Abstract
On April 27, 1955, Harry Wexler was summoned to a meeting at the International Geophysical Year (IGY) headquarters by Joseph Kaplan, chair of the U.S. National Committee, for an “important” matter. “Upon arriving,” Wexler noted in his diary, “I found Larry Gould, Lloyd Berkner, Joe Kaplan, Lincoln Washburn, Wally Joyce, and Hugh Odishaw. They asked me if I would accept the post of ‘Chief Scientist’ of the US/IGY Antarctic Expedition—duties to begin immediately.”1 Wexler, chief of Scientific Services at the U.S. Weather Bureau (USWB), was intrigued, yet concerned about the effect that this assignment might have on his own research and responsibilities.
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Notes
Gisela Kutzbach, “Rossby, Carl-Gustaf Arvid,” Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography 11 (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2008), 557–559.
Harry Wexler, “A Comparison of the Linke and Angstrom Measures of Atmospheric Turbidity and Their Application to North American Air Masses,” Transactions, American Geophysical Union 14 (April 1933): 92–99.
Harry Wexler, “Cooling in the Lower Atmosphere and the Structure of Polar Continental Air,” Monthly Weather Review 64 (April 1936): 122–136; “Formation of Polar Anticyclones,” Monthly Weather Review 65 (June 1937): 229–236; “Observations of Nocturnal Radiation at Fairbanks, Alaska, and. Fargo, N. Dak.,” Monthly Weather Review Supplement 46 (1941).
K. Weyprecht, “Scientific Work on the Second Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedition, 1872–4,” Royal Geographical Society Journal 45 (1875):19–33;
I. Bowman, “Polar Exploration” Science n.s. 72 (1930): 439–449.
For further details, see James Rodger Fleming and Cara Seitchek, “Advancing Polar Research and Communicating Its Wonders: Quests, Questions, and Capabilities of Weather and Climate Studies in International Polar Years,” in Smithsonian at the Poles: Contributions to International Polar Year Science, I. Krupnik, M.A. Lang, and S.E. Miller, eds. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2009), 1–12.
Harry Wexler, “The Structure of the September 1944 Hurricane When Off Cape Henry, Virginia,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 26 (May 1945): 156–159.
Harry Wexler, “Meteorological Aspects of Atomic Radiation,” Science 124 (July 20, 1956): 105–112.
Ray Wexler, “Radar Detection of a Frontal Storm 18 June 1946,” Journal of Meteorology 4 (1947): 38–44;
Harry Wexler, “Structure of Hurricanes as Determined by Radar,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 48 (September 15, 1947): 821–844.
Harry Wexler, “Meteorology and Air Pollution,” American Journal of Public Health, Part II, Yearbook 41 (May 1951); “Turbidities of American Air Masses and Conclusions Regarding the Seasonal Variation in Atmospheric Dust Content,” Monthly Weather Review 62 (November 1934): 397–402;
(with H.H. Schrenk, H. Heimann, G.D. Clayton, and W.M. Gafafer), “Air Pollution in Donora, Pa.: Epidemiology of the Unusual Smog Episode of October 1948,’’ Public Health Bulletin No. 306 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Public Health Service, 1949). “The Great Smoke Pall— September 24–30, 1950,” Weatherwise 3 (December 1950): 129–134, 142.
Harry Wexler, “Variations in Insolation, General Circulation, and Climate,” Tellus 8 (November 1956): 480–494.
Warren M. Washington, “Computer Modeling the Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century Climate,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 150 (September 2006): 414–427.
James R. Fleming, “A 1954 Color Painting of Weather Systems as Viewed from a Future Satellite,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 88 (October 2007): 25–27.
Harry Wexler, “Observing the Weather from a Satellite Vehicle,” Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 13 (1954): 269–276; “The Satellite and Meteorology,” Journal of Astronautics 4 (Spring 1957): 1–6; Wexler had made considerable progress since 1954 in his thinking about the role of meteorological satellites. See “Meteorological Satellites,” Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, vol. III: Using Space, John M. Logsdon, ed., (Washington, D.C.: NASA History Office, 1998), 156, and http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4407/vol3/cover.pdf.
Harry Wexler, “Meteorology in the International Geophysical Year,” Scientific Monthly 84 (March 1957): 141–145.
Sydney Chapman, “Presidential Address 28 Jan. 1957,” Annals of the International Geophysical Year 1 (1959): 3.
Harry Wexler, “A Warming Trend at Little America, Antarctica,’’ Weather 14 (June 1959): 191–197; “Additional Comments on the Warming Trend at Little America, Antarctica,” Weather 16 (February 1961): 56–58. For a summary of the issues, see Harry Wexler (with M.J. Rubin and J.E. Caskey Jr., eds.), “Antarctic Research: the Matthew Fontaine Maury Memorial Symposium,” American Geophysical Union Geophysical Monograph 7 (1962).
Harry Wexler (with W.B. Moreland and W.S. Weyant), “A Preliminary Report on Ozone Observations at Little America, Antarctica,” Monthly Weather Review 88 (February 1960): 43–54.
H. Wexler, “Modifying Weather on a Large Scale,” Science n.s. 128 (October 31, 1958): 1059–1063.
S. Manabe and F. Möller, “On the Radiative Equilibrium and Balance of the Atmosphere,” Monthly Weather Review 89 (1961): 503–532.
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© 2010 Roger D. Launius, James Rodger Fleming, and David H. DeVorkin
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Fleming, J.R. (2010). Polar and Global Meteorology in the Career of Harry Wexler, 1933–62. In: Launius, R.D., Fleming, J.R., DeVorkin, D.H. (eds) Globalizing Polar Science. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230114654_13
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