Shopping CartSources for Chapter 6
The books, Web sites, journal articles, and interviews listed on this page are sources of information other than facts and concepts found in most beginning college-level meteorology textbooks, which the author used or that could help readers better understand the concepts described. For more on various topics, including further reading and links to related Web sites, follow the links labeled “Explorations.” Links labeled “Outtakes” are to text from early drafts of the book that were dropped before publication.
In the notes below “the author” refers to Jack Williams, author of The AMS Weather Book.
Page 126–127
- The story of Shelley Knuth working on automated weather stations is based on Knuth’s e-mails to friends from Antarctica and subsequent e-mail follow-up questions and answers to and from her and to and from Matthew Lazzara, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Antarctic Meteorology Research Center. The center’s Web site has links to information about research and to weather data from Antarctica.
- West Antarctic Ice Sheet Camp: The Antarctic Sun (PDF file) (January 14, 2007) contains 12 pages of stories about the camp; the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide Ice Core Web site is updated from time to time with information on the project’s progress.
Page 128
- Graphic: Information about the automated station from Matthew Lazzara and Shelley Knuth. Information in the instrument shelter photograph caption about meteorologist George Simpson from Susan Solomon, The Coldest March: Scott’s Fatal Antarctic Expedition (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001), 111–114.
Page 129
- Drilling for data: See Explorations: Reading Past Climates in Ice Cores.
Page 130
- Profile of Konrad Steffen based on an interview in his Boulder, Colorado, office and laboratory and his Steffen Research Group Web site.
Page 132
- Argo float graphic: How Argo Floats Work Web page.
Page 133
- Surface data: Based on telephone interview and subsequent e-mail exchanges with Ed Johnson of the NWS.
- WeatherBug Web site
Page 134
- Clues to the past: The Education & Outreach section of NOAA’s Paleoclimatology Web site has links to a great deal of information on how scientists learn about past climates.
- Matthew Hedman, The Age of Everything: How Science Explores the Past (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007) is a good overall view for nonscientists of the techniques that scientists used to probe the past, including ice cores, carbon dating, and even how the changes of the positions of stars in the sky over long periods of time were used to determine how the ancient Egyptians managed to align their pyramids.
- Climatological Database for the World’s Oceans 1750–1850 Web page
- Surface observations graphic: Based on photos by the author (during a tour of the NWS Sterling, Virginia, Test Facility with facility staff members, who explained how various instruments work), the NWS Automated Surface Observing System Web site, and an article in the NWS’s newsletter for pilots, George Wetzel, “Getting to Know Your Automated Observing Station (PDF file),” The Front 7, no. 1 (May 2007): 8–10.
Page 135
- Cloud cover graphic: Definitions of terms for the general public are from the NWS Glossary, a searchable database. Definitions of terms for pilots are from Chapter 9 (PDF file) in Federal Meteorological Handbook No. 1: Surface Weather Observations and Reports (Washington, DC: Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research, 2005), 9–2. Automated measurements part of graphic is based on photos by the author at the NWS Sterling, Virginia, Test Facility and an explanation by facility staff members.
Page 136
- The Nicole Mitchell profile is based on a telephone interview and subsequent e-mail exchanges and The Weather Channel’s Nicole Mitchell Biography Web page.
Page 137
- Looking aloft: See Explorations: Exploring the Upper Air.
Page 138
- Research airplanes graphic: NASA’s ER-2 Web site; NCAR’s GV Web site; NOAA’s WP-3 Web site; Aerosonde Web site.
Page 139
- Remote sensing: National Snow and Ice Data Center’s (NSIDC) Remote Sensing Web page with several links to more information.
- The 1973 Union City tornado and Doppler radar: “Union City Tornado Makes History” on the National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Web site.
Page 140
- Passive microwave energy graphic: NSIDC’s Passive Microwave Web page.
Page 141
- Sources on the history of weather radar include W. F. Hitschfeld, “The Invention of Radar Meteorology,” Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 67 (January 1986): 33–37; Roger C. Whiton, et al., “History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part I: The Pre-NEXRAD Era,” Weather and Forecasting 13, no. 2 (June 1998): 219–243; and Roger C. Whiton, et al., “History of Operational Use of Weather Radar by U.S. Weather Services. Part II: Development of Operational Doppler Weather Radars,” Weather and Forecasting 13, no. 2 (June 1998): 244–252.
Page 142–143
- Doppler weather radar graphic: The explanation of the radar images on page 147 is based on the Weather and Radar Images section of the Roanoke F4 Tornado of July 13, 2004 Web page, on the NWS Central Illinois Forecast Office Web site.
- The bottom part of the image on page 146 shows some components of wind vectors. A vector is a quantity that has both a direction and a magnitude; for example, a northwest wind of 30 miles an hour. Any vector can be divided into components. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s About Doppler Wind Images Web page has diagrams showing how this works.
Page 144
- Polarized weather radar: National Severe Storms Laboratory’s Polarimetric Doppler Radar Web page.
Page 145
- Phased array radar text based on conversations with John Snow at his University of Oklahoma office, in Norman, Oklahoma, and with James F. Kimpel at his National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) office and at the nearby phased array radar site. For more see the NSSL’s Phased Array Radar Web page.
- Small radars: Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere’s (CASA) Web page.
Pages 146–147
- Weather satellites graphic: Images and information collected with the aid of Dan Pisut, Environmental Visualization Program Manager for NOAA’s National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service. Eagle Eyes images at the bottom of page 150 are based on calculations by Bob Kuligowski, a meteorologist with the NOAA Center for Satellite Applications and Research. For more see the NOAA Satellites Web page.
Pages 148
- From rockets to satellites: NOAA’s Environmental Satellites: A History Web page; U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission’s Meteorological Satellites Web page.
