Royal Meteorological Society talk

Date: Tuesday 5 February 2013

Time: 18:00 (17.40 for refreshments)
Location: Manchester Metropolitan University, T0.03

SPEAKER: Vladimir Jankovic, Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine

Title: Where is the Weather: Urban and Social Scales in the History of Atmospheric Sciences

Historians of science usually argue that the development of modern atmospheric research can be seen as a result of advances in physical, chemical, and mathematical representation of large-scale meteorological phenomena. The emergence of modern atmospheric sciences is thus often seen as a replacement of the descriptive and place-specific approach to weather with an increasingly theoretical, hemispheric and numerically oriented research. Contributing to this shift is the internationalisation and growth of observation networks, standardization of units and measurement techniques, trans-national exchange of weather information, technologies of communication, military-oriented research, air transport and the rise of numerical forecasting.
However, as a result of this, agricultural, forest, urban and indoor meteorologies have received relatively little attention to date, as have microclimatology, air pollution meteorology and the study of atmospheric turbulence. In this paper I wish to explore the benefits of recovering the history of small-scale research in atmospheric sciences and explain how urban air pollution meteorology in particular can be shown to epitomize the relevance of local- and applied investigations into the non-free atmospheres. Furthermore, I wish particularly to emphasize how such investigations shaped the recognition of the 'anthropogenic' changes as a key concept in contemporary environmental sciences.

See http://www.rmets.org/events/tbc-3 for details and a map.

As always, the meeting is free and open to all without registration.
We look forward to seeing you there.

Regards,
Mike Bennett