Chicago meteorological school

In the history of the development of atmospheric science or meteorology, there are probably only two schools: one is the Norwegian School headed by pirk Ness and his son Jacob Bjerknes, and the other is the Chicago School headed by Rosby.

After 1930s, due to the use of radiosondes, we have a new understanding of the forms of atmospheric motion in the upper air, and found that the atmospheric circulation in the mid-latitude superimposed thousands of kilometers of waves on the circumpolar motion from west to east (referring to the northern hemisphere). These fluctuations not only have their own structure and motion law, but also have internal relations with low-level frontal cyclones. Swedish meteorologist Rosby first pointed out in theory that this is caused by the change of Coriolis parameters with latitude, and thus put forward the long wave theory. This is an important development in the history of dynamic meteorology, which has led to a series of studies. 194 1 year, Rosby taught at the university of Chicago, which influenced a large number of meteorologists and physical oceanographers and formed the Chicago school. In particular, he influenced and guided Julie Chaney and Henry Stommel, who made important contributions to the development of dynamic meteorology and physical oceanography respectively.

In addition to planetary waves, the main contributions of Chicago school are: (1) putting forward geostrophic adaptation of atmospheric motion; Energy dispersion of planetary waves: westerly jet's formation theory and its important role in atmospheric circulation: Barotropic and baroclinic instability of planetary waves. The contribution of Chicago School to dynamic meteorology has laid a theoretical foundation for the development of numerical weather forecast.