Unsung Meteorological Heroes : Joanne SimpsonAdded : Wednesday at 13:30 Today we are looking at a meteorologist who was one of those people who stayed out of the lime light, but their achievements and what they brought to our science was incredible.
Born Joanne Gerould on March 23 1923, in Boston, Joanne became interested in the weather whilst learning to sail and also later as a student pilot. She studied under Carl-Gustaf Rossby at the University of Chicago before obtaining a masters and then applied for a doctorate in meteorology. At the time, a faculty adviser told her that "no woman had ever received a doctorate in meteorology, none ever would."
![]()
In 1949, Joanne received her doctorate and continued to work with Herbert Riehl, who lectured on tropical storm research.
At the time, clouds were considered a result of the weather and not the cause, but in 1951 she became research meteorologist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and using simple mathematical calculations and a slide rule she would forecast the height and shape which tropical clouds could develop to. Joanne was convinced that tropical weather systems were fuelled by the "hot tower" effect which explained how hurricanes develop and intensify.
Later in 1951, the US Navy leant the university and old airplane which was kitted out with scientific instruments to see whether her calculations were correct, but there was one problem... Women were not allowed on field trips and Joanne was no exception. But she flew with them..
The next few years took her to England on a Guggenheim fellowship before returning to the US in the early 1960s to work as an advisor on the National Hurricane Research Project. In 1963 she joined Project Stormfury which was trying to modify tropical weather systems and hurricanes by "seeding" them with silver iodide, she became director in 1965.
The concept of seeding a tropical system means feeding developing cumulus outside of the eye so that they in turn develop which then creates an eyewall replacement cycle which weakens the system. But there was a problem, or actually a few...
The first was a distict lack of decent candidate systems in the Atlantic for seeding. Either they weren't the right intensity or too far to reach by the aging B-17 aircraft they used.
In the early 1970s, the Navy withdrew from Stormfury, but the project continued and purchased two new Lockheed P-3 aircraft and looked at being based in Guam due to the higher frequency of typhoons. In 1976 they were due to start, but China announced it would not be happy if a seeded typhoon changed its course and ended up making landfall there, Japan also said that their country was willing to put up with typhoons due to half its rainfall coming from them.
Further research also showed that silver iodide had little effect on ice crystals which hurricanes were mostly made up of and little supercooled water which the seeding needed. In 1983 Stormfury was finally cancelled but in 1974, Simpson became the director of NOAA's Experimental Meteorology Laboratory. Then in 1979 she moved to NASA Goddard as head of the Severe Storm Branch where she remained for the rest of her career.
At NASA, Joanne helped develop the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) which used global satellites to estimate rainfall from clouds below. This system is still in use today and used to monitor parts of the oceans for developing tropical systems.
![]()
Joanne Simpson worked in meteorology for 54 years and died on March 4 2010 in Washington D.C where she was laid to rest with her husband Robert Simpson.
Her legacy though lives on... The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission is still active, the Lockheed P-3 aircraft? They were both used by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters until 2005 and the research now is to accurately monitor and observe the tropical systems.
Joanne Simpson brought some incredible thinking and hypotheses to meteorology in how we understand tropical weather systems. It was the fact she pushed through some phenomenal societal barriers at the time which allowed her to have the tools and understanding today which we now take for granted forecasting hurricanes and typhoons.
Joanne Simpson... Metcheck salutes you... Thank you for every thing you brought to our wonderful science. |
