Legend of Meteorology Passes Away

[n2doc]

By James Williams | Sun Mar 7, 2010 04:50 PM ET

I’ve had lots of conversations about the weather, but never like this. I was sitting in the living room of Robert and Joanne Simpson – pioneers of meteorology - talking about clouds. They’d positioned their couch so they could view - from their top floor apartment - the miles and miles of clouds floating over the Potomac River and deep into Virginia. But where I simply saw lazy, drifting puffs of white, the Simpsons saw much, much more.

You’ve heard Robert Simpson’s name before – on a yearly basis in fact. He’s the “Simpson” in the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane scale. That’s who I originally went to interview. You probably haven’t heard of Joanne Simpson, but she's every bit the trailblazer her husband is.

She was the first woman to earn a PhD in meteorology.

She co-authored the study that explained the “hot tower “ mechanism of hurricanes. Thanks to her, we understand the engines that make hurricanes run.

She developed the first computer cloud model in the 60s.

She led research into whether humans could actually modify the weather.

This was a woman who – through her research – touched the lives of millions of people and continues to do so every time we hear a weather report. She passed away on Thursday in Washington, DC.


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http://news.discovery.com/earth/legend-of-meteorology-passes.html