blows. If a pilot doesn’t know this exactly, he can neither take off nor land a plane.