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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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International Activities (continued)

On 20 December 1961 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 1721 (XVI) which called on WMO and ITU to examine the possibility of using satellites in outer space for the peaceful purposes of telecommunications and meteorology.

There is no doubt that various organs of the US Government had been exploring the possibility of reducing the risk of the use of outer space for military purposes and had considered the alternative of a meteorological satellite from the time of the launching of the Russian Sputnik in October 1957, the American Explorer 1 in January 1958 and the meteorological satellite Tiros 1 in April 1960.

The idea of a World Weather Watch had been proposed by Harry Wexler at the meetings of our Panel of Experts on Meteorological Satellites in Geneva in November 1959, Washington in March 1960 and Geneva in March 1962. Harry Wexler and Victor Bugaev were attached to the WMO Secretariat in Geneva to prepare a response to the United Nations request in Resolution 1721 (XVI) of December 1961 a reply of which was formally transmitted from the WMO to the UN in June 1962. Len had died a month before but my reports of the earlier meetings of the Panel of Experts had made him well aware of developments which were the subject of the discussions in the WMO Executive Committee of which he was a member. In considering the plan for a World Weather Watch it was decided that there should be three principal World Centres for the collection and processing of data and Len was aware of the need to prepare a submission to the Australian Government for a positive reply to a likely request that Australia should operate one of these three Centres.

It is interesting to observe that the international cooperation required for the collection and exchange of meteorological information which is essential for the effective operation of national meteorological services made meteorology an obvious area for the achievement of the objectives of UN Resolution 1721 (XVI).

The suitability of meteorology as an area of international cooperation was also useful in implementing the Antarctic Treaty signed on 1 December 1959. Len Dwyer attended a meeting of representatives of the 12 original signatories to the Treaty in Canberra in July 1961, when methods of implementation of the treaty were discussed. Cooperation of meteorologists in Antarctica during the International Geophysical Year in 1957–58 was an obvious demonstration of the ease of obtaining international cooperation between like-minded people.


People in Bright Sparcs - Dwyer, Leonard Joseph

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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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