History of Atmospheric Science

• History of Atmospheric Science
• Lecturer: PD Dr. C. v. Savigny

Lecture content:

The main purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the some of
the most important aspects of the historical development of atmospheric
science. The course begins with a discussion of one of the oldest
preserved documents on atmospheric science: Aristotle's meteorology. It
continues with selected topics such as, e.g., Galilei's measurement of
the weight of air and its implications, the discovery of the
atmosphere's chemical composition, the basic features of the global
atmospheric circulation and their theoretical explanations, the
development of instrumentation used for atmospheric investigations, Luke
Howard's cloud classification, or Svante Arrhenius' description of the
greenhouse effect. The original historic publications will be made
available if possible and will be the basis of the discussion. It should
be noted that most of the covered topics deal with the development of
atmospheric science before 1900. In order to get credits for this course
the participants will have to give oral presentations on one of the
topics. Instead of final examinations term papers on a selected topic
will have to be prepared.