The “MetZet Classic Papers” Series
Stefan Brönnimann
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Editorial
The Meteorologische Zeitschrift has a long and rich history (for details see the article by EMEIS, 2008). In fact, in just a few years the journal will celebrate its 150th anniversary (the predecessor journal, the Zeitschrift der österreichischen Gesellschaft für Meteorologie, first appeared in 1866). It is exciting to hold the first volume in ones hands and browse through the contents. For instance, one finds a seminal paper by JULIUS HANN (1866) on the Föhn wind (refined in several later papers in the journal, e.g., HANN (1885)). The first volume of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift in 1884 (the two journals merged two years later) contains several influential papers including WLADIMIR KÖPPEN’s first classification of climatic regions (KÖPPEN, 1884). During the following decades, landmark papers in the fields of climatology (e.g., HANN, 1890), meteorological instrumentation (ASSMANN, 1889), atmospheric dynamics (e.g., BJERKNES 1904, FICKER 1920), radiation (e.g., ÅNGSTRÖM, 1916), microphysics (e.g., FINDEISEN, 1938), aerology (e.g., FLOHN, 1952) and other fields were published in the journal. Of particular importance were the papers by HANS ERTEL on the concept of vorticity (ERTEL, 1942a,b, translated in SCHUBERT et al. 2004). During these decades the Meteorologische Zeitschrift was a leading journal in the field.
Many of these papers had a large influence on the field, and it would be interesting, instructive, or even inspiring to revisit these papers from a present-day viewpoint. Scientific topics often undergo cycles of interest and older perspectives on the same topic are quickly forgotten. Current scientific discussions may sometimes benefit from an influx of past ideas (see also STEHR and VON STORCH, 2000). However, this process is hindered by a language barrier. All of the above mentioned papers were published in German. Most current scientists working in the field are not able to read them. Language is thus strongly restricting the current audience.
German was a well accepted scientific language in meteorology until about the 1920s, when English started to become the dominant language (see also LILJEQUIST, 1980). For a long time, most German-speaking scientists continued publishing in German and the German meteorological journals only slowly changed to publishing in English (see also EMEIS, 2008). In fact, it was not until relatively recently that the Meteorologische Zeitschrift adopted the policy to publish only English articles. Nowadays, German articles are barely citable in the English scientific literature. Therefore, there is a large body of important scientific publications that is now sinking into oblivion.
Being aware of the importance of the history of meteorology and climatology to current science, the Meteorologische Zeitschrift not only frequently publishes papers on historical aspects, but at previous occasions also has published translations of important papers. For instance, twenty-one of ERTEL’S papers were translated in SCHUBERT et al. (2004). Starting with this issue of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift, we will publish in loose sequence a series of translated and edited papers originally published in the Meteorologische Zeitschrift (including its precedents) during its first century. The goal is to make these papers readily accessible to current climate scientists working in the field (including students), and perhaps, to contribute to a stimulation of current discussions through an influx of past ideas.
The series is named “MetZet Classic Papers”. Each item in this series consists of three parts
(1) an English translation of the original article with editorial endnotes (e.g., full references instead of the common abbreviated references style, full names of or biographical notes on persons mentioned, map with locations mentioned),
(2) a pdf file of the original (German) article on www.metzet.de, and
(3) a short accompanying paper that embeds the paper into its historical context and provides a link to the present day discussion.
Approximately two to three papers will appear per year; until the 150th anniversary of the journal about sixteen papers will have been translated (see EMEIS, 2008).
The series starts with a paper from Vol. 1 of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift (VON DANCKELMAN, 1884) and a context paper by BRÖNNIMANN et al. (2009). In this paper geographer Alexander von Danckelman describes the effect of biomass burning in the Congo region on visibility, haze, cloud cover, and precipitation. In addition to a meticulous description of the phenomena the paper also contains a brief discussion of the microphysical processes and an estimation of dry biomass burned at continental scale. Von Danckelman then compares this number, which is within the current satellite-based estimations, with industrial emissions and concludes that biomass burning is a major climate factor in sub-Saharan Africa. Biomass burning and the effect of fire on climate, including their history, have become foremost research topics. We hope that the translation of this paper and future papers in this series not only brings to mind the important work of our predecessors, but that it may even serve as a source of inspiration for some readers.
References
ÅNGSTRÖM, A., 1916: Über die Gegenstrahlung der Atmosphäre. - Meteorol. Z. 33, 529-538.
ASSMANN, R, 1889: Eine neue Form des Assmannschen Aspirations-Thermometers vorgeführt auf der Allgemeinen Versammlung der DMG in Berlin, 23.-25 April 1889. - Meteorol. Z. 6, 278-279.
BJERKNES, V., 1904: Das Problem der Wettervorhersage, betrachtet vom Standpunkte der Mechanik und der Physik. - Meteorol. Z. 21, 1-7.
BRÖNNIMANN, S., E. VOLKEN, K. LEHMANN, M. WOOSTER, 2009: Biomass burning aerosols and climate – a 19th century perspective. – Meteorol. Z. 18, 351-355.
EMEIS, S., 2008: History of the Meteorologische Zeitschrift. - Meteorol. Z. 17, 685-693.
ERTEL, H., 1942a: Ein neuer hydrodynamischer Erhaltungssatz. - Meteorol. Z. 59, 277–281 (translated in SCHUBERT et al., 2004, see below).
ERTEL, H., 1942b: Über das Verhältnis des neuen hydrodynamischen Wirbelsatzes zum Zirkulationssatz von V. Bjerknes. - Meteorol. Z. 59, 385–387 (translated in SCHUBERT et al., 2004, see below).
FICKER, H., 1920: Der Einfluss der Alpen auf Fallgebiete des Luftdrucks und die Entwicklung von Depressionen über dem Mittelmeer. - Meteorol. Z. 37, 350-363.
FINDEISEN, W., 1938: Die kolloidmeteorologischen Vorgänge bei der Niederschlagsbildung. - Meteorol. Z. 55, 121-133.
FLOHN, H., 1952: Zur Aerologie der Polargebiete. - Meteorol. Rdsch. 5, 81-87, 121-128.
HANN, J., 1866: Zur Frage über den Ursprung des Föhn. – Z. österr. Ges. Meteorol. 1, 257-263.
HANN, J., 1885: Einige Bemerkungen zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Ansichten über den Ursprung des Föhns. - Meteorol. Z. 2, 393-399.
HANN, J., 1890: Zur Witterungsgeschichte von Nord-Grönland Westküste. - Meteorol. Z. 7, 109-110.
KÖPPEN, W., 1884: Die Wärmezonen der Erde, nach der Dauer der heissen, gemässigten und kalten Zeit und nach der Wirkung der Wärme auf die organische Welt betrachtet. - Meteorol. Z. 1, 215–226.
LILJEQUIST, G. H., 1980: Tor Bergeron - A biography. - PAGEOPH 119, 409-442.
MARGULES, M., 1906: Über Temperaturschichtung in stationär bewegter und in ruhender Luft. - Meteorol. Z. Hann-Vol., 243-254.
SCHUBERT W., E. RUPRECHT, R. HERTENSTEIN, R. NIETO-FERREIRA, R. TAFT, C. ROZOFF, P. CIESIELSKI, H.-C. KUO, 2004: English translations of twenty-one of Ertel’s papers on geophysical fluid dynamics. - Meteorol. Z. 13, 527-576.
STEHR, N., H. VON STORCH, 2000: Eduard Brückner’s ideas – relevant in his time and today. - In: STEHR, N., H. VON STORCH (Eds.): Eduard Brückner. The sources and consequences of climate change and climate variability in historical times. - Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 1-24.