Reflections: A Memoir

141 Pages·2001·18.005 MB·English

by  David Atlas (auth.)

Refilections
A Memoir

by
David Atlas
American Meteorological Society
REFLECTIONS: A MEMOIR
Distinguished Visiting Scientist
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland 20771
REFLECTIONS: A MEMOIR
by
David Atlas
© Copyright 2001 by the American Meteorological Society.
Permission to use figures and brief excerpts from this
monograph in scientific and educational works is hereby
granted provided the source is acknowledged. All rights
reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, without the prior written
permission ofthe publisher.
ISBN 978-1-878220-46-2 ISBN 978-1-935704-07-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-935704-07-2
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 2001
Published by the American Meteorological Society
45 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108
Ronald D. McPherson, Executive Director
Keith L. Seitter, Deputy Executive Director
Kenneth F. Heideman, Director of Publications
Kate O'Halloran, Copy Editor
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. A Memoir-Why? ........................................................... 1
Chapter 2. Early Years ..................................................................... 3
Chapter 3. All Weather Flying Division, 1945-48......................... 7
Chapter 4. Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories,
Geophysics Research Directorate-1948-66
Section 1. Background.. ......... .... .................. ................ 13
Section 2. Angels and Clear-Air Turbulence ............. 16
Section 3. Back to the Early Days ............................. 21
Section 4. Personal Reflections on Stewart Marshall
and Walter Hitschfeld................ ................ 25
Section 5. My Sabbatical in England-1959-60 ...... 26
Section 6. The Soviet Union ....................................... 32
Chapter 5. The University of Chicago-1966-1972 ..................... 41
Illustrations.. .... ................................... ............................... ................ 53
Chapter 6. The National Center for Atmospheric Research-
1972-1977
Section 1. Atmospheric Technology Division,
1972-73....................................................... 69
Section 2. National Hail Research Experiment,
1974-75 ...................................................... 72
Chapter 7. American Meteorological Society................................ 81
Chapter 8. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Goddard
Laboratory for Atmospheric Sciences, 1977-84......... 87
Chapter 9. The Wanderer, 1984-2000
Section 1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory....................... 103
Section 2. Tropical Rain Measuring Mission........... 105
Chapter 10. The Battan Memorial and 40th Anniversary
Conference on Radar Meteorology and the
Conference Book Radar in Meteorology................... 111
Chapter 11. Radar Detection of Low-Level Wind Shear.............. 113
Chapter 12. Some Thoughts on Science Management................. 117
Chapter 13. Retrospective .............................................................. 119
Epilogue................................................ ............................................ 123
Acknowledgments ............................................................................ 125
VI CONTENTS
Appendix A: Acronyms .... ... ...... .... ... .... .... ...... .............. ...... .... .... ...... 127
Appendix B: Biographical Sketch .................... ........ .... ...... ............. 129
Appendix C: Basic Radar Meteorology........................................... 131
References ........................................................................................ 137
Dedication
This memoir is dedicated to my colleagues who stimulated me and
filled the gaps in my scientific arsenal, and to my wife Lucille, with
love; she provided my emotional balance wheel through highs and
lows.
CHAPTER 1
A Memoir-Why?
It was not until this memoir was well underway that I fully
appreciated why I had to do it. As the remaining years dwindled away,
I got a yearning to take stock of the 56 years that I have spent as a
meteorologist. I needed to take a retrospective look while my memory
still served me, with the perspective of one who has seen the evolution
of the discipline in general and of radar meteorology in particular.
From this view at the apex of the remarkable scientific developments
of the second half of the twentieth century, I wondered how the work
that my colleagues and I had done in a seemingly helter-skelter
fashion fitted into a coherent picture of the present state of the art. I
also thought it would be fun to relive the exquisite joys I have experi
enced as a researcher and to reevaluate some of the painful periods.
At first, I approached this task reluctantly, because I wanted it to
be a story about the scientific process rather than an account of my
personal activities, and it was not clear how this could be done. Finally,
I realized that my own story was the foreground for a bigger picture
that comprised the milieu in which we worked. My hesitancy was also
overcome by encouragement from a number of my colleagues to put my
recollections to paper for the record. I am doing so because I am one of
the last of the surviving pioneers who is still active, and whose career
began with the birth of radar during WWII. In a way, I serve as the
corporate memory of that wondrous group of people who have left the
scene. I hope I do them justice.
An outline of the evolution of radar meteorology can be gleaned
from the literature, but nowhere can one find the important details
the nuances, the role of chance and opportunity, and the human
dimensions. Some of the men and women involved were my colleagues
and mentors; some were the innovators whose work stimulated my
own; we were all competitors in this exciting race; and most were my
cherished friends. I knew most of them, whether in the United States
or abroad. I have also participated in a variety of tangential disciplines
such as severe storms, precipitation physics, weather modification,
oceanography, and aviation. I have worked both in academe and in
1
2 CHAPrER 1
various government institutions. And I have played a modest role in
public policy. The result is that I have a broad perspective that may
prove useful to those following in our footsteps. Finally, I shall take the
liberty to provide some comments on the conduct and nature of the
scientific process and the institutions that manage it.
This is not a history of the field of radar meteorology, such as the
excellent accounts that have been written by Hitschfeld (1), Rogers and
Smith (2), or the series that appear in the book Radar in Meteorology
(3). Rather, it is a personal story of the various people and institutions
with which I was associated, and the most significant developments in
which we participated. I have emphasized those endeavors that either
were pivotal, were particularly great fun, or offer lessons good or bad,
and in which I have played a significant role. For me this has been a
great adventure story.
Of course, this journey started at an opportune time and could not
have been accomplished alone. I was fortunate to be there at the birth
of radar meteorology. This was a time when the total weather radar
community comprised some 50 people who knew each other. We were
close-knit and met frequently in small conferences where we delighted
in telling each other about our work and were not reluctant to criticize.
New insights and discoveries came fast and furiously for there was
something novel to see and explain every time we turned on the radar.
Our friendships blossomed into those mysterious symbiotic collabora
tions that yield explosions of discovery. I have had the good fortune to
have more than my share of such relationships; they are an intrinsic
element of this story.
I've attempted to avoid excessive scientific and technical detail to
permit understanding by the lay reader. For those who are interested,
you will find a brief tutorial on some of the fundamentals of radar
meteorology in Appendix C. If a particular paragraph is incomprehen
sible, I suggest skipping it. Numbers in parentheses refer to references
found at the back.