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Ptolemy was a Greek mathematician, geographer, astronomer and astrologer. In his work Phases of the Fixed Stars and Collection of Weather Signs, he described techniques to forecast the weather according to astronomical events.
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384 B.C.--Among many other things Aristotle also researched weather. He told how different places of Earth were different at the same times. This led to better understanding of weather.
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Kublai Khan was a Mongol leader who according to Marco Polo maintained some 5000 court astrologers, whose duties included the hazardous task of weather prediction. The reason he had so many, because if you predicted the weather wrong you would most likely be executed.
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Leo invented a balanced hygrometer sometime between 1480 and 1486. He also invented a deflection plate anemometer. That is a type of wind vane.
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Galileo was an Italian physicist, astronomer and philosopher. He invented the thermo scope, the early thermometer. Galileo gave the term Aurora Borealis to describe the northern lights in or around 1619.
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Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit was a Dutch-German-Polish physicist, engineer, who is best known for inventing the mercury thermometer, and for developing a temperature scale now named after him.
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Throughout his life Dalton was interested in the Earth's atmosphere, and he recorded more than 200,000 atmospheric observations in his notebooks. These observations led Dalton to study gases, and from the results of his experiments he was able to formulate his atomic theory.
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Berthollet was a French chemist who in the early 1800s wanted to find out how the composition of the atmosphere changed with altitude. He proposed a plan to send balloons over Paris and other cities to make the correct measurements.
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He determined the air flow in large weather systems, which was what he was most famous for. He also opened the Royal Dutch Meteorological institute and was the chief director until he died.
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Although he was most famous for his theory of continental drift, Alfred was also involved in meteorology.He was one of the first meteorologists to use balloons to track air circulation, and the first to trace storm tracks over the polar ice cap. He was famous for his expeditions to the north and gathering data on polar air flow.
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In 1870 he began three years of service as a meteorologist with the Argentine Meteorological Observatory, Cordoba. His meteorological studies gave rise to Elementary Meteorology, which was used as a college textbook for more than 30 years.
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Wiley was the first man to fly around the world in 80 days. The interesting thing is that he did it twice. In both circumnavigations there was a nice tailwind when he flew at higher altitudes, to push him forward
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Wilson developed and updated version of the expansion chamber. This was later called the “Cloud Chamber”. It was used to show that water droplets would also form in pure air (with no dust) if it was cooled enough to attain a very high humidity.
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Bonnel, born in France near the border with Belgium, was a Jesuit priest and educator who worked in Sri Lanka. He founded St. Michael's College, which became known for its programs in meteorology and astronomy. Bonnel was the College director for more than 40 years.
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Piccard was a Swiss physicist and aeronaut who explored both the heights of the atmosphere and the depths of the ocean.Following his work with stratospheric balloons, Auguste Piccard turned his interest to the exploration of the ocean.
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Irving spent most of his life working with GE the electrical company. He was awarded the nobel prize in 1932 for his work with chemistry. This was mostly due to his work with cloud microphysics.
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Al had been interested in the atmosphere since he was in college. Although his interest was really created by Roger Revelle when he took class with him at Harvard. He is so famous because he has devoted a lot of time in environmental activism.
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When he was just in his mid 20’s Hayes was an American environmental activist. When he was about 27 he bacame the national coordinator for the very first Earth Day.
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A Scottish physisist best known for the invention of radar. He worked at the British Meteorological office on the radio detection of thunderstorms. Watson’s work included studying the upper atmosphere and it’s effects on radio waves.
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Page is a British author and television presenter. He is most famous for writing the book Weather Forecasting: The Country Way. The book was very popular because of it’s mix of history, science and folklore.
