Memories of the Bureau, 1946 to 1962
Foreword
Terminology
Prologue
Preface
Chapter 1: The Warren Years, 1946 to 1950
Chapter 2: International Meteorology
Chapter 3: The Timcke Years, 1950 to 1955
A Period of Consolidation
Aviation Services
Services for the General Public
Rockets and Atomic Weapons
Instruments and Observations
Climate and Statistics
International Activities
Training
Publications
Research
Central Analysis and Development
CSIRO
The Universities
The Meteorology Act
Achievements of the Timcke Years
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
Search
Help
Contact us
Instruments and Observations (continued)
This was a major achievement. It required the development of procedures for site selection, construction of buildings, installation of equipment, maintenance and operation of equipment and calculation of winds. It was also necessary for staff to be recruited and trained for the various operations. As the program for upgrading the observational network progressed in subsequent years Bill Brann's staff included meteorologists, physicists, engineers, technical officers, technicians, instrument makers, laboratory assistants and clerical assistants. They were magnificent in producing an observational network without which the Bureau's achievement in providing improved services and making significant contributions in research and development would not have been possible.A significant part of the Bureau's observational upper air network were the sub-Antarctic stations at Heard and Macquarie Islands established by ANARE in late 1947 and early 1948. As described in Chapter 1, Wing Commander Stuart Campbell was head of ANARE when these stations were established, using the somewhat unseaworthy LST 3501 Labuan. Living conditions were somewhat primitive and Bureau staff who served at those islands during the Timcke years participated in a great adventure.
In 1949 Stuart Campbell was succeeded as head of ANARE by Phil Law who in the succeeding years was to create a great awareness in the Australian people of the romantic nature of ANARE in Antarctica.
Phil led an ANARE expedition in Kista Dan (a ship more suited to working in ice than any of the earlier vessels) to establish a station, Mawson, on the Antarctic continent at which a long series of surface and upper air meteorological observations has been made.
Chapter 1 mentions the Americans having 'shown the flag' with Operation Highjump in 1947–48 and Operation Windmill in 1948–49 with task forces of many ships and aircraft. They were followed by the French who soon established a station at Adelie Land.
By the end of the Timcke years in 1955 a number of meteorological stations had been established on the Antarctic continent and, as we shall see in Chapter 5, it only remained for the International Geophysical Year to generate a network of meteorological observations which, for the first time, provided a comprehensive synopsis of Antarctic meteorology.
People in Bright Sparcs - Brann, Harold Walter Allen Neale (Bill); Timcke, Edward Waldemar; Warren, Herbert Norman
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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