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| National Center on Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado |
My father had one good idea.
OK, that is unfair. He had many good ideas. Marrying my mom, for starters. He also held patents in the design of compact nuclear reactors.
In fact, those two good ideas might be related — there was a shakedown cruise of an atomic-powered submarine that my father, a naval reservist, was keen to avoid. Married men were exempt. Perhaps it's cynical of me to connect them.
But he also had one really good idea that resonated around the world and has an impact today.
My father's really good idea occurred to him in the early 1970s. The 747 Jumbo Jet had been introduced, to endless publicity — the spiral staircase leading to the lounge in the bulging upper deck hump, the enormous capacity, 400 passengers, making long haul air travel economical for millions. And — what my father noticed — radar systems and other instruments that monitored atmospheric conditions around the plane. A constant stream of data.
You know ... Robert Steinberg thought ...what if that weather data wasn't just used to fly the plane? What if it was sent to a central location? And then used ... to predict the weather?
It would be a big improvement over weather stations — scattered mountaintop outposts, with thermometers and spinning anemometers and such. Plus weather balloons, instrument packages floated high into the upper atmosphere for expensive keyhole glimpses.
He wrote an article titled, "Role of Commercial Aircraft in Global Monitoring Systems," that ran in the April 27, 1973, issue of Science.
"The new family of wide-bodied jets such as the 747, DC-10, and L-1011 aircraft can be used to supply important global atmospheric and tropical meteorological data for which there is a pressing need," my father wrote. "In the final analysis, commercial aircraft may offer the most inexpensive way to monitor our atmosphere in the near future."
By summer, NASA loaned him out to NCAR — the National Center for Atmospheric Research — in Boulder, Colorado. NCAR was in a stunning, I.M. Pei-designed building of reddish concrete. Boulder was nice. Mountains. He traveled the world, signing up airlines. The idea took hold.
"Aircraft-based observations play a big role in the accuracy of weather forecasts — reducing forecast errors in numerical weather prediction systems by up to 10%" according to the World Meterological Association.
This is a long way of saying that, in an era of constant shocks to American science — 25,000 federal researchers and support staff left the government this past year, thousands of grants slashed, agencies shuttered, scientific data yanked off line, the U.S. scientific establishment being "systematically destroyed" in the words of the Union of Concerned Scientists, NCAR being scuttled stood out as personal.
And political. NCAR is being closed down by the Trump administration for the sin of "climate alarmism." Because atmospheric research points to uncomfortable facts that business and its handmaiden, government, don't want to think about anymore.
We should be clear why all of this is happening. Business makes money, but if it has to, oh, consider pollution, or worry about the purity of food or the efficacy of drugs, it makes less money. So watchdog agencies, and research facilities and university centers that would counterbalance the whims of business are being scrapped.
Scientists are not going quietly.
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My father dedicated his life to collecting data used to determine where the cheapest hookers on Manheim road could be found along with seedy poker games.
ReplyDeleteAfter I told him my wife was pregnant with his first grand child he moved to vegas.
A few years later while we were sitting with my grandma in hospice at the end of her life I was contacted by friends that he has weapons had barricaded himself in his condo and I needed to come see if I could convince him to seek care.
When I got there he was sleeping under the mattress in the bathtub.
Hundreds of opioid tablets in the drawer.
Brought him to Chicago and got him committed at Rush.
In case you wonder why I'm sometimes a little annoying
you should have had nothing more to do with him, Franco
DeleteIt's clear that scientists have found conclusive evidence of climate change caused by human activity.
ReplyDeleteAnd the circumstances that we face as inhabitants of this planet will be severely disrupted.
Our country has not exactly been a leader in combating the behaviors that are causing global warming and extreme weather events.
We used to talk a good game about what needed to be done we just didn't do it.
The current administration is bold-faced about how business comes first in this country. That financial gain is the driver of our nation.
We have long exploited the resources of countries around the planet for our gain and Trump and his ilk refused to paper over our behavior with platitudes.
We've never reduced our emissions and barely reduced the increase in emissions that occur every year.
This has been the case for over 30 years.
People around the world have been aware of this and I'll see us for how we truly are. A ravenous consumer society driven by ruthless business interests.
What could possibly go wrong?
All anyone has to do is look at all the glaciers melting away & see the damage the rising temperatures are causing.
DeleteBut the deniers refuse to believe their lying eyes!
Trump (and his ikk) is transparent only because he wears his corruption boldly for all to see, BUT fails to show the depth and spoils of that corruption or take responsibilty for such actions - not credit, responsibilty - a true sociopath. A sociopath seeking out and rewarding other sociopaths, even psychopaths.
DeleteHistory is over-filled with the dead bodies of such confluences.
'Twas a privilege to grow up in Chicago's often harsh climate, with its mercurial weather changes (see what I did there?) Made me a weather junkie at a very early age. Was saving Tribune weather maps at five and six. Grew up watching some of the best TV forecasters in the business...Harry Volkman, Jim Hill, John Coleman. Even took a weather class from Tom Skilling in the early Eighties. Would have studied meteorology myself but couldn't handle the higher math. Turned to wordsmithing instead, with mixed results.
DeleteAnd at the same time, beginning in the Sixties. weather satellites and supercomputers vastly improved forecasts and long-range predictions. The three-day forecasts became five, seven, even ten days. Always thought that commercial aircraft got their weather info from a central location, not the other way around. Who knew? Thanks for the heads-up, Mister S. And even more thanks to your father.
For more than forty years now, we've had all-weather TV stations via cable, and vast amounts of data on our screens...just a click away. Doesn't take a climate scientist to realize that something big is indeed going on and has been for a long time.
Billion-dollar weather disasters have become the new normal. Stronger hurricanes, more severe storms and tornadoes and winter weather, temperature extremes becoming worse, more frequent flash floods, higher amounts of precipitation.
Meanwhile, American government and business interests still want to shrug it off and sweep it all under the rug. The climate change deniers are in control, and it won't be long before amelioration will become impossible.
The clock is ticking and the window is closing, and any hope for rectification of a disastrous situation will be too little and too late. Fossil fuels will continue to be consumed. By the time the powers-that-be wake up and wise up, and start thinking seriously about producing electric vehicles, and using windmills and solar energy, mankind will have already been roasted and toasted. Thanks, greedheads. Thanks a lot.
Maybe there's a tipping point when things will heat up to the point where we are roasted and toasted as you say.
DeleteClimate models show the Earth heating faster at the poles.
Things won't change that much in the tropics where it is already much warmer than in the temperate zones and people seem to survive just fine
Living here beside lake Michigan if the temperature rises between two and four degrees during the next century people might find it more pleasant and more people may come here to live near all this fresh water that we are fortunate enough to have .
There may be another Great migration
Agriculture will move north into Canada and some currently uninhabitable parts of Russia
Overall the biggest losers will be along the coastlines where their property will disappear underwater much of the coastal inhabitants are wealthy people and seem very concerned about global warming.
Here in the Midwest other than an increase in thunderstorms and possibly tornadoes it could be less of a struggle to live.
Models show it's not going to become tropical here we already have been getting hot summers for hundreds of years you might try looking at the bright side for the people who will benefit from global warming I know that's difficult because supposedly we care about our fellow man
It's pointless to engage with a comment like this, so I'll keep it kinda short. Many, many people have already died in climate-change fueled disasters. Many more will, and the vast majority won't be "wealthy people."
DeleteEven if climate change didn't exist, you don't need to be a bleeding-heart liberal to realize that doubling down on burning coal, in preference to renewable energy sources, will be bad for the health of lots of folks. Of course, the orange felon certainly kept a quid pro quo campaign promise to rich donors by doing so. Eliminating regulations and giving "the market" free reign will be good for some wealthy folks, but not the average person who has to, you know, breathe the air, drink the water and eat the food.
"Looking at the bright side" on the part of a lot of delusional voters is what has saddled us with the most corrupt, unbelievably incompetent presidential administration in memory, if not all time.
Neil,
ReplyDeleteYour piece today reminded me of why the Untied States of America is such a good thing. A place where ideas and theories abound. Where science and critical thinking join hands with revolutionaries and dreamers to build a better tomorrow. A place where the people are not burdened by the insecurities and failures of spoiled rich nobles, out to amass more money and more power.
Today, with your post, republicans daily "antics," and the Chicago Bears (the pride and joy of illinois) planning their exit from the state and city for "greener" pastures and better tax "breaks" in Hammond/Gary Indiana I was reminded of of how people used to be.
Charles Comiskey built Comiskey park as a shrine to his power and existence. He built it with his own money just to say he could. The same kind of place your father could marvel at the wings and ports of a gigantic metal beast and think, let's put this all together and see what we can learn!
That's the America a yearn for.
Republicans are cowards and frauds. The Bears (McKaskey's) might just be cowards and frauds. But your dad, the scientists across this great country, the people standing up to ice, cpb, and injustice, and even Charles "the crook" Comiskey are the people who make this country great.
vive la revolution. tax the rich.
There are too many Democrats, Libertairans, Independents and third parties equal cowards and frauds. Everyone and everything has been barcoded & priced.
DeleteYou are not wrong, Lulu G.
DeleteBut as we stand -- right here, right now -- all it would take is 20 republicans and we could get back on track. yes, everyone deserves the blame, but the front of the line is filled with republicans. Libertarians are no different, same hat different font. a more modern klan
The Guardian has an article on the brain drain causing people with scientific backgrounds now refusing to work in the US & with American scientists going overseas to work, because the current corrupt & insane climate change denying loons cutting scientific research!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/19/trump-science-funding-cuts
I regularly see a Doctor for a condition. He's Persian, and he's in utter despair. He said that scientists in his field are already leaving the country in equal parts because of our anti-science madness and because they're immigrants.
ReplyDeleteA family friend is Australian and an expert in transportation systems and urban planning. Every year until this year he came to an international conference in Wash. DC. Loved it. The reason he stopped is because the conference has been gutted and he also doesn't want TSA goons going through his social media history at the airport. He joked that it wouldn't take them long to figure out where he stood on things.
So in the end, the rest of the world will drive low-cost Chinese electric cars and buy Chinese solar panels and wind technology while we're committing national suicide. Like Capt. Willard said to Col. Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, "I don't see any method at all."
What an amazing thing your father did! Just brilliant. People don't often think of scientists as creative but it's that kind of creative thinking in science that I just love.
ReplyDeleteThe administration's gutting of science is stupid in a thousand ways. But science has always had to scrape and claw for funding for research. And funding for outreach & communication about all that research has not even been pocket change, which has led, in part, to what we see now in high levels of scientific illiteracy in the public, loss of respect for expertise, and complete denial of clear scientific findings. It's depressing.
As much as we'd like to think IL is different because, e.g., it is sticking with the WHO and opposing MAHA for medical science, it's not exactly a beacon for science. Between the IL Arts Council and Chicago's Dept of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the State and City spend ~$35Million *annually* of our tax dollars on arts and culture outreach. In the past 20 years that I've tracked it, the amount spent to support science outreach: $0.
I agree with Paul but it seems few of the other commenters see in themselves and the culture in our country that we as a nation behave badly.
ReplyDeleteWe demand consumer products at the lowest possible price use fossil fuels at a greater rate than anyone else in the world per capita and then point the finger at others.
Trump is just a reflection of America.
We want want want want want want want buy,buy, buy buy and think that the way we act individually does not contribute to the factors that are causing global warming. And we want everything delivered to our door by Amazon. While they tear down the rainforest to make pasture land to meet our demand for beef.
We fly around on Jets thinking our vacation doesn't cause harm to the environment we deserve to travel we eat beef and other products that wreak havoc on the land in the air we want the price of gasoline to be low so we can drive as much as we want in as big an SUV as we feel is necessary for our status and think that wind and solar power is going to save us.
We consume way too much and there's no way to meet the demand with green energy if there is even such a thing as green energy.
They don't build solar panels with energy that came from solar panels they don't build wind farms with energy that came from wind they use fossil fuels to build all that stuff they don't build electric cars with electricity that was produced by wind and solar it's all produced with fossil fuels
A fine tale about your father and his excellent idea. "NASA loaned him out to NCAR." I also like how that demonstrated bureaucratic competence that doesn't often get mentioned. But does this mean that the efforts of government workers don't all represent wasted tax dollars? Shocking! Don't tell Elon.
ReplyDeleteAh, so this is why your parents moved to Boulder. I had wondered how that came about.
Meanwhile, the orange felon, not content already running the most openly corrupt administration in history, has added to his vaunted "FIFA Peace Prize" with a trophy celebrating him as the "undisputed champion of beautiful clean coal." As others have noted, while the rest of the world moves forward developing new technologies, these MAGA chumps think doubling down on coal is the way to go, and that renewable energy sources are fake news. The state of the union is pathetic.