Atmospheric Science at NASA: A History

• Acknowledgments
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• Johns Hopkins University Press
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Acknowledgments

This book is the result of a contract initiated by former NASA chief historian Roger D. Launius in 2002. It was jointly funded by the NASA History Office and by the Atmospheric Science Project Office at Langley Research Center, and administered by the Office of Public Services at Langley Research Center. Thanks to Donna Lawson, Michael P. Finneran, Stephen Sanford, of Langley, Carla Coombs and George Wood of Science and Technology Corporation, and Andrea Magruder, of Tessada Associates, for arranging and supporting this work.

For the first two years of this effort, I was the resident historian at Langley Research Center. Declining funding at Langley led me to seek other opportunities, and I landed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, in September 2004, where I completed the work (with some delays) in my free time and with occasional use of unpaid leave periods. Blaine Baggett, Stephen Kulczycki, Laura Cinco, Jenny Coons, and Yvonne Samuels made this transition as painless as a cross-country move can be.

In writing this book, I’ve drawn heavily on several libraries. At Langley Research Center, Carolyn Helmetsie and facilities manager Garland Gouger of the Floyd Thompson Technical Library provided an excellent working environment. The interlibrary loan staff, Kenneth Carroll and Cecelia Grzeskowiak, rounded up veritable stacks of history books and articles that engineering libraries don’t carry. At JPL, Margo Young, Barbara Amago, and Mickey Honchel provided access to the collections in Pasadena. At the Schwerdtfeger Library of the University of Wisconsin, Jean Phillips granted access to Verner E. Suomi’s remaining papers and to the library’s extensive collections on early meteorological satellite research. Diane Rabson, the archivist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, hosted a research visit and provided copies of a number of oral histories from the NCAR collection.

One of the pleasures of writing about modern science has been the opportunity to interview working scientists and science managers. In researching this work, I interviewed many people. A few people deserve special mention, however. William L. Smith, Sr., and Bruce Wielicki of Langley Research Center, Robert C. Harriss from NCAR, Adrian Tuck of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aeronomy Lab, and Milton Halem of Goddard Space Flight Center gave lengthy interviews and also read portions of the manuscript, aiding my understanding of their areas of specialty and saving me from embarrassing errors. Edward A. Frieman, Charles F. Kennel, Shelby Tilford, Michael D. King, James E. Hansen, and Dixon Butler helped me understand the politics swirling around Earth observations in the 1990s. Finally, informal conversations with Moustafa Chahine, Eric Fetzer, and Joe Waters at JPL clarified my understanding of some of the technical challenges in space-based remote sensing.

This book has also benefited from my associations with other historians of science, many of whom I met, or re-met, at the International Commission for the History of Meteorology meeting at Wilheim, Germany, in 2004. Mott Greene helped me think about modeling in modern science. James R. Fleming and Katharine Anderson have been valuable for their knowledge of the history of meteorology. Maiken Lykke Lolck guided me to sources in the history of ice core research. Naomi Oreskes’ inadvertent initiation of a conflict with climate change disinformation specialists in 2004 unearthed some unique resources, which she graciously shared. Oreskes and Fleming also kindly read and extensively critiqued this manuscript, for which I’m very grateful.

Barton C. Hacker and Margaret Vining of the National Museum of American History hosted several of my DC area research visits in their wonderful House of Clio on Capitol Hill. Thanks also to Robert Ferguson and Louise Liu for hosting research visits. Deborah G. Douglas, curator of the MIT Museum, made space for me for a research trip during a cold, wet Boston winter. Finally, Karin Matchett did admirable research in the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library’s global climate collection on my behalf in 2005.

This manuscript was also read by four anonymous reviewers chosen by the NASA History Office, and by an anonymous reviewer chosen by the Johns Hopkins University Press. They offered numerous criticisms that helped me improve the work. Nonetheless, all errors herein are mine and mine alone.