Meteorology

Interviewed by
Frank Amico
Interview dates
August 9 & 12, 2024
Location
NCAR Mesa Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado
Abstract

Interview with Clara Deser, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Deser describes growing up in Massachusetts with intellectual parents, her father being physicist Stanley Deser and her mother being an artist. She recalls her early schooling, including time spent in France during her father’s sabbatical, which is where she discovered her love for maps. Deser discusses the beginning of her undergraduate studies at Smith College before transferring to MIT, where she became interested in geology, earth sciences, meteorology, and oceanography. She shares stories from her field work as a seagoing oceanographer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where she worked after graduation. Deser explains her decision to pursue graduate studies in atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington under Mike Wallace. She reflects on the sense of camaraderie within the department and describes her thesis research on El Niño. The interview concludes with Deser recalling the many conferences she has attended over the years and her involvement in the American Meteorological Society. 

Interviewed by
Gilles Daigle
Interview date
Location
National Research Council in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Abstract

In this interview with former Acoustical Society of America president Mike Stinson, the discussion begins with Stinson’s experiences as a member of the society and recollections of his work with Shyam Khanna. The interview then shifts to Stinson’s youth near Vancouver, British Columbia, including his undergraduate education and master’s degree work in physics at Simon Fraser University. Stinson then recounts work in the sawmill industry and his decision to pursue a doctorate at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, involving research on the electrical and thermal conduction properties of metals at low temperatures. Stinson discusses his career at the National Research Council of Canada, where he moved into acoustics, working with researchers such as Gilles Daigle, Dave Havelock, Edgar Shaw, and Tony Embleton, and technicians such as Allen Hellard and Marina Vaillancourt.  He also recounts particular projects, such as work on the acoustics of Blackberry devices and the effects of atmospheric turbulence on sound, as well as the NRC’s decision to discontinue his group and his establishment of the company MG Acoustics with Daigle, who is also the interviewer.

Interviewed by
Jon Phillips
Interview date
Location
Teleconference
Abstract

In this interview, Jon Phillips, Assistant Oral Historian for AIP, interviews Peter Gilman, Senior Scientist Emeritus in the High Altitude Observatory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Gilman recounts his early interest and education in meteorology and introduction to solar physics as an undergraduate, and his graduate research on solar dynamics with Victor Starr at MIT. He describes his early work at the University of Colorado and his move to, and rapid ascent at the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Gilman discusses his leadership role as Director of NCAR’s Advanced Study Program, and his own ongoing research in magnetohydrodynamics and helioseismology, followed by an overview of the history of NCAR, the High Altitude Observatory, and the relocation of the National Solar Observatory to Boulder. Gilman goes on to discuss the state of solar dynamo theory and solar-cycle activity predictions, in particular the predictions for solar cycles 24 and 25. The last portion of the interview focuses on the many “firsts” Gilman contributed to the field, particularly in magnetohydrodynamic modeling of the sun.

Interviewed by
Nils Randlev Hundebøl
Interview date
Location
Belmont, California
Abstract

In this interview, Chuck Hakkarinen discusses topics such as: his career with Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), climate modeling, Model Evaluation Consortium for Climate Assessment (MECCA) project; his education in meteorology and air polution; Willard Libby; University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Chauncey Starr; Sam Schurr; Peter Hobbs; his father's work on the Naval Oceanographic Meteorological Automatic Device (NOMAD); precipitation chemistry networks; United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); Rene Males; American Meteorological Society (AMS); Helmut Landsberg; carbon dioxide; climate research; Geophysical Monitoring for Climate Change (GMCC); Ralph Cicerone; George Hidy; Richard Anthes; Warren Washington; National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); Ralph Perhac; Peter Mueller; North American Regional Climate Change Assessment Program (NARCCAP); Climate Simulation Laboratory; National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA); Ann Henderson-Sellers; Tom Wigley; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Dick Balzhiser.

Interviewed by
Ronald Doel
Interview date
Location
Middleburg, Virginia
Abstract

Descriptions of other Spilhaus oral history interviews that cover childhood as well as career in education and public service; impressions of graduate education at Massachusetts Institute of Technlogy (MIT), early 1930s; work at Sperry Corporation. Meteorological research at MIT (C.-G. Rossby, C. S. Draper); meteorological work with Technical Services, South African Army, 1935-1936. Return to MIT, 1936; develops bathythermograph; life at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Professorship in Meteorology at New York University; impressions of department. Develops ozone research project; post-World War II involvement in numerical weather forecasting (John Von Neumann). Dean of Institute of Technology at University of Minnesota, 1949-1966; involvement in weapons testing, involvement in United States National Committee of the International Geophysical Year; impressions of committee members and its operations. National Academy of Sciences advisory panels on oceanography and waste management. Personal philosophy.

Interviewed by
Spencer Weart
Interview date
Abstract

Brief overview of the history of numerical general circulation models from about 1950-1970, centering on Smagorinsky's group, including Syukuro Manabe, at the U. S. Weather Bureau, The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the General Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton. Notes the interactions with weather predictions and climate change concerns, especially carbon dioxide warnings (greenhouse effect).

Interviewed by
Spencer Weart
Interview date
Location
NASA Center, New York City, New York
Abstract

Topics include: his youth and education at the University of Iowa (1959-1967); work on his Ph.D. with Van Allen and Satoshi Matsushima; research at Kyoto University, Japan with Matsushima and Sueo Ueno (1965-1966); NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (1969); Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, planetary science and his work on Venus; aerosols; building a General Circulation Model; the work of Chandrasekar, Carl Sagan, Jim Pollack, Jastrow, Akio Arakawa, Jules Charney; global warming; collaboration with Wallace Broecker and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; working with Northern and Southern hemisphere meteorological station data.

Interviewed by
Spencer Weart
Interview date
Location
Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City, New York
Abstract

Topics include: his youth and education at the University of Iowa (1959-1967); work on his Ph.D. with Van Allen and Satoshi Matsushima; research at Kyoto University, Japan with Matsushima and Sueo Ueno (1965-1966); NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship (1969); Leiden Observatory, Netherlands, planetary science and his work on Venus; aerosols; building a General Circulation Model; the work of Chandrasekar, Carl Sagan, Jim Pollack, Jastrow, Akio Arakawa, Jules Charney; global warming; collaboration with Wallace Broecker and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory; working with Northern and Southern hemisphere meteorological station data.

Interviewed by
Finn Aaserud
Interview date
Location
Elsasser's office
Abstract

Focussed interview on Elsasser's career in the United States. His decision to emigrate, 1935; on choosing geophysics; California Institute of Technology (Robert Millikan, Theodore von Kármán), 1936-1940; connection between meteorology and work in magnetism; inception of the idea of the dynamo effect (Albert Einstein).

Interviewed by
Paul Edwards
Interview date
Location
University of California, Los Angeles
Abstract

In this interview, Akio Arakawa discusses topics such as: University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); meteorology; his family and education; University of Tokyo; Japan Meteorological Agency; Hidetoshi Arakawa; fluid dynamics and thermodynamics; Michael Schlesinger; weather prediction; FORTRAN; UNIVAC; Yale Mintz; Chuck Leith; Mark Rhodes; Joseph Smagorinsky; Jule Charney; John Von Neumann; Syukuro Manabe; Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL); International Business Machines Corporation (IBM); Pierre Morel; David Randall; climate models; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); Milton Halem; Jim Hansen; United States Department of Transportation (DOT); Rand Corporation; Max Suarez; National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR); National Science Foundation (NSF); Thomas Rosmond; National Academy of Sciences; carbon dioxide.