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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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The Antarctic and Southern Ocean (continued)

During the Dwyer years I did not have as much time to socialise with the ANARE people as I had in the Warren years but I have fond memories of the many occasions I shared their sense of comradeship and robust good humour.

Observations from the Antarctic and Southern Ocean during the IGY and thereafter revealed an amazing complexity of atmospheric behaviour including the disappearance of the Antarctic tropopause, the katabatic wind, the baroclinicity in the ocean in the vicinity of Heard Island (the ocean convergence), the influence of pack ice and the generation and track of Southern Ocean cyclones.

The fifth assembly of CSAGI in Moscow in July/August 1958 had discussed continuation of the IGY program of observations and research after the IGY, collection and publication of data and other procedural matters. The Australian delegation was Professor Bullen, Fred Jacka of ANARE and myself. Other delegates included Panzarini from Argentina, Van Meighem from Belgium, Van Rooy from South Africa, Robin from the UK, Wexler and Cartwright from the US, Somov and Krischak from USSR and Ashford representing WMO. We used the opportunity to extend invitations to attend the symposium on Antarctic meteorology in Melbourne in February 1959 for which Len Dwyer had secured Government approval. The Argentineans advertised a similar symposium proposed for Buenos Aires later in that year.

The US delegation suggested that a Weather Central for the Antarctic should be located outside Antarctica as the International Antarctic Weather Central located at the US base at Little America was not likely to continue operation after the conclusion of the IGY in December 1958. The Australian delegation indicated that it may be possible to locate an Antarctic Weather Central in Melbourne.

My report on the CSAGI assembly included notes on visits to The Institute of Physics of the Atmosphere and the headquarters of the USSR Hydrometeorological Service. It indicated that the USSR Institute of Physics was engaged in an examination of numerical weather forecasting techniques while the analysis centre in the headquarters of the Hydrometeorological Service employed similar techniques of synoptic analysis and forecasting to those we used in Melbourne but made a synoptic analysis of the whole of the Earth and produced long-range as well as short-range forecasts.

Annals of the IGY Vol XI titled 'Fifth Meeting of CSAGI' published in 1961 by Pergamon Press, London, includes copies of papers delivered by W. J. Gibbs, H. Wexler and O. G. Krichak dealing with Antarctic and Southern Ocean meteorology. The list of contents also includes the titles of 11 papers on numerical forecasting by authors from the US, UK, USSR, Germany and Sweden.


People in Bright Sparcs - Dwyer, Leonard Joseph; 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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