Abstract
Spitaler's formula, Tφ'=-2·43+17·6cosφ'+7·1cos2φ'+19·3Lcos2φ'(degree in Centigrade), which shows the distribution of annual mean temperature of air including the effect characterised by the distribution of land and sea, may be approximately replaced by the spherical function as follows: Tθ=18·09-37·27P2(cosθ)-0·42sin2φ•P62(cosθ), on the assumption that the earth consists of two continents separated by two oceans. Here φ'=latitude, θ=colatitude and φ=longitude, φ=0 corresponding to the western extremity of continent. The mathematical computation has been performed after A. Oberbeck in his elaborate work on the general circulation of the atmosphere. The distribution of wind velocity in the lower atmosphere thus derived is given in Fig. I and that prevailing in the upper atmosphere is illustrated in Fig. II, from which we see that the continent is operative so as to accelerate the westerly currents in middle latitudes and with the ocean the case is just reversed. Extending the above derivation to the theory of monsoon wind we are able to explain the absence of antimonsoon in the sense of A. Wagner's word(1) and also the discordance between the location of the lowest temperature and the center of high pressure area, which for example may be observed in Siberia in winter season.
