The Department of Meteorology has a proud and illustrious history at Penn State University. The following chapters relive that adventure as we watch the department evolve from its agricultural roots to one of the nation's largest and most successful academic departments in Atmospheric Science. Find out why the department has grown from one faculty member to 30. Discover why 300 undergraduate and 70 graduate students from all over the United States and the planet currently call Penn State home. Walk with us as we probe the interactions of atmospheric phenomena and their impacts on the global changes that are altering the planetary environment.

The first catalog of the Farmers' High School, issued in 1859, listed a course in Geography and Meteorology that concentrated on the implications of temperature, precipitation, and other meteorological factors on crop production.

Helmut Landsberg, former director of the Taunus Observatory of Geophysics and Meteorology at the University of Frankfurt, Germany, was the first meteorologist appointed in the School. He arrived in the fall of 1934 and was located in the Department of Mining Engineering. His duties were extremely broad and were outlined in the November 1934 issue of Mineral Industries: "He will teach the regular courses in geophysical methods of prospecting, climatology, and physics of mining. His research in the beginning will have to do with the general application of geophysical principles to ground movement, subsidence, roof support and the development of instruments for measuring accumulated stresses which cause strain and ruptures in rocks during mining operations. Along with the research, which is of prime importance to the mining industry in Pennsylvania, will be the development of a meteorological and seismological laboratory, including a seismograph for recording earthquakes. The entire program will be carried on in cooperation with the mining and primary mineral industries in Pennsylvania."

The instructional program in Meteorology began in 1934-35, when twenty-three students took a one-credit course in Weather Forecasting. Daily weather maps were drawn and forecasts issued based on methods of air mass analysis, which at that time had not yet been officially introduced into the public weather service of the United States. In the fall of 1935 two new three-credit courses on General Meteorology and Physical Climatology were made available. These courses were listed in the College catalog under "Geography."

In 1937 Hans Neuberger, a recent Ph.D. from the University of Hamburg, was the second faculty member with training in meteorology appointed to the School. His talents and experiences in the field of Atmospheric Turbidity and his skill in designing and handling instruments made him a very valuable addition to the staff; especially since the demand for weather information was growing.

In the late 1930s, the Penn State Meteorology program benefited from the fifteen-month visit of a European refugee and foremost Austrian climatologist, Victor Conrad, of the University of Vienna. He not only provided intellectual stimulation, but also performed research on world-wide rainfall variabilities. In fact, he made a study of periodicities, using an uninterrupted series of temperature and rainfall data recorded at the Penn State Agricultural Experiment Station since 1880.

In 1938, with the construction of the new wing of the Mineral Industries Building, a larger laboratory on the top floor with a Meteorological Observatory Platform on the roof was completed. During the same period, Dr. Neuberger began an interesting series of observations on Atmospheric Polarization with a polarimeter of his own design.

In 1939, the expanding commercial and military air traffic business created a new niche for professional meteorologists. The School was asked to prepare courses in Meteorology for a civilian pilot training program. This initiated a program that benefited the School for a number of years.

In 1940 a closer cooperation with the U.S. Weather Bureau began. As early as 1880, a climatological station had been installed in conjunction with the Agricultural Experiment Station. In an agreement between the deans of Agriculture and Mineral Industries in 1934, the Geophysics Laboratory would not duplicate records taken at the Agricultural Experiment Station. In August 1940, due in part to loss of an agricultural observer, the climate work was transferred to the Geophysics Laboratory. New equipment was installed and the Observatory was raised to the position of a first-order station. All meteorological elements were automatically recorded on a twenty-four-hour basis by operating instruments. At that time the observatory was the only one in Pennsylvania that recorded the intensity of solar and sky radiation. In July 1940, the Federal State Flood Forecasting Service installed a short-wave radio station on the Meteorological Platform of the Mineral Industries Building (Steidle Building). This equipment permitted the College to furnish daily weather information to the Harrisburg office of the Flood Forecasting Service.

The requests for weather information from students, faculty, townspeople, government agencies, and others continued to grow. These requests ranged from simple information, such as daily weather forecasts, to difficult problems occasionally requiring weeks of special research. On several occasions, foreign governments requested details of studies made in the Geophysical Laboratory.

As early as 1944, and for one decade, the Division of Meteorology labored under Dr. Hans Neuberger's able guidance. In restructuring the School of Mineral Industries, Dean Edward Steidle felt that Meteorology was a fundamental Earth Science and played an equal role with Geological Sciences and Geography in investigating problems covering the utilization of the earth's resources. In his volume on Mineral Industries Education (1950) he wrote: "While the possibility of human control of weather elements has been demonstrated recently by successful rain-making experiments, for a long time to come, agriculture, industry, and various other activities must rely on weather forecasting for economic planning and preparation against the adverse effects of the weather… The principal work of meteorologists deals with the interpretation of atmospheric phenomena… The proposed influence of the weather on various aspects of our daily life must be more thoroughly investigated. The increase of our knowledge of climate and weather is not only necessary for the present, but it builds a research foundation upon which future generations can rely to make increasing use of solar and wind energy. Meteorology is given equal status with other subject matter fields at Penn State." Four years later, the Department of Meteorology was born.

Meteorology Department Heads (click for picture)

Department of Mining Engineering
 

Department of Geology, Mineralogy, and Geography
 

Department of Earth Sciences: Division of Meteorology
 

Department of Meteorology
 

 (back to Menu)

In 1940 the Geology curriculum was broadened into an Earth Science curriculum with four major options, one of which gave students the opportunity to specialize in Meteorology. In 1942, the first bachelor's degrees in Meteorology were granted under the Earth Science option. Meteorology was first approved as a separate curriculum in Penn State's 1946-48 undergraduate catalog. The first two Bachelor's and Master's of Science degrees in the Meteorology curriculum were granted in1947, and the first Ph.D. degree was awarded in1949 (Blackadar, 1981).

Since the first major was granted, the science and application of Meteorology has undergone spectacular changes. The curriculum and methodology has been revised many times. For example, all graduates are required to be proficient in synoptic dynamics, physics and thermodynamics of the atmosphere. Furthermore, within a basic framework of courses, each undergraduate student is encouraged to develop a specialty option, such as, Weather Forecasting, Hydrometeorology, Computer Applications, and Weather Quality. Because the department emphasizes breadth and flexibility in its curriculum, graduates report a wealth of opportunities for their careers, ranging from government and military positions to private industry. (back to menu)

Charles Hoslerbegan his career at Penn State as a student in 1942. After spending three semesters in the College as a Meteorology student, he spent the next three years during World War II in the Navy. He returned to Penn State in 1946, and in 1948 became an instructor in Meteorology. Dr. Hosler (The Pennsylvania State University - Professor Emeritus, Senior Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School Emeritus) recalls that the faculty was like a family that shared a passion for excellence. As the third man, the other two being Dr. Neuberger and F. Briscoe Stephens, Dr. Hosler recollects: "We had to double in brass; we built the tables; we built the instruments. I got up in the morning at 6:00 A.M. and took the observations and put the paper in the teletype and plotted the weather maps for the classes to use and taught almost eight hours a day in many classes, as did other people who were working here. It was not until the 1950s that Meteorology expanded again. Probably the most significant new faculty member was Hans Panofsky, who had been a professor at New York University. He wanted to leave New York and took a significant-pay-cut to come to Penn State. Shortly afterward, Alfred Blackadar (Professor Emeritus) joined the school. Both were talented individuals and represented valuable additions. From that point on we really grew into an eventually world-class department."

Hans A.Panofsky, Evan Pugh Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, had this to say about these exciting times: "My principal interest as a university professor has always been teaching, at all levels. It is a great pleasure to share one's limited knowledge and understanding with students, and occasionally see them develop an enthusiasm for the subject. Also, teaching is good for the ego. Finally, the students' questions and reactions frequently suggest new problems that require research." His views on students: "It is a special joy to find the occasional student who is creative and significantly contributes to the research. Even students who do not show great creativity may help increase the knowledge in our field, if only by a small amount. Before and after being appointed an Evan Pugh Professor, I taught two courses almost every term. Before and after, I spent a great deal of my time with graduate students on their research." His contributions: "I have greatly enjoyed serving on some national scientific committees, observing how one's ideas influence public policy if only marginally. It was fortunate that I began my career in meteorological research at a time when the subject was just starting to mature from a descriptive field into a rigorous, physical discipline. Therefore it was possible to do relatively fundamental research in subjects such as atmospheric turbulence, satellite meteorology, and atmospheres of other planets. As a result, my co-workers and I published more than 150 papers in technical journals, as well as, five books. The culmination of my career was my receipt of the Rossby Memorial Medal, the most respected award given by the American Meteorological Society."

Craig F. Bohren, Distinguished Professor of Meteorology, reminisces: "I find it strange that I am even a university graduate, let alone a beribboned university professor. Often I wake up in the morning expecting to find that the events of the past thirty years of my life have been a dream. None of them was planned, all of them accidents." His early years were random: "As a young man, I was not keen on going to college. Nor, given my mediocre high-school grades, were colleges keen to have me. So I first attended a two-year college that admitted all who knocked on its door, though without feeling obligated to keep them all. I had to drop out before the end of my first semester, my ship having foundered on the rocks of calculus and English composition." Still looking for adventure and a career, he recalls: "At this juncture I aspired to be a machinist. I probably would be one now if I had not scored so high on an examination for apprentice machinists that the examiners advised me to return to college. Having failed to find a job, I had no choice but to do so. I spent two years studying mechanical technology, learning how to draft, weld, and operate the tools in a machine shop. Despite the pleasure I received at making things out of metal, at the end of these two years, I was dissatisfied." Adrift again, he finds his calling in life: " So I began anew, this time in mechanical engineering. At the end of my second two-year attempt at higher education, still undistinguished, I transferred to San Jose State College to complete my mechanical engineering degree. It was there that I came under the influence of Robert Clothier and also discovered my calling in life. To help pay for my education, I took various jobs, among them grading homework papers for several professors. One of the professors was called away unexpectedly, so he asked me to teach his class. At the end of my fledging lecture, I knew from the enthusiasm of the students and my own euphoria that I was intended to be a teacher, that teaching was a field in which I could excel." Inspired, Dr. Bohren continues: " It was then I learned that to teach in a college or university one needs a doctoral degree. This was what inspired me to go to graduate school. I was not burning with ambition to do research. This was only a means to an end." Dr. Bohren recalls his roller coaster ride: "My career as a graduate student was even more checkered than my undergraduate career. I began as a nuclear engineering student at the University of Arizona, then tried to switch to mathematics, but I really wanted to study physics, which I had known from my senior year. Without a degree in physics, however, I could not get an assistantship, so I reluctantly finished a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering. Then I worked in an industrial laboratory for long enough to save the money that would enable me to return to graduate school, this time in physics. At about the time I finished all the courses and examinations for Ph.D. students in physics at the University of Arizona, the bottom fell out of the field. No one could get a job." Unemployed but still a student, Dr. Bohren "began taking courses in hydrology and soil physics in the hope of combining my great love for the out-of-doors with physics in a way that would make me more employable. For three years I worked as a research associate in the School of Renewable Natural Resources, still without a doctorate and all but having abandoned hope of getting one." Salvation: "But in a chance encounter with two of my physics professors, John Kessler and Donald Huffman, they insisted that I do enough research for a dissertation. They were adamant that I should finish. So I began working in Huffman's laboratory doing light scattering experiments. My interests, however, soon turned to theory. For years, I couldn't get going on my research, but once I found a problem to my liking, I solved it in three weeks, solely by my own efforts. The problem was light scattering by a particle with mirror asymmetry. This resulted in a paper still cited today and included in two collections of landmark papers." Dr. Bohren recalls his turning point: "Publishing this paper was a heady experience, a major turning point in my life. It showed me that I was naturally endowed with insights into optical phenomena. I was then thirty-five years old, hardly a prodigy. For the next three years I was an expatriate in Wales. When I returned to the United States I was unemployed and nearly destitute. In my wanderings in search of work, I returned to the University of Arizona, where by chance I ran into Louis Battan, late Director of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics. When I told him the reason for my visit, he offered me a temporary one-year job teaching Elementary Meterology, a subject about which I knew very little. During this year, Battan tried to find me a more permanent position. He wrote to various institutions on my behalf without my having asked him. Lady Luck finally smiles: "Because of Battan's stature in Meteorology, I was invited to Penn State to interview for a position in Meteorology. My honesty (some call it stupidity), however, was my undoing. I made the heretical assertion that I wasn't keen to chase after research grants. Hence, I was not offered the job. But, again, chance smiled on me. The man to whom the job was offered took it, but continued to look for something more to his liking. When he found it, he left Penn State high and dry just before the term was about to begin. This was a perfidious act and a stupid one, given that Meteorology is a small field. Yet I was its beneficiary. I was offered the job, although under terms that are still painful to recall: non-tenure track assistant professor at an insultingly low salary. But I couldn't refuse: I was almost forty, and hadn't had a real job in twelve years. Thus it was that I ended up at Penn State teaching Meteorology, a field in which I have no formal education. Ten years later, I was named the first Distinguished Professor of Meteorology. I am pleased about this, of course, but I am saved from smugness by knowing that whatever I may have achieved is the result mostly of chance and the help of teachers who had more faith in me than I myself did." (back to menu)

During World War II, Penn State's Department of Meteorology was recognized for its excellent training program. The Korean War forced the United States Air Force to recognize the need for officers with meteorological training. In1951 the U.S. Air Force began sending about twenty-five students each year to Penn State. This infusion of professional students helped the undergraduate enrollment to reach a critical mass for the first time. Dr. Alfred K. Blackadar (Emeritus) evaluates the importance of these students: "If it hadn't been for the Air Force program, we would not have been able to support the faculty and course instruction level we were giving at the time." Now, quality students are coming from the PSU ROTC program, while graduate students are still coming from the U.S. Air Force. All of these students are considered important because they are mature, carefully selected and set a high standard for the total student body to follow. (back to menu)

In the 1940s there was a growing general interest in Meteorology, particularly in the practical aspect of weather forecasting. This created a demand for course work to provide basic meteorological information to the non-major students. In 1948 Hans Neuberger introduced the course 'Weather and Man' as an elective suitable for non-technical students in other colleges. During the 1970s, 'Weather and Man' was taught by television tapes on several campuses and included direct telephone hookups for classroom discussion and interaction. Beginning in 1988 this course was offered by satellite transmission to a number of Commonwealth Campuses. This course continues to reach hundreds of students each year as "Weather and Society."

About quality education in Meteorology, Dr. Blackadar states: "I was always impressed with the way Princeton put their top-notch people in the lowest levels of undergraduate instruction. I remember taking a course in astrophysics, in which I was the only student in the course, and it was taught by a world-renowned astrophysicist. This makes sense if one is concerned about undergraduate instruction." As Department Head, Dr. Blackadar "tried to encourage our best people to teach our beginning-level course. This has paid off by influencing many students to become interested in Meteorology as a career, and it also brought this course a high reputation for quality among the non-technical students." Dr. Blackadar continues: "We always look at such courses as a kind of public relations, and Meteorology is in a unique position because most people are interested in weather. In teaching Meteorology, one is also teaching science. It's much more appealing to most people to be able to study scientific principles - using examples they are familiar with, such as weather events and other atmospheric phenomena, rather than things that go on in a laboratory. In essence, this becomes a unique responsibility because the Meteorology professor becomes an ambassador for science to the nonscientific community."

The tradition of a science course for non-technical students continues. William M. Frank former head of the Department of Meteorology, states: "I think the popularity is due to the fact that it gives students an opportunity to relate the scientific learning process to something they can observe firsthand. A large emphasis in this course has been to explain phenomena that can be observed, not only the daily weather but also optical phenomena and atmospheric and climatic variations you can see. So the students have a more natural relation to this course." (back to menu)

The development of extension and correspondence work in Meteorology began at an early date. In the 1930s the new requirement of the Civil Service Commission for professional meteorologists spurred requests for correspondence instruction. Early in1939 a 3-credit course on Aeronautical Meteorology was prepared and was an immediate success. It was followed two years later by a second 3-credit course on Climatology, for which a three-hundred-page textbook had to be written. In 1941, the Engineering Defense Training Program requested a course on Engineering Applications of Meteorology. The course was offered through the Extension Division of the School in Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. During this program, more than two hundred students were trained in Meteorology for the Civilian Pilot Training Program. In fact, the programs grew so popular that F. Briscoe Stephens was assigned the duty of Coordinator of Meteorology Correspondence. In this position he undertook the writing and servicing of the correspondence courses in Meteorology. The Department continues to offer a variety of correspondence courses. (back to menu)

The Department of Meteorology has a long tradition of association with other organizations and institutions. As early as1940, a seminar of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) met regularly on the campus, and in1955 the seminar was reorganized as an AMS student chapter that conducts a variety of activities. In the mid-1950s, national scientific awareness focused on the opportunities for better weather prediction that were becoming available through the use of satellites and computers and on the need to marshal the human and physical resources commensurate with the magnitude of the undertaking. Recognizing this need, several meteorological department heads from around the nation met at Penn State in1958 and drew up articles to incorporate what is now the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR). Penn State meteorologists are active in the management and scientific direction of the UCAR. With leadership and management by UCAR and funding by the National Science Foundation, the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) was established in Boulder, Colorado. Since 1966, a strong informal association has developed between the Department and Niels Busch, of the Danish National Research Laboratory in Riso, who spent several years at Penn State. So far, more than a dozen extended exchanges have taken placed between Riso and Penn State. (back to menu)

The faculty of the Department of Meteorology has always been strongly committed to public service. By the late 1940s the public demanded more-sophisticated weather information. In 1948, when the School's Meteorological Observatory was receiving more than 2,500 phone calls a year for weather information, a graduate student began a system of hoisting color-coded flags atop the Mineral Industries Building to indicate upcoming conditions, a procedure that continued for ten years. The increase in the number of households with television brought new opportunities for public service weather forecasts, and in1957 Dr. Charles Hosler began a daily broadcast 'Make Hay with Hosler' on WFBG- TV, Altoona. The importance and appeal of such forecasts was emphasized unmistakably in the 1960s when the program was suspended due to the lack of adequate equipment to receive facsimile maps and forecasts directly from the National Meteorological Center in Washington, D.C. A group of Pennsylvania farmers spontaneously collected about $2,500 and presented it to the University, requesting continuation of the television forecasts. This effective demonstration by citizens had a great impact on the University administration.

Support for public service forecasting has grown, and the weather program in its various formats has continued to increase in popularity to become the most widely viewed program originated by the University. The program, now "Weather World" under the guidance of Frederick J. Gadomski, Paul G. Knight and Lee Grenci, is produced by the Penn State Weather Communications Group, a joint venture of the departments of Meteorology, Speech, and Learning and Telecommunications (which operates WPSX-TV for Penn State). This fifteen-minute nightly show provides not only a comprehensive weather forecast but also a wide variety of weather information. It is available to half a million homes via Pennsylvania Public Television Network and Panorama, an educational cable service.

The expanding public service function brought celebrity status to the university forecasters, who received more and more requests to give lectures on aspects of the weather to groups across the state. But this visibility was to have its disadvantage, as Dr. Hosler learned when his extensive research program on clouds, precipitation formation, and cloud-seeding was misinterpreted as contributing directly to a severe drought in the 1960s. The culmination of this unfortunate misconception was the enactment of state legislation that effectively disabled all useful research on weather modification at the University and brought to an abrupt end a valuable program of potential benefit to Pennsylvania agriculture. (back to menu)

The productivity and diversity of the meteorological research in the 1930s and 1940s was quite remarkable. True to their philosophies, Dr. Landsberg and Dr. Neuberger applied the mathematics, physics, and geophysics in which they had been trained to a daunting array of atmospheric problems. Dr. Neuberger's resourcefulness and skill in designing and working with instruments were particularly valuable to a faculty with a total equipment and supply budget of $200 and a laboratory that had only one instrument of each type for student use. Considerable ingenuity was required to provide adequate equipment for laboratory instruction and the ambitious research program of the two faculty members.

Dr. Landsberg published on a wide range of topics; ranging from earthquake prediction and the design of an instrument for measuring mine subsidence, to the study of rock falls in mines, and the use of special glass developed by Dr. Landsberg and Dr. Woldemar Weyl (later Evan Pugh Professor of Ceramics) to measure ultraviolent dosimetry. Additional research included: the influence of pressure patterns on deep- focus earthquakes, the statistical evaluation of cyclone movement and precipitation cycles, rock-core testing by radioactive methods, a major study of atmospheric suspensions with applications to both fog and dust in underground mines, a new method for measuring gravity, the use of solar energy for melting ice, optical measurement of sky light using a polariscope designed and constructed by Dr. Neuberger, the documentation of local tornadoes, and pioneering aerial photography of an unusual "Northern Light" display in central Pennsylvania in September 1938. In the period from 1934 to 1941, Dr. Landsberg presented no fewer than fourteen papers before technical societies.

Poet Neuberger, asked in his poem 'Compensation,' "How will the sky feel when the flight of birds is only shadowed trace across the fog?"

This question suggests Dr. Neuberger's intense drive throughout his professional career to understand the mechanics of the atmosphere. In his student days he spent a year camping in a tent on the North Sea island of Sylt measuring fog conditions, and later he took fog readings at the Mid-State Airport with a fog tube he had developed to predict fog formation. During World War II, he was concerned with the effect of atmospheric conditions on aviation so in 1943 he wrote an article on Meteorology specifically tailored for pilots. In 1948 he developed an inexpensive method of obtaining temperature, humidity, and pressure readings above 5,000 feet by use of a large balloon.

Dr. Neuberger stated many times that the public had to have an understanding of atmospheric conditions if they were to appreciate weather forecasting and maintaining an unpolluted atmosphere. His text, Weather and Man (1948), with F. Briscoe Stephens, explained just what weather was, what we needed to know about weather, and how it affected our daily lives. Another early text, Introduction to Physical Meteorology (1951), helped students solve theoretical and mathematical problems in the field. One of his more unique adventures drew wide public interest. He studied the "weather conditions" of more than 12,000 paintings of outdoor scenes from the last few centuries, hypothesizing and illustrating how the climatic environment of the artists influenced the hues and general meteorological features of the paintings. Between these adventures, he wrote and published more than two dozen poems and several articles on such topics as meteorological imagery in language, music and art.

As a result of Dr. Neuberger's work, the Penn State Department of Meteorology is a national leader in the development of observational equipment and research themes. Beginning in 1952, with the appointment of Dr. Hans Panofsky, continuing with the arrival of Alfred K. Blackadar in 1955, and with the cooperation of John L. Lumley and Hendrik Tennekes in Penn State's Department of Aerospace Engineering, the Penn State faculty in atmospheric turbulence achieved a prominence and reputation that became world renowned. Another research theme was the development of Dynamic and Synoptic Meteorology by such faculty members as Edwin F. Danielsen, Robert T. Duquet, and Hans Neuberger. In the mid-1960s, with the arrival of John A. Dutton, research in general Circulation Meteorology with a more rigorous and formal use of mathematics applied to Meteorology began. More recently, Department Head Dr. Dennis W. Thomson has been responsible for the development of instrumentation research.

Penn State is on the cutting edge of modeling the atmosphere. Professors Thomas T. Warner and Richard A. Anthes, introduced numerical weather prediction models that have been applied operationally to the prediction of atmospheric circulation systems that produce severe weather. Another family of modeling studies emphasized non-linearly in prototypes with fewer degrees of freedom. Some models have stimulated fronts and contributed to the models of very complex processes. Combined, these models are at the very forefront of dynamical systems research and are helping to reveal common aspects of almost all the systems encountered on the face of the Earth. (back to menu)

In the early days of the Department of Meteorology much of the simple equipment was built by the faculty. In the 1950s research equipment supported Dr. Charles Hosler and his interest in cloud physics and weather modification. In1958 Dr. Hosler managed to acquire an army surplus M-33 radar, which was useful both for his research and for giving a picture of the weather in the local vicinity that could be obtained no other way. For fifteen years this radar was used to teach precipitation patterns in central Pennsylvania and to chart wave flows across the Alleghenies. As Dr. Hosler's research grew, he needed and obtained in1963 a Piper Twin Comanche aircraft through a grant from the National Science Foundation. The plane was used by Dr. Hosler and his graduate students to make cloud measurements for studying cloud physics and performing cloud-seeding precipitation experiments. In1966, the first plane was replaced by a twin-engine Aerocommander capable of lifting heavier equipment.

The research emphasis shifted from cloud physics to air quality in the1960s. The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to identify a "select research group" in Air Pollution Meteorology and to fund a five-year program. Penn State competed with twelve other universities in the nation and won the award. This grant provided $2 million and was a major funding source for equipment in the department for many years.

One of the chief activities was conversion of the airplane to make air quality measurements. In the early 1970s, John J. Cahir became interested in trying to find a way to analyze weather data using computers. The acquisition of a digital minicomputer was the beginning of the computer laboratory. Before this time, observations had to be decoded and plotted on weather maps by hand and then analyzed by personal observation. As a result of Dr. Cahir's work, a very large computer facility evolved capable of automatically analyzing weather data that is received at a rate of thousands of bits per second. This type of operation has set a pattern for many other universities and for the National Weather Service.

In the 1980s Penn State became the international leader in the development and application of ground-based wind-profiling systems. This charge was lead by Dr. Thomson, who has designed, constructed, and tested a variety of profiling systems/radars for continuously measuring atmospheric winds and turbulence. The Department was also the first to have a comprehensive set of microwave and millimeter-wave radiometers for continuously monitoring tropospheric temperatures and humidity profiles. In 1988 a special mm-wave Doppler radar was constructed to provide measurements of the velocities of timing cloud water drops. Only one other radar of this type exists in the world. Other equipment includes the unique microwave radiometer that is operated jointly with the Department of Electrical Engineering to provide stratospheric and mesospheric measurements.

For more than a decade now, a technological revolution in meteorological measurements has been in progress. Former Department Head William Frank states: "We are now dealing with state-of-the-art high-technology equipment requiring knowledge both of remote-sensing of the atmosphere and of how to detect signals. It's moving away from the days of relatively simple barometers and thermometers and into a world of electromagnetic signals." (back to Menu)

The members of the meteorology faculty have received many awards and honors. The following is a representative listing. The American Meteorological Society has honored a number of faculty members for major research contributions. Hans Panofsky gained international recognition by receiving the Meisinger Award and the Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal. William Frank received the Banner I. Miller Award for outstanding work on the science of hurricanes and tropical meteorological forecasting. Alfred Blackadar and Charles Hosler were honored with the Charles Franklin Banner Award. Richard Anthes and J. Michael Fritsch have received the Charles Leroy Meisinger Award. Peter Webster received the Jules Charnoy Award for his research on monsoons and global-scale dynamics. Faculty members have served as officers and committee members of many organizations. Charles Hosler and Alfred Blackadar have been president of the American Meteorological Society. John Dutton and Charles Hosler have been officers and served on many committees of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. John Cahir has been president of the National Weather Association. A number of faculty have served as editors of professional journals. Peter Webster and J. Michael Fritsch have been chief editors of the Journal of Atmospheric Services. Alistair Fraser has been on the editorial board of Weatherwise. John Cahir, John B. Hovermale, William Frank, and Bruce Albrecht have been editors of the AMS's research journal, Monthly Weather Review, and Alfred Blackadar was chairman of the AMS Publications Commission for six years. Faculty members have also served on national committees. Charles Hosler was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and has been a member of the Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Resources of the National Research Council. He was appointed by President Richard Nixon to a three-year term on the National Advisory Committee on Ocean and atmospheric turbulence. A number of other honors have been received by faculty members. Rosa de Pena was awarded a fellowship by the Argentine Council for Scientific and Technologic Research to carry out research in the Observatori Puy do Dome at Clermont Ferrand in France. Dennis Thomson and John Cahir have held the G. J. Haltiner Research Chair Professorship at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Hans Panofsky was elected an honorary member of the Royal Meteorological Society. Faculty receiving the Penn State Wilson Teaching Award include Craig Bohren, John Cahir, Alistair Fraser, and Hampton Shirer. Peter Webster received the Wilson Research Award and also the American Meteorological Society's Charney Award. Hans Panofsky was honored by being appointed an Evan Pugh Professor of Atmospheric Science, the most distinguished professorship in the University. Alfred Blackadar received the Alexander von Humboldt Service Award. (back to Menu)