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
Research (continued)
Another textbook I valued was the Compendium of Meteorology produced by the American Meteorological Society in 1951 which I acquired during my year of study at MIT in 1951–52. Of the 107 articles in the compendium those which I found of greatest interest were 'On the Physics of Clouds and Precipitation' by Henry Houghton, 'Dynamic forecasting by Numerical Process' by J G Charney, 'Atmospheric Tides and Oscillations' by Sydney Chapman, 'Observational Studies of General Circulation Patterns' by Jerome Namias and Philip F. Clapp, 'Tropical Meteorology' by C. E. Palmer, 'Tropical Cyclones' by Gordon E. Dunn and 'Antarctic Atmospheric Circulation' by Arnold Court.I was interested in Houghton's article because of its relevance to the CSIRO cloud-seeding activity, in Chapman's article because of my interest in corrections for diurnal and semi-diurnal pressure variations in the study of isallobars, and in Palmer's article because it supported the views we had independently developed in the Allied Air Headquarters in Brisbane during the war. The other articles in my preferred list were to become especially relevant in the Bureau's development.
The periodic issues of the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, the Meteorological Magazine of the UK Meteorological Office, the Journal of Meteorology published by the American Meteorological Society and the Monthly Weather Review of the US Weather Bureau were available in the Bureau's Central Office and Divisional Office libraries and were eagerly read by many of our meteorologists.
Timcke agreed with my suggestion that we have two new series, Project Reports and Meteorological Studies, contributions to which are listed in Appendices 1 and 2. My hope was that those outside of the Central Office Research Section might contribute to them. They were distributed widely in the Bureau, and also to Bill Priestley's Section of Atmospheric Physics and Fritz Loewe's Meteorological Section of the University of Melbourne.
At that time there was little recognition of the scientific achievements of the Bureau. The primitive method of reproduction of many of the Bureau's publications may have contributed to this. Moreover, in the late 1940s and early 1950s there was a general feeling that most of the useful ideas came from the meteorological centres of learning and meteorological organisations in the UK, Europe and the US.
Publication in journals from those countries was regarded as recognition of scientific worth. About that time two of my papers were published, one in the Journal of Meteorology and one in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (Gibbs, 1952, 1953).
People in Bright Sparcs - Loewe, Fritz; Priestley, Charles Henry Brian (Bill); Timcke, Edward Waldemar
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