Bob Leighton Wins AMOS Honor for Climate Studies

The award recognises Bob's work on the climatology of highs and lows over the southern hemisphere and the Australian region.

He was presented with the award at the seventh national conference of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society in Melbourne in February.

Bob has carried out research into synoptic meteorology throughout his career, and since 1965 he has built an archive of cyclonicity and anticyclonicity using NMOC manual analyses.

This independent data set has complimented objective studies based on numerical analyses, especially in the Southern Ocean, where data is limited.

Bob said recently that the statistics had provided a context for short-term synoptic variations, an improved description of within-season variability which limits current seasonal predictions, a basis for assessing numerical model output, and guidance on the typical behaviour of synoptic systems.

Bob's enthusiasm for operational meteorology is coupled with a keenness to share his knowledge with others.

He delivers talks at schools, lectures at Melbourne University and gives briefings for long-distance sailors such as Vinny Lauwers (Weather News, August 1999).

Bob has been an operational meteorologist since 1960, working first in regional offices and then Head Office where he started in the then Central Analysis Office. He has outlasted at least three names for the division.

Bob's role in NMOC is to prepare manual analyses and prognoses for Australian and southern hemisphere regions as guidance for regional forecasters and to cover national activities.

—TONY DAVIS

Bureau of Meteorology