Evolution of Modern Climatology: Historical Perspectives

Development Development of of Modern Modern Climatology Climatology

Development of Climatology: Climatology originated in ancient Greece with Aristotle s Meteorologica (350 B.C.) and Hippocrates s airs, waters and places (400 B.C.) being the first meteorological and climatological treatises, respectively. The Greek interest in the nature of the atmosphere was not replicated thereafter for many hundreds of years and only acquired new importance in the middle of 15thcentury, the age of discovery began. The scientific methods really began in the 17thcentury when instruments to measure the weather were developed. The barometer was invented by Torricelli in 1643. The thermometer by Galileo in 1593 while in 1661, Boyle discovered the relationship between pressure and volume.

Theme based evolution Historical context The 1sttransformation: Climate models (1950s) The 2nd transformation: Earth observation (1970) The 3rdtransformation: Supercomputing The 4thtransformation: Global warming (1970s) Helping us plan for a safe and sustainable future (1990)

Significant Events Ancient period: 400 B.C. The influence of climate on health was discussed by Hippocrates in airs, waters and places 350 B.C. Weather science was dealt within Aristotle s Meteorological 300 B.C. The text De Ventis by Theophrastus described winds and offered a critique of Aristotle s ideas Dark Age: till 1400 AD

Period of Renaissance: Great age of Discovery and Explorations 1593 A.D. The thermometer was described by Galileo Period of Scientific Study: 1622 A significant treatise on wind was written by Francis Bacon 1643 The barometer was invented by Torricelli 1661 Boyle s law on gases was propounded 1664 Weather observations began at Paris, France. This is the longest continuous sequence of weather data available, the records are not homogeneous 1668 Edmund Halley constructed a map of the trade winds

Period of Regional Description explanation (18 & 19th Century) 1714 The Fahrenheit scale was introduced 1735 George Hadley described the trade winds and effects of earth s rotation on the direction of wind 1736 The centigrade scale was introduced (It was first formally proposed by Du Crest in 1641) 1779 Weather observations began at New Haven Conn, the longest continuous sequence of records in the United States 1783 The hair hygrometer was invented for recording moisture content in the air. 1783 For the first time daily weather charts containing deviations of pressure from normal were prepared by Brandes. The charts showed the movement of low pressure system from one chart to other. But they were only of historical importance and were 1802 Lamark and Howard suggested the first cloud classification system 1817 Alexander Von Humboldt constructed the first map showing the mean annual temperature over the globe 1825 The Psychrometer was devised by August for recording relative humidity 1827 Beginning of the period during which H.W. Dove developed the laws of storm

1831 William Redfield produced the first weather map of U.S.A. 1837 Pyrheliometer for measuring insolation was constructed. 1841 Movement and development of storm was given by Espy. 1843 Samuel Morse invented electric telegraphy and made it possible to quickly collect meteorological data from far off places for preparation of weather charts on real time basis. 1844 -G.D. Coriolis formulated the coriolis force generated by earth s rotation. 1845 First world map of precipitation was prepared by Berghans. 1848 Beginning of M.F. Maury s publications on winds and currents at sea 1849 Regular daily weather charts began appearing in Daily News in U.S.A. From June 14 1862 First map (showing western Europe) of mean pressure was produced by Renou 1875 India Meteorological Department came into existence 1879 -Supan published map showing world temperature regions 1892 Beginning of systematic use of balloons to monitor free air

Period of modern Climatology (20th Century) 1900 The term classification of climate was first used by Koppen 1902 Existence of stratosphere was discovered 1913 The ozone layer was discovered 1918 Polar front theory was propounded by V. Bjerknes 1925 Systematic data collection by air craft was started 1928 - Radiosondes were first used to record upper air temperature, R.H. and pressure at various heights. 1940 Nature of jet streams was first investigated 1960 First meteorological satellite TIROS-1 was launched by U.S.A.

Some latest significant events in the development of climatology are given below 1972 LANDSAT-1 was launched technological advance i.e. the use of space platform instead of aircraft and use of multispectral sensor with four wavelength bands. 1975 LANDSAT-2 was launched 1975 First Indian experimental satellite Aryabhatta was launched by using Soviet Inter-cosmos rocket with the objective to indigenously design and fabricate a space-worthy satellite system and evaluate its performance in orbit. 1978 LANDSAT-3 was launched with the addition of fifth band in thermal infra-red region (10.4 to 12.5 ), valuable for estimating soil moisture. Later on, LANDSAT-4,5 were launched carrying a second generation scanner, the thematic mapper equipped with six spectral bands of 30 m resolution. 1979 First Indian low orbit earth observation satellite Bhaskara-1 was launched by using Soviet Inter-cosmos rocket to collect data on hydrology, forestry, geology, ocean state, water vapour and liquid water content in the atmosphere etc. 1981 Second RS-1 satellite was launched by India with SLV-3 (D-1) rocket. 1983 Third RS-1 satellite was launched by India with SLV-3 (D-2) rocket with orbit period of 97 minutes. by NASA, which represented a major

1986 The French remote sensing satellite (SPOT) was launched carrying two HRV (High Resolution Visible) sensors equipped with spectral bands of 20 m resolution and a panchromatic band of 10 m resolution. The system viewed a ground scene of 60 m x 60 m. 1988 Indian Remote Sensing Satellite Programme i.e. successful launch and operationalization of IRS-1A was a major step for space application in India. The IRS- 1A payload had Linear Imaging Self Scanning Sensors (LISS) with a geometric resolution of 72.5 km in four operating spectral bands. 1991 IRS-1 B satellite was launched having LISS-I and LISS-II sensors with a spectral resolution of 36.25m , 4 spectral bands and receptivity of 22 days. 1992 Stretched Rohini Satellite Series (SROSS) was launched by India s Augmented Satellite Launched Vehicle, ASLV on May 20, 1992 and May 4, 1994, SROSS- C2 has provided valuable scientific data 1994 IRS-P2 satellite was launched with LISS-II camera and a repetivity of 24 days. 1995 1RS-1C satellite with Panchrometic camera (PAN), imaging sensor characteristics (LISS-III) and wide field sensors (WiFS) was launched by Soviet launcher Malniya

1996 IRS-P3 satellite with wide field sensor (WiFS) and Modular optoelectronic scanner (MOS) was launched by using indigenously developed PSLV-D3 rocket 1997 IRS-ID satellite was launched with payloads similar to IRS-1C i.e. PAN, LISS- III and WiFS 1999 IRS-1D (Oceansat-1) was launched by indigenous PSLV rocket 2005 -IRS-P5 (CARTOSAT-1) was launched by indigenous PSLV rocket 2007 IRS-P7 (CARTOSAT-2) was launched by indigenous PSLV-C7 rocket carrying a single panchromatic camera with 1 m resolution 2011 IRS-P6 was launched by PSLV-C16 rocket

Reference: Internet sources Savindra Singh (2011) Climatology, Prayag Pustak bhawan., Allahabad. Savindra Singh (2015) Physical Geography, Prayag Pustak bhawan., Allahabad. Websites: https://www.pmfias.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/poormansfriend Costas G. Helmis l Panagiotis T. Nastos Editors (2012) Advances in Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics. Springer, New York. Rachita G., Climatology: Development, Division and Climatic Data. Available at https:// www. Your article library. com/ climatology/ climatology-develo - pment division -and-climatic-data/88757, accessed on 27-05-21. Thank you