Ocean Temperatures, Their Relation To Solar Radiation And Oceanic Circulation

McEwen, George F.

Edité par University of California, 1919

A propos de cet article

Wonderful 86 page monograph by noted oceanic expert George F. McEwen. Fabulous period piece. Some wear and as it was part of the famed John Crerar Library, it has a stamp and a beautiful old bookplate, etc. With fold-out chart of ocean temperatures. Complete copy - begins on page 335 and ends on page 421. Only copy available worldwide. From his 1972 obituary, The passing of Dr. George F. McEwen in San Diego on March 1, 1972, his ninetieth year, marked the end of a long and productive career in pioneering phases of physical oceanography which had attracted worldwide recognition. And it introduced a solemn finale into the lives of his many friends, colleagues, and in great particular his wife Mae, a son and a daughter both married, and five grandchildren. George McEwen was born on June 16, 1882 in Manchester, Iowa, the son of a jeweler. Growing up in Iowa, he attended Iowa State College in Ames for several years, but in 1905 joined his mother in San Diego in search of a more salutary climate. They moved thence to Palo Alto, where George matriculated at Stanford, continuing his studies while working part-time as a watchmaker and at odd jobs to finance his education. After receiving his baccalaureate degree and Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1908, George continued as a teaching assistant in graduate school, and earned his Ph.D. in physics and mathematics at Stanford three years later. He served for the ensuing year as an instructor in mathematics at the University of Illinois, and in 1912 began his long teaching and research career at the Scripps Institution, which on July 12, 1912 had been formally transferred to The Regents of the University of California as the Scripps Institution for Biological Research, later (1925) to become the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. George married Mae Winner in Hamilton, Missouri on June 18, 1912, and they entrained directly for La Jolla, where they lived for the ensuing period of nearly five decades. McEwen was a pioneer in the U.S. in the field of dynamical and physical oceanography. Although his later studies often involved development and application of theory, his first paper (1910) was a more descriptive preliminary report on hydrographic work carried on by the then Marine Biological Station of San Diego. In this paper he noted the occurrence of unseasonably cold water in a narrow belt along the California coast and cited an explanation based on upwelling of deeper water in replacement of surface waters carried offshore by the wind. In subsequent studies (1912, 1929, 1934) he further developed the explanation for the phenomenon using Ekman's theory of wind-driven currents, and made several estimates of the rate of upward movement of the nutrient-rich water that is so important in increasing biological productivity in coastal areas. In 1911 McEwen submitted his doctoral thesis on the measurement of the coefficient of viscosity by means of the forced vibrations of a sphere. Thereafter, developing the prophecy of his first paper, he continued to give his attention to the physics of natural phenomena in the ocean. He applied both statistical and physical methods in studies of the variation in temperature and other properties, and sought relations between ocean changes and weather and climate. These investigations stimulated him to make an early (1919) estimate of turbulent eddy transfer in the ocean surface layer and later (1938) to introduce an energy equation for computing values of evaporation over the eastern Pacific. In 1946 several colleagues were involved in diffusion studies in Bikini Lagoon and at their request McEwen developed models of turbulent diffusion from radioactive source areas. The success with these applications led him to devise a model to explain the decay of the large horizontal eddies observed off the coast of Southern California.

N° de réf. du vendeur 5587

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Ocean Temperatures, Their Relation To Solar Radiation And Oceanic Circulation
• Éditeur: University of California
• Date de parution: 1919
• Reliure: Hardcover
• État de l'article: Good
• Catalogues du vendeur:
  • Oceanography