2003, Oceanography 16(3):93–97, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2003.37

Climate and Atmospheric Science at Scripps:
The Legacy of Jerome Namias

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Author

Richard C.J. Somerville | Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California, USA

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First Paragraphs

Jerome Namias (1910–1997) pioneered the art and science of long-range weather forecasting. He also set off the modern era of research in climate and atmospheric science at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Largely self-taught, Namias developed an exceptional physical intuition for the intricate interplay between atmosphere and ocean. In an era when the skill of weather forecasts was limited to two or three days, Namias advocated the heretical notion that climate, the sum total of weather, might be predictable for weeks, months, or even longer. He was among the first to realize that planetary-scale air-sea interactions strongly influence climate variability and thereby make certain, specialized types of predictions possible far beyond the time horizon of ordinary weather forecasts.

Namias's greatest strength as a scientist was his ability to develop profound insights by analyzing enormous amounts of observational data. His data included measurements of conventional meteorological variables such as winds, air temperatures, and atmospheric pressures, as well as measurements of oceanographic parameters, especially sea-surface temperatures. Throughout most of his long career, Namias's office walls were covered with maps and charts of these data, covering huge areas, typically much of the Northern Hemisphere. From this empirical material, Namias was able to infer mechanistic interconnections between air and sea, between phenomena in one part of the world and those in another, and between the evolution of these fields in the recent past and their probable course in the future (Figure 1).

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Full Article

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Citation

Somerville, R.C.J. 2003. Climate and atmospheric science at Scripps: The legacy of Jerome Namias. Oceanography 16(3):93–97, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2003.37.

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