Viewing options: There are 145 stories in total. You can switch between 2D or 3D to view these with the button at the bottom left of the screen. You can also click through each story individually when you have a single tile open with the arrows at the bottom of the tile.;xNLx;Acknowledgments: We would like to thank all those who have participated in selection of these papers: ;xNLx;RMetS History SIG contributors: Matt Collins, Mike Cullen, John Eyre, Chris Folland, Vladimir Jankovic, Phil Jones, Andrew Lorenc, Julian Mayes, Nicola Rayner, Adam Scaife, Ian Strangeways.;xNLx;;xNLx;Past and Current Editor in Chief contributors: Mark Baldwin, Alan Blyth, Lesley Gray, Jo Haigh, John Methven, Doug Parker, Peter Read, Ian Roulstone, Andrew Ross, Keith Shine, John Thuburn, Geraint Vaughan.;xNLx;
These included scientific papers, including James Glaisher’s illustrations of snowflakes.
Author: George Gabriel Stokes. Commentary: This was the first published description of the C/S sunshine recorder, still in use today. Estimates of annual-mean stratospheric temperature trends over the past twenty years, from a wide variety of models, are compared both with each other and with the observed cooling seen in trend analyses using radiosonde and satellite observations. The modelled temperature trends are driven by changes in ozone (either imposed from observations or calculated by the model), carbon dioxide and other relatively well-mixed greenhouse gases, and stratospheric water vapour.
Commentary: This led to the formal adoption of the Stevenson screen, which also influenced many other National Met. Services.
Author: G. J. Symons F.R.S. Article Introduction: The Royal Meteorological Society has equipped a Climatological Station in the grounds of the International Health Exhibition, in order that anyone desirous of organizing a station may see one arranged in accordance with the regulations of this Society. It must be stated at the outset, however, that the enclosure is much too small, but the exigencies of the Exhibition would not permit of more space being granted. The object of the Climatological Station is to determine the elements of the climate of a place hence only such instruments are used as are necessary for that purpose. These consist of a maximum, a minimum, a dry and a wet bulb thermometer, which are mounted in a Stevenson screen of the Society’s pattern and a rain-gauge.
Author: G. J. Symons F.R.S. Article Introduction: There is something rather oppressive in feeling that one occupies a position absolutely without precedent, and not likely to be similarly occupied for centuries to come. This is my case. The Council of the Royal Meteorological Society, like all Her Majesty’s local subjects, wished to do something to celebrate the sixtieth year of her beneficent reign. The Council thought that an illustrative exhibition of the meteorological appliances of 1837 and 1897 would appropriately show the progress made since Her Majesty ascended the throne; and having decided upon building such an Exhibition to commemorate the unique occasion, they honoured me with a request to address you tonight.
Author: D. N. Harrison B.A., G. M. B. Dobson D.Sc. Article Introduction: Ozone is formed from oxygen under the action of ultra-violet light and also by an electric discharge. The suggestion has more than once been made that if the amount of ozone in the air changes it may cause a change in the radiation equilibrium temperature in the air, owing to its strong absorption bands.
Author: D. N. Harrison B.A., G. M. B. Dobson D.Sc. Article Introduction: Ozone is formed from oxygen under the action of ultra-violet light and also by an electric discharge. The suggestion has more than once been made that if the amount of ozone in the air changes it may cause a change in the radiation equilibrium temperature in the air, owing to its strong absorption bands.
Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society were published between 1926 to1939, which carried more technical papers. Forty papers were published in the Memoirs during this period, including many ‘classic’ meteorological papers of the time.
Author: Sir Gilbert T. Walker. Article Introduction: Statistical methods have been applied to the discovery of relationships between weather in many parts of the world, but although the number of coefficients worked out is of the order of ten thousand, satisfactory formulae for predicting the character of seasons have been worked out in very few countries.
David Brunt was born at Staylittle, Montgomeryshire (now Powys), on 17 June 1886 and attended the local Board school until he was ten years old. His family then moved to Monmouthshire (now Gwent), where he continued his education at the Intermediate School, Abertillery.
Sir Gilbert Thomas Walker, C.S.I., F.R.S., who died at Woodcote Grove House, Coulsdon, Surrey on 4 November, was born at Rochdale in Lancashire on 14 June 1868. His father, a gas-engineer, removed later to Croydon near London where he was Chief Borough Engineer. The boy was sent to St. Paul’s School, then and still a famous nursery of University scholars, where his remarkable gift for mathematics was soon observed.
Author: G. S. Callendar. Abstract: By fuel combustion man has added about 150,000 million tons of carbon dioxide to the air during the past half century. The author estimates from the best available data that approximately three quarters of this has remained in the atmosphere. The radiation absorption coefficients of carbon dioxide and water vapour are used to show the effect of carbon dioxide on “sky radiation”. From this the increase in mean temperature, due to the artificial production of carbon dioxide, is estimated to be at the rate of 0.003°C. per year at the present time. The temperature observations at zoo meteorological stations are used to show that world temperatures have actually increased at an average rate of 0.005°C. per year during the past half century.
Author: G. S. Callendar. Abstract: By fuel combustion man has added about 150,000 million tons of carbon dioxide to the air during the past half century. The author estimates from the best available data that approximately three quarters of this has remained in the atmosphere. The radiation absorption coefficients of carbon dioxide and water vapour are used to show the effect of carbon dioxide on “sky radiation”. From this the increase in mean temperature, due to the artificial production of carbon dioxide, is estimated to be at the rate of 0.003°C. per year at the present time. The temperature observations at 200 meteorological stations are used to show that world temperatures have actually increased at an average rate of 0.005°C. per year during the past half century.
Author: C. G. Rossby. Commentary: Brings together the ideas of potential vorticity and Rossby waves which were introduced for the first time in two previous papers in the ocean literature. Article Introduction: The general purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors which determine the character of the prevailing flow patterns in the atmosphere, and in particular to bring out the conditions under which these flow patterns tend to remain stationary or to change.
Author: C. G. Rossby. Commentary: Brings together the ideas of potential vorticity and Rossby waves which were introduced for the first time in two previous papers in the ocean literature. Article Introduction: The general purpose of this paper is to discuss the factors which determine the character of the prevailing flow patterns in the atmosphere, and in particular to bring out the conditions under which these flow patterns tend to remain stationary or to change.
Francis Whipple was a mathematician who became a geophysicist. Born 17 March 1876 in Richmond, Surrey, he was the third son of George Mathews Whipple and Elizabeth Mar- tha Beckley. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, he left in 1895, as the Parkin Exhibitioner, for Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was awarded a Thomas Barnes Scholarship.
Author: J. S. Dines. Article Introduction: The cup anemometer was for many years during the latter part of the nineteenth century the standard observatory instrument for measuring wind velocity in this country. At that time the science of anemometry was in its infancy, and although some meteorologists may have realized that the behaviour of a cup anemometer in a gusty wind would be different from that in a steady wind this was a refinement which hardly called for attention when the value of the “factor” of the instrument, or figure by which the speed of the cup centres must be multiplied to obtain the speed of the wind, was still a matter of dispute. When the correct value of the factor had been determined these anemometers gave a reasonably accurate record of the mean wind velocity.
Paper shortages limited Quarterly Journal to two or three issues per year.
Author: W. E. Knowles Middleton M.Sc. Article Introduction: This report is an attempt to clarify a question of some importance in the development of meteorological science, and to remove some misconceptions regarding the proper use of meteorological instruments. My purpose is to discuss the effect of the fine-structure of the atmosphere on the possible and desirable precision to which instruments should be read and the results set down, and to inquire whether existing instruments actually provide such accuracy.
Improbably for someone carrying his surname and possessed of a firm Yorkshire background, Reginald Cockcroft Sutcliffe first saw light of day on 16 November 1904 at Wrexham, North Wales, where his father was filling the post of manager to the Wrexham Co-operative. Reginald (or `Reggie’ as he was always known) was the third of four sons of Ormerod Sutcliffe and his wife May (nee Cockcroft).
Author: A. W. Brewer M.Sc., A. Inst. P. Abstract: Information is now available regarding the vertical distribution of water vapour and helium in the lower stratosphere over southern England. The helium content of the air is found to be remarkably constant up to 20 km but the water content is found to fall very rapidly just above the tropopause, and in the lowest 1 km of the stratosphere the humidity mixing ratio falls through a ratio of 10—1. The helium distribution is not compatible with the view of a quiescent stratosphere free from turbulence or vertical motions. The water-vapour distribution is incompatible with a turbulent stratosphere unless some dynamic process maintains the dryness of the stratosphere. In view of the large wind shear which is normally found just above the tropopause it is unlikely that this region is free from turbulence. The observed distributions can be explained by the existence of a circulation in which air enters the stratosphere at the equator, where it is dried by condensation, travels in the stratosphere to temperate and polar regions, and sinks into the troposphere. The sinking, however, will warm the air unless it is being cooled by radiation and the idea of a stratosphere in radiative equilibrium must be abandoned. The cooling rate must lie between about 0.1 and 1.1°C per day but a value near 0.5°C per day seems most probable. At the equator the ascending air must be subject to heating by radiation. The circulation is quite reasonable on energy considerations. It is consistent with the existence of lower temperatures in the equatorial stratosphere than in polar and temperate regions, and if the flow can carry ozone from the equator to the poles then it gives a reasonable explanation of the high ozone values observed at high latitudes. The dynamic consequences of the circulation are not considered. It should however be noted that there is considerable difficulty to account for the smallness of the westerly winds in the stratosphere, as the rotation of the earth should convert the slow poleward movement into strong westerly winds.
Author: H. H. Lamb. Abstract: From a classification of 50 years' daily weather maps (1898—1947) the outstandingly long spells of weather, lasting over 25 days, have been picked out. Frequency curves show the occurrences of these long spells on each day of the year and also the occurrences of each of the seven defined weather-types individually. This leads to a suggested division of the year into five periods, to be considered as natural seasons, and appears to support the definition of more numerous shorter seasonal phases or episodes (singularities). Good correspondence is found with the long-year daily or weekly mean figures of pressure, temperature, rainfall, sunshine, etc. The significance of these phenomena, their dependability as regards date and their secular persistence are discussed.
Percival Albert Sheppard (‘Peter’ to his family and friends) was born at Box near Bath in Wiltshire on 12 May 1907, the only son of an ornamental and monumental mason. He was educated first at the local elementary school, Box Hill Church School, then for a short while at Oldfield Council Boys’ School in Bath, before, with an entrance foundation scholarship, studying for six years at the City of Bath Boys’ School. Whilst in the Sixth Form, he prepared for the University of London Intermediate BSc and proceeded, with a scholarship, to read physics at the University of Bristol, graduating with first-class honours in 1927.
Authors: E. T. Eady, J. S. Sawyer. Commentary: Discusses the fundamentals of dynamical understanding of the atmosphere on synoptic and larger scales.
Author: Joanne S. Malkus. Abstract: An equation for the slope of cumulus clouds is derived. It is shown to depend upon the vertical ascent rate, the external wind shear and the horizontal frictional forces between the cloud and its surroundings. These frictional forces are of two origins: one due to entrainment or mixing with the outside air, and the other due to form or body drag. Four observational cases are presented, one concerning trade cumulus, and three involving clouds in mid-latitudes. In two of these, measurement of updraught speed, wind shear, and cloud slope permit an estimate of the magnitude of the friction forces. The minimum contribution due to entrainment is approximately equal to that inferred by Stommel for trade cumulus.
Through television interviews, Dr George Robinson became well known as one of the few survivors of the D-Day forecasting team still alive to see the 50th anniversary of that momentous event. As he was a member of J. M. Stagg's team at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) for only about two months, this presents a rather distorted picture of an illusmous career spanning some 51 years as a meteorologist. Dr Robinson was born in Leeds, England, on 8 June 1913. Although widely known as George, his mother called him David to reduce confusion with his father George, and many colleagues knew him as Robbie. His pre-school years were disrupted by the Great War when his father was an infantryman in France, and his mother had to work, partly out of duty and partly due to the need for money. Young George was often in the care of other relatives, one of whom ensured that he could read when the family reunited at the end of the War and he went to school.
Author: Norman A. Phillips. Commentary: Landmark paper in numerical simulation of weather and climate. Abstract: A long-period numerical forecast is made with a two-level quasi-geostrophic model, starting with an atmosphere in relative rest. Both friction and non-adiabatic effects are included in the equations, the latter as a linear function of latitude. Principal empirical elements in the experiment are the intensity of the heating, the value of the vertical stability, and the type of frictional dissipation. The flow patterns which develop are quite realistic, including a jet and zonal surface westerlies in middle latitudes, and the growth of a large disturbance. The associated energy transformations are investigated, and demonstrate the important role of the disturbance in the development of the zonal currents. The meridional circulation is also studied, together with its contribution to the zonal momentum budgets of the lower and upper halves of the atmosphere. Truncation errors eventually put an end to the forecast by producing a large fictitious increase in energy.
Author: Norman A. Phillips. Abstract: A long-period numerical forecast is made with a two-level quasi-geostrophic model, starting with an atmosphere in relative rest. Both friction and non-adiabatic effects are included in the equations, the latter as a linear function of latitude. Principal empirical elements in the experiment are the intensity of the heating, the value of the vertical stability, and the type of frictional dissipation. The flow patterns which develop are quite realistic, including a jet and zonal surface westerlies in middle latitudes, and the growth of a large disturbance. The associated energy transformations are investigated, and demonstrate the important role of the disturbance in the development of the zonal currents. The meridional circulation is also studied, together with its contribution to the zonal momentum budgets of the lower and upper halves of the atmosphere. Truncation errors eventually put an end to the forecast by producing a large fictitious increase in energy.
In an interview in the Bulletin of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in 1997,Dr H. Taba recalls that to those who knew him well John Sawyer possessed a profound understanding of the behaviour of the atmosphere, and of the significant problems involved (Taba 1997). Many young scientists were influenced by his sound judgement and objectivity, and his research teams were strongly motivated by his zeal when they were grappling with complex questions relating to the atmosphere. His personal research was mainly devoted to the analytical and theoretical investigation of the structure and dynamics of weather systems, and he provided the scientific leadership in the early development of numerical weather prediction (NWP) in the Meteorological Office.
Author: S. Fritz. Commentary: First QJ paper on satellite observations. Abstract: A composite of Tiros 1 pictures describing the cloud system in a mature cyclone, centred in the Atlantic Ocean to the west of Ireland, is described. Comparison of the pictures with conventional meteorological data shows that a stratiform cloud surrounding the storm was identical in position with a warm moist tongue of air flowing around the storm. In the centre of the storm where the clouds were more broken, giving the appearance of cumuliform clouds, a large mass of cold, dry air extended from the surface up to the tropopause above 400mb. A few areas of steady precipitation were present in the stratiform cloud regions while more scattered showers existed in the central cumuliform region. An area of relatively high winds circled the storm, in conformity with the expectations from the thermal wind relation when cold air and warm air layers reside side by side. A brief comparison is made between the vertical motion computations based on conventional data and the cloud areas.
Born on 8 September 1914, in Trimdon, Co. Durham, the only son of Joseph, a miner, and Elizabeth Pasquill, Frank was the first member of the family to go to a secondary school. The school, Henry Smith Secondary School in Hartlepool, produced at least three meteorologists: Frank Pasquill, W. C. Swinbank and E. Chambers. In Frank’s third year, he had to make a decision whether to concentrate on the arts or the sciences. Tempted to go for the former due to his dislike of the chemistry classes, he realised that that would entail ordinary art, a subject he could not do, so he sought and was granted permission to do ‘science’.
Author: A. J. Troup. Abstract: An attempt is made to obtain a coherent picture of the extent and mode of operation of the ‘southern oscillation.’ This term is used here, following Sir Gilbert Walker, to describe a standing fluctuation of opposed pressure anomalies in both eastern and western hemispheres. The existence of this opposition has been verified, using more recent data, for stations in the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions; results show the oscillation was less marked in recent decades. The representativeness and physical meaning of the index devised by Walker to characterize the state of the oscillation are considered. The geographical extent of the phenomenon is examined using correlation and regression charts of pressures with Walker's index. The temperature and rainfall anomalies associated with it may be derived qualitatively from the pressure anomalies. Recent data are used to verify persistence and lag correlations between station pressures; while there has again been some decline, the lag correlations of elements with previous South America pressures still hold good. The decline in these various quantities is indicative of a minor secular change commencing in the 1920's, which is also evident in a decrease in the variability of pressure. What ‘periodicities’ appear to exist in elements affected by the southern oscillation may well be an outcome of sampling fluctuations in (often persistent) random series. This is suggested by the variety of supposed ‘periods’ reported, and their evanescence in space and time. An example of this evanescence in time is provided from the Darwin pressure record. A mechanism for the oscillation is proposed in terms of variations in a direct toroidal circulation between warmer eastern and cooler western hemispheres. These variations are attributed, (following a model by Palmer of the synoptic climatology of the tropical Pacific) to variations in the south-east trades in the South Pacific and the consequent variations in cyclonic vortex generation in the West Pacific. The persistence of anomalies is then due to the extent of ocean areas in the south-east Pacific where the sea temperature is lower than the air temperature. The lag correlations observed may be due to this persistence and to a transmission of anomalies along the trades through air-sea interaction.
Authors: C. D. Rodgers, C. D. Walshaw. Abstract: A scheme is described for the calculation of the atmospheric infra-red radiative cooling rate which is suitable for use at all levels. It uses the Curtis matrix method together with the Curtis-Godson approximation in a form which includes the influence of temperature on line intensity. Doppler effect is included. Because of its simplicity the Goody random model is used for all the absorption bands considered (H2O rotation and 6.3μ, CO2 15μ, O3 9.6μ); the use of more accurate models as they become available presents no fundamental difficulty and in any case many of the topics investigated are not particularly sensitive to the spectral model used. A method of reducing the number of spectral intervals is described and its accuracy demonstrated. An accurate method of dealing with diffuse radiation is used to test the diffuse approximation, with the result that the constant factor 1.66 originally proposed by Elsasser is found to be quite adequate for most purposes. Cooling rate errors caused by the following factors are estimated: (1) random and systematic errors in the initial temperature and humidity profiles; (2) the size of the vertical step used in computation; (3) neglecting the temperature dependence of the Curtis matrix; (4) non-linear effects in forming climatological means. It is shown that the easily computed ‘cooling to space’ is often a good approximation. All the error investigations are based on direct calculations of the cooling profile. Some comparisons with other techniques are presented and a number of examples of meteorological interest are used to illustrate the versatility of the computing scheme.
Sir John Mason writes: Study of interactions between the atmosphere and the oceans, in particular the exchange of heat, water and momentum, is now in fashion as crucial to the understanding and prediction of climate change. Henry Charnock, who died on 27 November 1997, was perhaps unique in that he studied the problem for all of his professional life spanning half a century. He had chosen a very difficult subject which remains intractable by both measurement and theory. Henry made some of the first measurements of wind stress on the sea surface and, later, of the turbulent fluxes of heat, momentum and water vapour that made his reputation as a pioneer in the subject.
Author: J. Findlater. Abstract: It is demonstrated that high-energy flow, in the form of low-level southerly jet streams which have been reported earlier over Kenya, is only one part of a much more extensive current of air which flows rapidly around the western half of the Indian Ocean during the northern summer. The high speeds are associated with the concentration of the cross-equatorial airflow into the zone from longitude 38 deg E to about 55 deg E instead of being rather evenly distributed from 40 deg to 60 deg or 80 deg E as illustrated in many climatological atlases and charts of mean flow during the season. The high-speed current is shown to flow intermittently from the vicinity of Mauritius through Madagascar, Kenya, eastern Ethiopia, Somalia and thence across the Indian Ocean to the west coast of India and beyond. The stream is occasionally reinforced by northward flow through the Mozambique Channel. The high-speed air current, or system of low-level jet streams, is closely associated with the Intertropical Convergence Zone over the Arabian Sea and western India, and variations in the strength of the stream over Kenya during a two month period were related to the rainfall which western India received from the south-west monsoon.
Author: R. A. S. Ratcliffe, R. Murray. Abstract: A feed-back relationship, at least in the statistical mean, between Atlantic sea surface temperatures on the one hand and monthly atmospheric circulation anomalies on the other hand, is demonstrated for the north-east Atlantic and western Europe. The key area in the Atlantic is a wide area south of Newfoundland; colder than usual ocean surfaces in this area are shown to be associated with blocked atmospheric patterns the following month over northern and western Europe while a warmer than usual ocean in the same general area favours more progressive synoptic types to follow. Month to month changes in this general relationship are described in some detail and the application to long-range forecasting in the British Isles is discussed. One other pattern of Atlantic sea surface temperature anomaly is also described and associated with atmospheric circulation patterns to follow. Possible inter-relationship between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in respect of the effects of ocean surface temperatures on circulation patterns is also briefly considered.
Author: P. J. Crutzen. Abstract: The probable importance of NO and NO2 in controlling the ozone concentrations and production rates in the stratosphere is pointed out. Observations on and determinations of nitric acid concentrations in the stratosphere by Murcray, Kyle, Murcray and Williams (1968) and Rhine, Tubbs and Dudley Williams (1969) support the high NO and NO2 concentrations indicated by Bates and Hays (1967). Some processes which may lead to production of nitric acid are discussed. The importance of O (1S), possibly produced in the ozone photolysis below 2340 Å, on the ozone photochemistry is mentioned.
Author: C. D. Rodgers. Commentary: First QJ paper on theory of satellite data interpretation. This QJ paper from 1970 contains much of the theory that is still used today. Abstract: The present state of the art of retrieving the atmospheric temperature profile from remote measurements is briefly described, and methods based on maximum probability and minimum variance criteria are discussed. A maximum probability method is derived for the case of a cloudy atmosphere and synthetic examples of its use are given. The method is numerically fast and is capable of being generalized to incorporate other kinds of information. Such extra information might be for example surface temperature, cloud estimates from television pictures or forecast profiles.
Improbably for someone carrying his surname and possessed of a firm Yorkshire background, Reginald Cockcroft Sutcliffe first saw light of day on 16 November 1904 at Wrexham, North Wales, where his father was filling the post of manager to the Wrexham Co-operative. Reginald (or `Reggie’ as he was always known) was the third of four sons of Ormerod Sutcliffe and his wife May (nee Cockcroft).
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