Information package for the 1st CLIM public hearing CLIMATE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF WARMING
- CURRICULUM VITÆ of Dr. Richard Lindzen
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
- Richard S. Lindzen (b. February 8, 1940 in Webster, Massachusetts) attended the Bronx High School of Science and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He received his A.B. (1960), S.M. (1961) and Ph.D. (1964) degrees from Harvard University. The first degree was in physics; the last two were in applied mathematics. His thesis on the interactions of ozone chemistry, radiative transfer, and dynamics in the middle atmosphere brought him into the atmospheric sciences where he continues to work and teach. He was a postdoctoral fellow at both the Universities of Washington (1964-65) and Oslo (1965-66). He was a research scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (1966-68). He taught at the University of Chicago (1968-1972) before moving to Harvard University where he held the Burden Chair in dynamic meteorology and served as director of the Center for Earth and Planetary Physics. Since 1983, he has been the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at M.I.T. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Meteorological Society. He is a recipient of the Macelwane medal of the American Geophysical Union, and of the Meisinger and Charney Awards of the American Meteorological Society. He was the 1997 A.M.S. Haurwitz Lecturer. In 2006, he received the Leo Prize from the Wallin Foundation in Goteborg, Sweden. He has been a Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow at Kyushu University, the Vikram Amblal Sarabhai Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India, a Lady Davis Visiting Professorship at The Hebrew University, a Sackler Visiting Professor at Tel Aviv University, the Landsdowne Lecturer at the University of Victoria and a National University Lecturer at the University of Hokkaido. He is the coauthor (with the late Sidney Chapman) of a monograph, Atmospheric Tides, the author of Dynamics in Atmospheric Physics, a co-editor (with Edward Lorenz and George Platzman) of The Atmosphere - A Challenge: The Scientific Work of Jule Gregory Charney, and the author or co-author of over 200 papers in the scientific literature. He was also a lead author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report, and has served on numerous panels of the National Research Council, the Council of the American Meteorological Society and the Corporation of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
- Professor Lindzen's scientific interests include the dynamics of the earth's climate and its atmosphere's general circulation, the middle atmosphere, and planetary atmospheres. He has contributed to the theory of hydrodynamic instabilities and waves. His work has provided explanations of a variety of atmospheric phenomena including atmospheric tides, the quasi-biennial oscillation of the tropical stratosphere, the super-rotation of the atmosphere of Venus, and the generation of upper atmospheric turbulence by breaking internal gravity waves. His current research is on the climate sensitivity of the earth to radiative forcing, on the factors which determine the equator-to-pole temperature differences, and on the nature and role of atmospheric convection.
- John M. Wallace, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington who has known Lindzen since their grad-school days in Cambridge, Massachusetts, says Lindzen's challenge to climate-change orthodoxy is driven, in large part, by his inner resistance to backing down. "That is Dick's natural personality—to be somewhat of a contrarian," Wallace says. "He feels he can work the argument and win."
- Lindzen is also accustomed to charting his own course and trusting what his brain seems to tell him. Raised in the Bronx by immigrant parents, Lindzen graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in 1956, started college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, then transferred to Harvard after two years, graduating in 1960 with a bachelor's degree in physics. He didn't intend to specialize in climatology when he stayed at Harvard to pursue a graduate degree, but he won a fellowship in atmospheric and ocean science that allowed him to continue studying his first love: applied mathematics and physics.
- Early on, Lindzen's exceptional math skills helped shape his career. For a series of papers he published in the late sixties and early seventies, he chose to tackle a complex phenomenon involving thermal currents in the atmosphere that scientists had been trying to explain for decades. "Lindzen figured out how to mathematically solve the problem," says Wallace. In 1977, this work helped get Lindzen elected to both the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was awarded an endowed professorship at MIT in 1983.
- Regents' and National Merit scholarships at the Bronx High School of Science (class of 1956) propelled him as a student, first to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then to Harvard University, where he was attracted by classical physics, and then atmospheric physics. After various academic posts, he joined the M.I.T. faculty in 1983. Here he is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology.
- ...While some of the criticisms delivered by Dr. Lindzen may have some flaws, said Dr. Gray, "across the board he's generally very good."
- Another atmospheric scientist cited by Dr. Lindzen as a fellow skeptic, Dr. John M. Wallace of the University of Washington, said there are "relatively few scientists who are as skeptical of the whole thing as Dick is." Many more, said Dr. Wallace, take the question of climate change seriously but think that assertions of climate change already in progress have been exaggerated, as he does.
- The object of the conflicting opinions was born in Webster, Mass., in 1940, after his parents fled Hitler's Germany. His shoemaker father later moved the family to the Bronx, where, Dr. Lindzen says, "I think we were the first Jewish family in an Irish-Catholic neighborhood." There he developed a lifelong enthusiasm for amateur radio and won Regents' and National Merit scholarships at the Bronx High School of Science (class of 1956). He also acquired the middle-class native New Yorker's hardened "G" (as in Lon-GIH-land) that faintly modifies his otherwise straightforward academic accent today.
- The scholarships propelled him as a student first to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then to Harvard University, where he was attracted by classical physics, and then atmospheric physics. By his mid-30's he had produced landmark work in atmospheric dynamics, mainly involving "tides," or regular changes in atmospheric pressure, and the periodic shift in direction of high-level equatorial winds that affect global circulation patterns. After various academic posts, he joined the M.I.T. faculty in 1983, where he is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology.
User:Alexh19740110/FredGuterlNewsweek also found here and here.
AAAS membership: Lindzen AAAS since 1977.
Jule Gregory Charney January 1, 1917 — June 16, 1981: contains some biographical information about significance of an L paper.
Andrew Dessler stating (in error I think) that Lindzen was an ozone skeptic
Rondanelli, R. and R.S. Lindzen (2008). "Observed variations in convective precipitation fraction and stratiform area with sea surface temperature". J. Geophys. Res. 113. doi:10.1029/2008JD010064.
Atmospheric Dynamics Fall 2008 Course Outline Article showing that Lindzen's 1990 textbook is still in use at Colorado State University.
- Lindzen's book and Green's books are not comprehensive treatments but contain unique perspectives on selected research topics to which the authors have made fundamental contributions.
Chapman, S. and R.S. Lindzen (1970). Atmospheric Tides: Thermal and Gravitational. Dordrecht: Reidel.
- Lindzen, R.S. (1965). "On the asymmetric diurnal tide". Pure & Appl. Geophys. 62: 142-147. abstract The response of the atmosphere to a diurnally oscillating thermal drive, asymmetric with respect to the equator, is investigated. It is found that the solutions of Laplace's tidal equation do not form a complete set; all of them being orthogonal to the associated Legendre polynomial, P {2/1}(cos Θ), Θ being the latitude. As an extension of Laplace's theorem for gravitationally excited ocean tides to thermally driven atmospheric tides, it is shown that a diurnal drive whose latitude dependence is given by P {2/1} gives rise to no surface pressure oscillation.
- Cited by 3: NCAR
- Lindzen, R.S., (1966). "On the theory of the diurnal tide" (PDF). Mon. Wea. Rev. 94: 295–301.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) abstract Laplace's tidal equation for diurnal tides of longitudinal number one is investigated. It is found that in addition to the previously found solutions (Hough Functions) corresponding to positive equivalent, depths there are also Hough Functions corresponding to negative equivalent, depths. Both are necessary for the representation of observed tidal data. As an application of the Hough Functions the diurnal surface pressure oscillation resulting from diurnal variations in insolation is computed. It is found that the insolation model due to Siebert can account for only one-third of the observed pressure oscillation.
- cited by 27: University of Oslo
- Lindzen, R.S. (1967). "Thermally driven diurnal tide in the atmosphere". Q. J. Roy. Met. Soc. 93: 18-42. abstract The theory for the diurnal tide in the atmosphere is reviewed and the appropriate Hough Functions (including those with negative equivalent depths) are described. The main thermal drives for the diurnal tide - insolation absorption by O3 and H2O - are described. The theory is then used to compute the atmosphere's response to the thermal drives. It is shown that the small amplitude of the diurnal surface pressure oscillation results from most of the thermal drive being used to activate trapped modes. The calculated winds are in reasonable agreement with observations of the diurnal wind oscillation from the troposphere to the upper mesosphere. In addition the tidal wind agrees strikingly with single time observations of the total wind in the upper-air. The temperature and vertical wind distributions and the upward flux of energy due to the diurnal tide are also calculated. The last item amounts to 6·8 ergs cm-2 sec-1 at the Equator which is about 2·5 times the downward solar flux in bands absorbable in the thermosphere. The average tidal flux over all latitudes is, however, considerably smaller.
- Cited by 75 NCAR
- Lindzen, R.S. and D.J. McKenzie (1967). "Tidal theory with Newtonian cooling" (PDF). Pure & Appl. Geophys. 64: 90-96. abstract Processes representable by Newtonian cooling models are found to be of importance for tides in various planetary atmospheres. The equations of tidal theory are, therefore, rederived to include a rather general Newtonian cooling, and some of the effects of this inclusion are investigated.
- Cited by 7: NCAR
- Lindzen, R.S. (1968). "The application of classical atmospheric tidal theory" (PDF). Proc. Roy. Soc. A303: 299-316. abstract The traditional dynamical theory of atmospheric tides is reviewed. The equations presented are modified to take account of infrared cooling. A numerical method is described for efficiently solving these equations for any vertical distributions of basic temperature, cooling rate coefficient, and excitation. The effect of varying basic temperature profiles, cooling rate distributions, and excitations on the diurnal and semidiurnal components of the atmosphere's daily variation is examined. It is found, for example, that the semidiurnal surface pressure oscillation is approximately the same for widely differing basic temperature profiles. It is also found that the diurnal thermotidal fields become unstable above 85 km. We are able to calculate the diurnal contribution to the spatial distribution of vertical velocity and use this information to estimate a lower bound for the turbopause.
- cited by 25 NCAR
- Lindzen, R.S. and S. Chapman (1969). "Atmospheric tides" (PDF). Sp. Sci. Revs. 10: 3-188.
- Chapman, S. and R.S. Lindzen (1970). Atmospheric Tides: Thermal and Graviational. Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Press. p. 200.
Hamilton 1981 Latent heat release as a possible forcing mechanism for atmospheric tides
which is cited by 19
The Laplace Tidal Equations and Atmospheric Tides: Discusses Lindzen 1966 and mentions Kato 1966 was a simultaneous, independent discovery.
- Johnston Receives Revelle Medal: someone citing an unacknowledged role of Lindzen towards discovery of the ozone hole.
- Atmospheric Quirks--Oscillation of Equatorial Winds: crediting Holton for the QBO, interesting link with ozone layer.
- Dynamical Coupling of the Lower and Middle Atmosphere: Historical Background to Current Research: mentions Lindzen's role in history.
- Lindzen, R.S. (1967). "Planetary waves on beta planes" (PDF). Mon. Wea. Rev. 95: 441-451. abstract The problem of linearized oscillations of the gaseous envelope of a rotating sphere (with periods in excess of a day) is considered using the β-plane approximation. Two particular β-planes are used—one centered at the equator, the other at a middle latitude. Both forced and free oscillations are considered. With both β-planes it is possible to approximate known solutions on a sphere. The use of either β-plane alone, however, results in an inadequate description. In particular it is shown that the equatorial β-plane provides good approximations to the positive equivalent depths of the solar diurnal oscillation, while the midlatitude β-plane provides good approximations to the negative equivalent depths. The two β-planes are also used to describe Rossby-Haurwitz waves on rapidly rotating planets, and the vertical propagatability of planetary waves with periods of a day or longer.
Lindzen, R.S. and J.R. Holton (1968). "A theory of quasi-biennial oscillation" (PDF). J. Atmos. Sci. 26: 1095-1107. abstract A theory is presented which indicates that the quasi-biennial oscillation of the zonal wind in the tropical stratosphere is a result of the interaction of long-period, vertically propagating gravity waves with the zonal wind. We discuss the theoretical basis and observational evidence for the existence of long-period gravity waves near the equator, and the mechanism of their interaction with the zonal wind, and present some simple numerical results which show how the absorption of the momentum of these waves by the mean flow leads to a downward propagating zonal wind profile. It is shown that the interaction of these gravity waves with the observed semiannual zonal wind oscillation above 40 km will produce a downward propagating quasi-biennial oscillation. We present the results of several numerical experiments with a model of the tropical stratosphere which includes the gravity wave interaction mechanism. The quasi-biennial oscillation is simulated quite successfully. Finally, we discuss possible observational checks for our model, and some of its implications for tropical dynamics.
Baldwin, M. P. Gray, L. J. Dunkerton, T. J. Hamilton, K. Haynes, P. H. Randel, W. J. Holton, J. R. Alexander, M. J. Hirota, I.; Horinouchi, T. (2002). "The quasi-biennial oscillation" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
ECHAM3 technical documentation: shows the Schneider/Lindzen 1976 convection scheme is used in ECHAM3 GCM.