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Federation and MeteorologyBureau of Meteorology
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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

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
Leonard Joseph Dwyer—A Complex Character
Reorganising the Bureau
Public Weather Services
Forecasts for the General Public
Importance of Radio Stations
The Advent of Television
Automatic Telephone Forecast Service
Beacons
Wording and Verification of Forecasts
Warnings
Services for Aviation
Atomic Weapons Tests
Atomic Weapons Tests—Mosaic G1 and G2
Atomic Weapons Tests—Buffalo 1, 2, 3 and 4
Atomic Weapons Tests—Operations Antler, 2 and 3
Atomic Weapons Tests—Minor Trials
Instruments and Observations
Radiosondes
Radar/Radio Winds and Radar Weather Watch
Automatic Weather Stations
Sferics
Meteorological Satellites
Telecommunications
Tropical Cyclones
Bureau Conference on Tropical Cyclones
International Symposium on Tropical Cyclones, Brisbane
Hydrometeorology
Design of Water Storages, Etc
Flood Forecasting
Cloud Seeding
Reduction of Evaporation
Rain Seminar
Cloud Physics
Fire Weather
Research and Special Investigations
International Activities
The International Geophysical Year
The Antarctic and Southern Ocean
International Symposium on Antarctic Meteorology
International Antarctic Analysis Centre
ADP, EDP and Computers
Training
Publications
Management Conference
Services Conference
CSIRO and the Universities
Achievements of the Dwyer Years

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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Radar/Radio Winds and Radar Weather Watch

Geoff Goodman had been preoccupied with hastening the installation of 277 radars with Reg Stout assisting in bringing them into operation. By February 1955 eight 277 radars were in operation at Adelaide Airport, Alice Springs, Bowes Avenue, Cloncurry, Hobart, Laverton/Melbourne, Lord Howe Island and Williamtown, with Metox radiotheodolites operating at Cocos and Norfolk Islands.

With DCA installing some of the radars and the Bureau the others, five more 277s were in operation at Eagle Farm, Charleville, Forrest, Perth and Garbutt by the end of 1955.

UK Mk VII radars were installed at Giles in August 1956 and Macquarie Island in February 1958, Metox radiotheodolites were installed at Lae in October 1956 and Honiara in 1958, and 277 radars were installed at Gladstone in November 1957 and at Darwin Airport in 1958.

The last of the 277 radars was installed at Mackay in September 1959. Much earlier we had become well aware that the 277 radars acquired by Warren in the early post-war years could be efficient weather watchers as well as good wind-finders. It had not been easy for Geoff Goodman and Reg Stout, assisted by a willing band of observers (radio) to get them working and maintain them in operation, but the efficiency with which they could track precipitation patterns, particularly those associated with tropical cyclones, offered a new dimension in cyclone warning accuracy. They also provided a highly useful research opportunity to track the extent and movement of precipitation in thunderstorms, scanning both with rotating azimuth bearings at fixed angles of elevation and vertical scanning at fixed azimuths and oscillating angles of elevation.

The proven usefulness of radar for weather watching led to the purchase of SNW51 weather watching radars which were installed at the Cape Byron lighthouse in October 1960 and at Cairns Airport in January 1961. This equipment was not as effective as the 277 radars but was the best weather watching radar readily available.


People in Bright Sparcs - Dwyer, Leonard Joseph; Stout, Reginald William (Reg); 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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