MARITIME METEOROLOGY OBSERVATORY OF CONSTANTA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600020182-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 3, 2002
• Sequence Number: 182
• Publication Date: June 26, 1952
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2002/07/12TCIA-RDP80-00809A000600020182-4
CLASSIFICATION SECiiET/SECURITY INFOflN ION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
INFORMATION REPORT
SUBJECT N,aritim,?! Heteorolorly Observatory of
Constanta
NO. OF ENCLS.
(LISTED BELOW)
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
DATE DISTRr, Jun 52
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
,x,f uacux. cux,? xa .... f?... r rxr?i, r. 19I I... 199
if The Narit7me l~beer.ratory cf I'CLeorol0*y at ConsLtt!li;a, Rumania
was established in 1.935 under tie I;itle of t-,eteorolo;dical
Service /~erviciui i?leteoroio::,,ic,~ and was :Locat,ed on Domnitsa
Elena Street ?5. It remained under t.1 -is name unt.1 the end
of 19117. when t ...,-as chan;od to it, s present tt.tle ?uring
~aorld war II it, cone under the cognizance of :sir and 1?lavy0 At that
time i-.uar'ds suppiei;?tinted "l:!':e organization; and all personnel
were re.i :_red to r'emai.n at th:ei_r previous assigro m nts,
20 The mission of the Maritime Observatory is, basically; to
collate and disseminate weather information for the armed
Forces. . he Constanta station bus never .)articipated
actively in military work:, eg, utilization of the observa??
tory for transmission of military radio messages,
3. After the war, Dcmr_it.sa Iilenn) Street was changed to
Friedrich angel s Street,- At the present time the observa.
tory is loc.*(ted on the corner of Friedrich angels Street
and Decebal Street.
Descri ti.oZ'i,
4. The observatory in 1.ouned in a two story building of brick
construction covered with white stuccos The dimensions of
the building are 10 x14 m; 10 m bordering Friedrich Engels
Street and 14 m bordering on Decebal Street. T! e roof of the
building was t:i: e, appeared weath,-:r beaten and was of pyramid
design. There are two outside entrances leading to the
second floor,. Ti e building, suffered bomb d mage during world '(far II
yet it was never vacated. Immediately after the war steps were
taken to repair the bt! i..!_ tins; l.owever., the walls still showed
signs of d:m:a n November 1950
CLASSIFICATION S1 ~}~~,~ ~ti~;C11 TTY T'' CIR~.iG^ D _rT._
-_~
.sal 1~~ DISTRIBUTION
RR EV
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SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
The main entrance to the observatory is on Friedrich Engels
Street. Above the entrance there is a large sign painted in blue
letters on a white background, "Ministerul Aeru-Lui si Marinei Obser-
vatorul Meteoroligic Constanta". When facing the entrance, there
is another sign on the left corner of the building which has red
letters on white background. The letters are "HQ". I do not know
the meaning of these letters. In fact I asked several times
what they meant, but no one knew. "Q" does not exist in the
Rumanian alphabet, so that the letters are puzzling to me.
6. The observatory is headed by Professor Virgil Mosoiu, who has been
at this observatory for 12 years. He is responsible for the weather
prognosis and administrative work pertaining to the observatory.
The observatory is divided into three sections:
(a) Forecasting section
(b) Observers Section
(c) Radio Section
Forec s r i nib;
7. The forecasting section is headed by Professor (fnu) Mosoiu and
his assistant, Professor (fnu) Christache. Both professors have
the same auties,except that Professor Mosoiu also handles admin-
istrative work pertaining to the observatory. The duties of this
section are the preparation of the Russian weather prognosis;
entering barometric tendencies on weather charts, preparing curves
on the overall European chart pertaining to temperatures, wind
velocities and precipitation. These are entered on the charts for
the previous day and the second day following.
8. The Russian prognosis is received from Moscow every three hours.
Upon receipt of the weather message, one of the professors decodes
the message and converts it into Rumanian units. The messages are
not sent in International Weather Code, but in the Russian Weather
Code. The duty hours are long, and the professors rotate shifts,
with 24 hours on duty and 24 hours off.
9, The administrative duties of Professor Mosoiu consist of adminis-
trative letters to Bucharest, reports, weather summaries and
arrangements of monthly pay.
3bieI'L r `5C'
10. This section consists of two supervisors and five observers. There
must be one supervisor and two observers on duty at the observatory
on a 24 hour basis. The duties of this section consist of the
preparation of meteorological data Vpr transmission by radio. This
report consists of data from the Copebpnta region and is prepared
for transmission in the Russian weather Code at 0800, 1100, 1400,
1700, 20044 2300, 0200 and 0500. The data concerns temperatures,
baromotr~c pressures and tendencies, wind velocities and direction.
Barometric pressures are obtaindd in millibars and converted to
millimeters; wind velocities in meters/seconds; direction of wind on
ground and at various altitudes; formation and variation and height
of clouds; sea condition:. on one to nine scale, and weather tenden-
cies. One of the observers encodes the data, while the other
receives It by telephone from regional stations- When this process
is completed, the data is checked by the duty supervisor and t"cn
delivered to the radio serti.on.
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SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
11. The observer section receives data every three hours from the
following 10 Constanta regional stations:
Malgalia - by telephone
Constanta Airport - by telephone
Sulina - by radio
St. Gheorghe - by telephone to Sulina
Tulcea - by telephone to Sulina
Midgidia - by telephone
Cernavoda - by telephone
Carnavoda - by telephone
Navodari - by telephone
Midis - by telephone
Radio Sec ~. i c r
12. There were four radio operators in this section. Two operators are
on duty for each 24- hour period. Working hours began at 0800 and
continued until 0800 the following morning. Since the operators
transmitted only five to ten minutes every three hours, most of
their time was occupied in receiving weather data from other stations.
13.. The radio equipment in the observatory included the following:
(a) Receivers
Two Telefunken-Aviane 500-12000 kl,locycles. These are old
aircraft sets, badly in need of replacement.
One standard receiver
One Leonard 1950 model receiver
(b) Transmitters
One standard 300 watt output transmitter. This was old and
worn out.
Both the receiver and transmitter failures occurred two or three
times daily. The insulation was of poor quality, and most of the
failures were due to condensers. The electric power supply came
from the Constanta city power house. Power failure on the lines
running from the power house to the observatory occurred once
monthly during the summer, and two to three times weekly during
the winter because of winds. It required three to four hours to
effect repairs.
14. A 220 volt generator driven by a gas engine of German manufacture
was located In the observatory for standby service when the city
power supply failed. This emergency set was decrepit and sometimes
required hours to start. In my two years of service at the obser-
vatory, they had been unable to obtain a new spark plug for this
engine.
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SECRET/SECURITY INFORMATION
~C~ilra_,a Un
15. Cojocaru (fnu) is the political representative of the observatory.
I believe his duties consist of directing personnel along the
"party line" and in conducting political lectures. He was known
to maintain personal books on each individual. In these books he
kept a record of the political tendencies of observatory personnel,
and entered necessary demerits against their names. He was visited
two or three times weekly by personnel who were not connected with
the observatory.
VI, ir:c
16. Twice in two years, Russian officers came to the observatory under
the guise of a formal. visit. They talked to Professor Mosolu and
Professor Christache, discussing weather forecasts and examining
curves on the weather charts. The visiting group usually consisted
of one or two officers and civilians, a total of three or four
persons.
hooka an
17. There was a small bookcase in the administrative section which
contained about PO books. These related to scientific, technical
and meteorological subjects; most of them are printed in the
French and Englisn language. Professor Mosoiu frequently referred
to them in determining prognosis of unusual conditions. HIS
assistant, Christache, never was known to have used them. I recall
one English book published in London which concerned Iorecasting
weather on the Black Sea. There was also a small library corner
located in the forecasting section; however, all of the books there
were political, ie, Marx and Lenin. There were no Lechii_ical books
or literature in this library.
18. On the wall of the forecasting section was a chart of the USSR
(European USSR) showing all the USSR weather stations, not by
towns but by trimones. This chart was not classified, and copy
was used for the daily prognosis. Each chart was numbered and if
a mistake was made in the prognosis, the responsible professor was
required to make a written report explaining the error. There were
no classified weather charts in the observatory. Spare charts
were stored below a bookcase in the forecasting section.
19. In the observer section was an old book on cloud formations. I
believe this book was published in 1936. There was also a
pamphlet on the operational procedure of balloon soundings. This
pamphlet explained how to determine wind velocities in meter/second
and direction up to 12000 m in 100 m intervals.
20. The radio section had booklets which came with the Leonard trans-
mitter and receiver. These were in English. There were also some
leaflets in a binding classified Secret. These wire regulations
governing radio operators and stated what a radio operator could
and could not send; all information transmitted had to be in code,
radio chatter was not allowed, etc. These regulations were signed
by Vaseli Mangiu, political director and assistant head of the
Rumanian Meteoroligical Institute, Bucharest. (Mangiu is a former
radio operator.)
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Approved For Release 2002/07/12 : CIA-RDP80-00809A000600020182-4