15 Most Influential Meteorologists and Atmospheric Scientists Of All Time

15 Most Influential Meteorologists and Atmospheric Scientists Of All Time

The formal study of the atmosphere that surrounds Earth from just above the ground to near space where a vacuum exists, is referred to as atmospheric sciences. Atmospheric science has been divided into three fields of study meteorology, climatology, and aerology. Meteorology in particular involves the study of the motion and phenomena of the troposphere and also seeks to predict the weather and explain the various processes involved in weather and atmospheric phenomena. Weather and climate are studied, reported on, and forecasted by atmospheric scientists. Famous meteorologists include historical forecasters, current forecasters, and people from all across the world. Some were forecasting weather long before the name “meteorologist” was coined. Let’s take a look at 15 of the most influential meteorologists and atmospheric scientists of all time.

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1. Vilhelm Bjerknes

Bjerknes Family, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes was a Norwegian scientist and meteorologist who helped lay the groundwork for contemporary weather forecasting. He founded the so-called Bergen School of Meteorology which was successful in developing weather prediction and meteorology in the early twentieth century, and he formulated the foundational equations that are still used in numerical weather prediction. Bjerknes’ significant contribution was the development of primitive equations used in climate models. He concluded that the best way to understand atmospheric motion is to integrate hydrodynamics with thermodynamics. Also, he was aware that the sun’s heat is converted into motion in our environment.

2. Isaac Newton

Despite Newton’s primary interests in physics and mathematics, he was also influential in meteorology and atmospheric research. Through his three theories of motion and his law of gravitation, Newton made substantial advances in the discipline of astronomy. His laws of motion regulate the motion of objects in our Universe like balls, vehicles, planes, planets, and stars. He found concentric colored rings in the thin film of air between a lens and a flat sheet of glass; the distance between these concentric circles (Newton’s rings) increases with the increasing thickness of the film of air.

3. Edmund Halley

Richard Phillips, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edmond Halley was an astronomer, mathematician, and physicist from England. He was Britain’s second Astronomer Royal, succeeding John Flamsteed in 1720. In 1690, Halley developed a diving bell, which refreshed the atmosphere by sending down weighted barrels of air from the surface. In a demonstration, Halley and five colleagues dove to 60 feet in the River Thames and stayed there for nearly an hour and a half. Halley’s bell was too heavy for practical salvage operations, but he did improve it over time, eventually extending his underwater exposure time to more than 4 hours. He cataloged the southern celestial hemisphere and recorded Mercury’s transit across the Sun from an observatory he built on Saint Helena. He realized that a Venus transit might be used to calculate the distances between Earth, Venus, and the Sun.

4. Jule Gregory Charney

By creating a number of progressively complex mathematical models of the atmosphere, American meteorologist Jule Gregory Charney significantly contributed to the development of numerical weather prediction and the improvement of our understanding of the general circulation of the atmosphere. Numerous projects and programs related to weather at the national and international levels were inspired by his work. Charney, who is regarded as the founder of contemporary dynamical meteorology, is said to have “more significantly guided the postwar development of contemporary meteorology than any other living figure.”

5. James Pollard Espy

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James Pollard Espy, sometimes known as the storm king was a meteorologist in the US. Espy created a convection theory of storms and presented it in 1836 to the American Philosophical Society, in 1840 to the British Royal Society, and in 1840 to the French Académie des Sciences. The Philosophy of Storms, a publication of his thesis, was made in 1840. He was hired as a meteorologist by the War and Navy ministries and he pioneered the use of the telegraph to collect weather observation data, allowing him to track storm development and lay the groundwork for accurate weather forecasting.

6. Carl-Gustaf Rossby

Swedish-American meteorologist Carl-Gustaf Rossby made significant contributions to the study of large-scale air movement and the formulation of the equations defining atmospheric motion, which contributed significantly to the quick advancement of meteorology as a science. Rossby was one of the first scientists to identify the issue of global warming and was able to explain the large-scale motions of the atmosphere in terms of fluid mechanics.

7. William Ferrel

http://www.history.noaa.gov/giants/ferrel.html, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The mid-latitude atmospheric circulation cell is explained in depth by theories created by American meteorologist William Ferrel for which the Ferrel cell is called. Ferrel showed that rising warm air has the propensity to draw in air from more equatorial, warmer locations and move it poleward as it rotates due to the Coriolis effect. The intricate curvatures in the frontal systems dividing the warmer tropical air toward the equator from the cooler Arctic/Antarctic air polewards are produced by this rotation. He also investigated how the Sun and Moon affected the tides and the Earth’s rotation around its axis.

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8. William Henry Dines

William Henry Dines developed a pressure-tube anemometer, the first instrument to measure both the velocity and direction of the wind, after developing an interest in wind speed. Dines was a pioneer in the field of using kites and balloons to study the upper atmosphere. He also created a unique meteorograph for upper-air soundings that only weighed around 2 ounces (60 g). For many years, this was the go-to instrument in Britain for upper-atmosphere soundings since it gave a wealth of information on pressure, temperature, and humidity at altitudes high into the stratosphere. His examination of this data produced startling linkages between upper air characteristics and insightful information about the dynamics of cyclones and anticyclones. He also contributed to our understanding of solar and terrestrial radiation.

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9. Jacob Bjerknes

Hedvig Bjerknes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jacob Bjerknes is best known for his work on building the theoretical cyclone model as part of the “Bergen School” in the 1920s. In addition to this research, it was Bjerknes who in the 1960s established the first connection between El Nio and the Southern Oscillation. Bjerknes observed that the sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the eastern end of the Pacific are unusually low for such low latitudes in their default state. There is a significant SST gradient over the equatorial Pacific due to the unusually warm western Pacific. As a result, the atmosphere along the Pacific experiences direct thermal circulation.

10. Lewis Fry Richardson

Lewis Fry Richardson was an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and pacifist who invented contemporary mathematical methods for forecasting the weather as well as the use of related methods to research the reasons behind wars and how to prevent them. He is also renowned for his groundbreaking work on fractals and the modified Richardson iteration approach to solving a system of linear equations.

11. Alexander Buchan

National Library of Norway, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Scottish meteorologist, oceanographer, and botanist Alexander Buchan is credited with developing the weather map, which serves as the foundation for contemporary weather forecasting. In order to predict brief periods of cold or hot weather that came to be known as “Buchan Spells,” he introduced the use of maps of mean temperature, air pressure, and prevailing winds, as well as statistical approaches.

12. George James Symons

George James Symons focused his efforts on gathering data on rainfall, and in 1860 he published the first of his yearly reports on the subject. The report for that year comprised data from 168 sites, but by 1899, the year before his passing, more than 3,500 stations from all around the British Isles were included. He started a series of studies that resulted in the adoption of a standard instrument because he was keenly aware of the issue of consistency that was brought about by the use of various types of rain gauges.

13. Judith Curry

Dr. Judith A. Curry., Attribution, via Wikimedia Commons

Judith A. Curry’s areas of interest span climate models, air-sea interactions, hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. Curry has developed a reputation as a skeptic scientist who runs a blog that is a part of the denial of global warming blogosphere.

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14. Luke Howard

Luke Howard was a British manufacturing chemist and amateur meteorologist with a wide range of scientific interests. He is remembered for his lasting contribution to science, a cloud nomenclature system, that is still in use today. As a result, Howard is known as “The Godfather of Clouds,” the “Namer of Clouds,” and the “Father of Meteorology.”He was also a pioneer in the study of urban climate with his twenty-year statistical record of London’s weather serving as the foundation for his seminal paper The Climate of London.

15. John Dalton

Thomas Phillips, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Dalton was a chemist, physicist, and meteorologist from England. He is most recognized for introducing the atomic idea into chemistry and for his color blindness study. Dalton, who was born and raised in England’s hilly Lake District, was perfectly placed to see a variety of meteorological events. He maintained, contrary to popular belief, that the atmosphere was a physical mixture of roughly 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen rather than a single elemental compound. He measured the air’s ability to absorb water vapor as well as the changing of its partial pressure with temperature. He defined partial pressure in terms of physical law in which every ingredient in a gas mixture exerted the same pressure as if it were the only gas there. Dalton’s contemporaries, including the British scientist John Frederic Daniell, referred to him as the “Father of Meteorology.”

Atmospheric science looks at the frequency of weather events over time scales ranging from years to millennia. That vital piece of these events is provided by atmospheric and space scientists, who research the weather and climate and how they affect human activity and the earth. Weather balloons, radar systems, and satellite photography are used by atmospheric scientists to collect data in the field.