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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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Design of Water Storages, Etc (continued)

All of these bodies were concerned with hydrologic designs either for water supply, hydro-generation of electricity, construction of drainage systems or the building of major water storages. The design of these undertakings depended very much on the space-time distribution of rainfall in Australia and the hydrology of drainage systems, rivers and water storages. The Institution of Engineers had published Rainfall and Runoff, a comprehensive depth-area-duration study.

The entry of the Bureau into the field of hydrometeorology was not regarded as appropriate by many of the Commonwealth and State water authorities although the SMHEA and the WRP welcomed our initiative. The Australian Academy of Science had also shown interest in hydrology by establishing a National Committee to study the subject and the CSIRO had also established a group in Canberra to work in this field.

Gerry O'Mahony had been involved with the staff of the SMHEA in Cooma and at one stage after his return from his year at ANU Gerry and I visited Cooma to discuss their problems with Eric Kraus, whom we shall meet again under the heading of cloud seeding. Our trip in a wartime jeep through the Snowy Mountains was a memorable experience, Eric was a delightful guide who had been recruited as resident meteorologist with SMHEA after a period of working for Taffy Bowen in the CSIRO Division of Radiophysics. Allan Rainbird was later seconded to SMHEA from September 1960 to August 1961 when Eric Kraus was granted a year's leave of absence to study at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the US.

The water authorities and research workers associated with design of water storages, drainage systems and flood mitigation required an accurate and complete description of the frequency distribution of the depth-area-duration of rainfall. The requirement for information on depth (amount) of rainfall and its duration ranged from an assessment of the duration of low rainfalls (to see if a storage would be economically viable) to an assessment of the duration of extremely high rainfalls (to see what size of drainage channels and dam walls would be required). In some cases a balance needed to be struck by risk of high rainfalls and cost of construction so that a design might envisage occasional flooding (once in twenty years) as acceptable. In other cases (such as construction of earth-fill dams) spillway design was required to provide for the maximum possible rainfall.


People in Bright Sparcs - Bowen, Edward George (Taffy); Dwyer, Leonard Joseph; O'Mahony, Gerard (Gerry)

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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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