104
Dennis Wilson Moore
eastern or a western boundary separately, but only studied basins with boundaries on
both sides.
My fellow graduate students included George Philander and Conrad Lautenbacher (the present NOAA Administrator), among others. For the story of Philander’s
first meeting with Jule Charney, see the chapter by Stommel and Moore on Charney’s
contributions to oceanography in The Atmosphere—A Challenge: The Science of Jule
Gregory Charney, edited by Richard S. Lindzen, and published by the AMS in 1990.
Postdoctoral fellows working with Allan Robinson while I was a graduate
student included D. James Baker (who was NOAA Administrator under Bill Clinton)
and Pearn P. Niiler. During the 1966–1967 school year Robinson was on sabbatical
in India, and Peter Stone acted as my adviser in his absence. By then I had a pretty
clear idea of what I was trying to do, and Peter was very supportive. By early 1967
Niiler had left Harvard to join the faculty at the Oceanographic Laboratory of Nova
University in Fort Lauderdale, under the direction of William S. Richardson. Niiler
called me one day and asked if I would like to visit Nova, with a view toward coming
there after finishing my degree. I visited in May 1967. At that time the faculty in
oceanography consisted of Bill Richardson, Peter Niiler, and Bill Schmitz. I also
visited the University of Washington at the invitation of Maurice Rattray. I eventually
accepted an offer to come to Nova. I handed in a draft of my thesis in the fall of
1967, and defended it in March 1968. I went to Scripps for six months for a short
postdoctoral stay with Walter Munk, and then I moved to Nova in the fall of 1968. By
the time I arrived Dayton Carritt, Charlie Yentsch, and Russ Snyder had also joined
the faculty.
Bill Richardson had a unique approach to studying the ocean. At this time
oceanographic and atmospheric studies were carried out in three distinct modes. Direct
observations of the atmosphere and oceans were essential, theoretical (and eventually
numerical) modeling studies were conducted to make sense of the observations, and
laboratory scale experiments were conducted to allow the exploration of the parameter space associated with the phenomenon of interest. This was the era of large-scale
laboratory experimentation, using elaborate rotating turntables. Richardson had been
at WHOI and the University of Miami before he set up the lab at Nova, and he made
a conscious decision to concentrate on direct observations of the ocean, along with
enough theory to make sense of the observations. There was a specific decision not to
get involved in laboratory experiments, but to concentrate on novel ways of measuring
how the ocean works. Richardson and Schmitz were concentrating their efforts on
measuring the velocity structure and transport of the Florida Current, at seven sections
from the Florida Keys up to Cape Fear (see Niiler, 1975). The key to the measurement
technique was a navigation system called Decca Hi-Fix, that had accuracy comparable
to today’s Global Positioning System (GPS). This allowed Richardson to develop a
dropsonde instrument that included a free fall STD and vertically integrated transport
measurement. Other instruments that drifted on the surface or dropped weights at
intermediate depths allowed a current profile to be measured. Further refinements on
the basic idea of these instruments led to the White Horse profiler that Schmitz used
Dennis Wilson Moore
eastern or a western boundary separately, but only studied basins with boundaries on
both sides.
My fellow graduate students included George Philander and Conrad Lautenbacher (the present NOAA Administrator), among others. For the story of Philander’s
first meeting with Jule Charney, see the chapter by Stommel and Moore on Charney’s
contributions to oceanography in The Atmosphere—A Challenge: The Science of Jule
Gregory Charney, edited by Richard S. Lindzen, and published by the AMS in 1990.
Postdoctoral fellows working with Allan Robinson while I was a graduate
student included D. James Baker (who was NOAA Administrator under Bill Clinton)
and Pearn P. Niiler. During the 1966–1967 school year Robinson was on sabbatical
in India, and Peter Stone acted as my adviser in his absence. By then I had a pretty
clear idea of what I was trying to do, and Peter was very supportive. By early 1967
Niiler had left Harvard to join the faculty at the Oceanographic Laboratory of Nova
University in Fort Lauderdale, under the direction of William S. Richardson. Niiler
called me one day and asked if I would like to visit Nova, with a view toward coming
there after finishing my degree. I visited in May 1967. At that time the faculty in
oceanography consisted of Bill Richardson, Peter Niiler, and Bill Schmitz. I also
visited the University of Washington at the invitation of Maurice Rattray. I eventually
accepted an offer to come to Nova. I handed in a draft of my thesis in the fall of
1967, and defended it in March 1968. I went to Scripps for six months for a short
postdoctoral stay with Walter Munk, and then I moved to Nova in the fall of 1968. By
the time I arrived Dayton Carritt, Charlie Yentsch, and Russ Snyder had also joined
the faculty.
Bill Richardson had a unique approach to studying the ocean. At this time
oceanographic and atmospheric studies were carried out in three distinct modes. Direct
observations of the atmosphere and oceans were essential, theoretical (and eventually
numerical) modeling studies were conducted to make sense of the observations, and
laboratory scale experiments were conducted to allow the exploration of the parameter space associated with the phenomenon of interest. This was the era of large-scale
laboratory experimentation, using elaborate rotating turntables. Richardson had been
at WHOI and the University of Miami before he set up the lab at Nova, and he made
a conscious decision to concentrate on direct observations of the ocean, along with
enough theory to make sense of the observations. There was a specific decision not to
get involved in laboratory experiments, but to concentrate on novel ways of measuring
how the ocean works. Richardson and Schmitz were concentrating their efforts on
measuring the velocity structure and transport of the Florida Current, at seven sections
from the Florida Keys up to Cape Fear (see Niiler, 1975). The key to the measurement
technique was a navigation system called Decca Hi-Fix, that had accuracy comparable
to today’s Global Positioning System (GPS). This allowed Richardson to develop a
dropsonde instrument that included a free fall STD and vertically integrated transport
measurement. Other instruments that drifted on the surface or dropped weights at
intermediate depths allowed a current profile to be measured. Further refinements on
the basic idea of these instruments led to the White Horse profiler that Schmitz used