Joanne Simpson
| Joanne Simpson | |
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Simpson bent over reams of images of clouds that she filmed during long flights between islands in the tropical Pacific.
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| Born | Joanne Gerould March 23, 1923 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | March 4, 2010 (aged 86) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Fields | Meteorology |
| Thesis | Certain Features of Undisturbed and Disturbed Weather in the Trade-Wind Region (1949) |
| Doctoral advisor | Herbert Riehl |
| Known for | Tropical meteorology and tropical cyclone research |
| Notable awards | Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal |
| Spouse | Robert Simpson |
Joanne Simpson (born Joanne Gerould; March 23, 1923 – March 4, 2010) was the first woman to ever receive a Ph.D. in meteorology. Simpson received both her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Chicago, and did post-doctoral work at Dartmouth College. Simpson was a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and taught and researched meteorology at numerous universities as well as the federal government. Simpson contributed to many areas of the atmospheric sciences, particularly in the field of tropical meteorology. She has researched hot towers, hurricanes, the trade winds, air-sea interactions, and helped develop the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM).
Her teaching and research career at universities includes time at the University of Chicago, New York University, Illinois Institute of Technology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, UCLA, the Environmental Satellite Services Administration (ESSA),the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the University of Virginia.
In 1958 Malkus collaborated with Herbert Riehl and calculated the average moist static energy and how it varied vertically throughout the atmosphere. They noted that at altitudes up to approximately 750 hPa the moist static energy decreased with height. Above 750 hPa, the moist static energy increased with height which had neither been observed or explained before. Riehl and Malkus realized that this must be due to moist convection that started near the surface that continued rising relatively adiabatically to near 50,000 feet (15,000 m). They called these clouds "undiluted chimneys" but they would later be commonly referred to as hot towers. They estimated that it would take less than 5,000 of these towers daily throughout the tropics to result in the moist static energy profile they observed.
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