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Table of Contents

Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962

Foreword

Terminology

Prologue

Preface

Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950

Chapter 2: International Meteorology
Meetings of the IMO Technical Commissions in Toronto
The IMO Conference of Directors, Washington DC
The US Weather Bureau
Meeting of IMO Regional Association for the South-west Pacific
Meetings of the IMO International Meteorological Committee

Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955

Chapter 4: A Year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chapter 5: The Dwyer Years, 1955 to 1962

Chapter 6: A Springboard for the Future

Appendix 1: References

Appendix 2: Reports, Papers, Manuscripts

Appendix 3: Milestones

Appendix 4: Acknowledgements

Appendix 5: Summary by H. N. Warren of the Operation of the Meteorological Section of Allied Air Headquarters, Brisbane, 1942–45

Endnotes

Index
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Chapter 2: International Meteorology

A useful summary of the history of international meteorology is included in Chapter 1 of the history of the World Meteorological Organization edited by Davies (1990). Arthur Davies, as Secretary-General of the WMO from 1955 to 1979 played a prominent role in the development of that Organization. Other useful references are those of Daniel (1973) and Van Meighem (1969).

Although there had been significant developments in meteorology in the 18th century, Matthew Fontaine Maury, of the US Navy, was instrumental in convening the first truly International Meteorological Conference in Brussels in August 1853. I have paid tribute to the efforts of Maury and his English collaborator, Admiral Robert FitzRoy, in an earlier publication (Gibbs, 1975).

Maury's initiative was followed by an agreement at an International Meteorological Conference in Vienna in September 1873 that an International Meteorological Organization (IMO) should be formed. The members of that Organization were the directors of meteorological services, whereas the members of the WMO are the governments of countries whose Permanent Representatives are usually the directors of the meteorological services of those countries.

My first involvement with overseas meteorologists occurred during the war when I served with General Kenney's Allied Air Headquarters in Brisbane from 1942 to 1944. Contact with meteorologists of the US Navy and US Air Force and with John A Day, a meteorologist working for Pan American Airlines, made me aware of the benefits to be derived from discussions with colleagues from other countries. Group Captain H. N. Warren, as head of the RAAF Meteorological Service, worked closely with senior meteorologists in the various Allied armed forces in coordinating provision of meteorological services for military operations in the South-west Pacific. I believe this was his first contact with overseas meteorologists.


People in Bright Sparcs - FitzRoy, Robert; Maury, Matthew Fontaine; Warren, Herbert Norman

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Gibbs, W. J. 1999 'A Very Special Family: Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1946 to 1962', Metarch Papers, No. 13 May 1999, Bureau of Meteorology

© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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