Jule Gregory Charney

Jule Gregory Charney ( born January 1, 1917 in San Francisco, † 16 June 1981) was an American meteorologist. He was the child of Yiddish -speaking Russian Jews, who were both active in the apparel industry. At UCLA, he earned a BA in mathematics in 1938, the "Master of Arts " in 1940 and 1946 the Ph.D. in meteorology.

Life and work

Charney was from 1948 to 1956 member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. His boss, John von Neumann worked on the development of an electronic computer. Charney was a director in the field of Theoretical Meteorology. His group developed a successful mathematical model of the atmosphere and showed that a numerical weather prediction both feasible (The creation of the weather report took on the ENIAC computer 24 hours) as well as was practicable ( with John von Neumann's computer program took the preparation of the weather report 5 minutes). Charney helped with the establishment of a department for creating a numerical weather report for the U.S. National Weather Service in 1954.

Charney developed an equation, the quasi- Geostrophic Vorticity Equation, describes the large-scale movement of planets on currents and thus made a major contribution to improving the quality of weather forecasts. He provided the first convincing explanation of the development mechanisms of mid-latitude cyclones form in the theory of baroclinic instability.

The American Meteorological Society gives a Jule G. Charney award to individuals who have made significant research in the field of meteorology and hydrology.

Under his chairmanship for an evaluation study of a link between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the resulting global warming has been prepared by the National Academy of Sciences in 1979, the report is well-known for this reason also under the name Charney.

In 1974 he was John von Neumann Lecturer. In 1976 he was awarded the William Bowie Medal, the highest award of the American Geophysical Union, honored.