Smagorinsky, Joseph, 1986-05-16

Oral history interview with Joseph Smagorinsky, 1986. Interviewed by John Young. 2 sound cassettes (ca. 3 hrs.) : analog, mono + transcript (39 pgs.). AMS 3-4; two physical versions (one master, one copy). Access restrictions; AMS approval required to examine interview; written permission required to quote, cite, or reproduce any portion of the material. Forms part of American Meteorological Society Oral History Project. Joseph Smagorinsky describes his youthful interest in weather, early education at NYU and the Air Force Cadet Program. He mentions a number of others involved in the War Course who continued on to prominence in meteorology and other fields. He discusses Rossby's impact on the War Course, and talks about his forecasting work for a bombing group after receiving his commission. He reviews his education in the masters program at NYU under Haurwitz and Hans Panofsky and his thesis on determining the divergence fields. He describes meeting Charney at AMS and comments on his work with Harry Wexler at the Weather Bureau. He mentions the controversy between Soviet and US scientists regarding the influence of solar flares. He then describes his PhD work at the Institute for Advanced Study on a two-level primitive equation model and discusses the Phillips-Charney baroclinic model. He then reviews the organization of JNPWU and GCRS, and details Reichelderfer's leadership style as well as his own. He details the recruiting a number of scientists for modeling, including Manabe and Douglas Lilly, and talks about adding hurricane and mesoscale modeling to other fields. He comments on the computer technology changes that affected the Weather Bureau's location, and the choice of Princeton as a location for GFDL. He describes the executive committee of AMS, and the management style of Ken Spengler. He mentions key staff additions in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and discusses Mahlman's leadership. Finally, Smagorinsky reflects on the success of GFDL and his own legacy.