American meteorology was synonymous with subjective weather forecasting in the early twentieth century. Controlled by the Weather Bureau and with no academic programs of its own, the few hundred extant meteorologists had no standing in the scientific community. Until the American Meteorological Society was founded in 1919, meteorologists had no professional society. The post-World War I rise of aeronautics spurred demands for increased meteorological education and training. The Navy arranged the first graduate program in meteorology in 1928 at MIT. It was followed by four additional programs in the interwar years. When the U.S. military found itself short of meteorological support for World War II, a massive training program created thousands of new mathematics- and physics-savvy meteorologists. Those remaining in the field after the war had three goals: to create a mathematics-based theory for meteorology, to create a method for objectively forecasting the weather, and to professionalize the field. Contemporaneously, mathematician John von Neumann was preparing to create a new electronic digital computer which could solve, via numerical analysis, the equations that defined the atmosphere. Weather Bureau Chief Francis W. Reichelderfer encouraged von Neumann, with Office of Naval Research funding, to attack the weather forecasting problem. Assisting with the proposal was eminent Swedish-born meteorologist Carl-Gustav Rossby. Although Rossby returned to Stockholm to establish his own research school, he was the de facto head of the Meteorology Project providing personnel, ideas, and a publication venue. On-site leader Jule Charney provided the equations and theoretical underpinnings. Scandinavian meteorologists supplied by Rossby provided atmospheric reality. Six years after the Project began, meteorologists were ready to move their models from a research to an operational venue. Attempts by Air Force meteorologist Philip D. Thompson to co-opt numerical weather prediction (NWP) prompted the academics, Navy, and Weather Bureau members involved to join forces and guarantee that operational NWP would remain a joint activity not under the control of any weather service. This is the story of the professionalization of a scientific community, of significant differences in national styles in meteorology, and of the fascination (especially by non-meteorologists) in exploiting NWP for the control of weather. / Graduation date: 2003

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1984.

Approved for Public Release; Distribution is Unlimited / The impact of non-conventional observations and increased horizontal resolution on the numerical weather prediction (NWP) system of the National Center for Aeronautic Meteorology and Climatology of the Italian Air Force (CNMCA) has been investigated. The present study is part of ongoing research activities whose goal is the improvement of CNMCA's operational numerical weather prediction capabilities through the assimilation of non-conventional observations. Additional data derived from satellite observations, such as 10 m wind retrieved from Quikscat polar-orbit satellite, atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) from Meteosat geostationary satellites and manual and automated aircraft observations were used. The NWP system, which is in operational use, is based on an "observation space" version of the 3D-Var method for the objective analysis component (3D-PSAS), while the prognostic component is based on the High Resolution Regional Model (HRM) of the German Meteorological Service (DWD). The analysis and forecast fields derived from the NWP system were objectively evaluated through comparisons with radiosonde and conventional surface observations. Comparisons with parallel runs of the HRM model starting from the 3D-Var operational analysis have showed that each of those observations have a measurable positive impact on forecast skill. / Captain, Italian Air Force

Thesis (M.S. in Meteorology)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Roger T. Williams. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-95). Also available online.

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