Étienne Vassy

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Étienne Vassy (born November 14, 1905 in Hauterives , † October 30, 1969 in La Croix-Valmer ) was a French geophysicist who explored the high atmosphere , the ozone layer and meteors .

He was the first French researcher to recognize the great potential of sounding rockets . In collaboration with the (mostly German) technicians of the Laboratoire de recherches balistiques et aéro-dynamiques (LRBA) in Vernon , he organized the ascent of a series of Veronique rockets in Hammaguir (Sahara), and later in Kourou ( French Guiana ) . The first successful ascent on October 19, 1954 was carried out by an experiment designed by Karl Rawer , with which the reception field strength of terrestrial medium wave transmitters was measured as a function of altitude. This enabled the lower limit of the ionosphere to be determined. Most of the Vassys' later ascents were metal fumes (e.g. sodium). The movements of the resulting glowing clouds were visually tracked.

Vassy's closest colleague was his wife Arlette, née Tournaire (* 1913). She organized ozone observation in France during the International Geophysical Year 1957/58 and the French sounding rocket program from 1963 to 1967.

Works

  • Sur quelquesproblemèmes de l'ozone . 1937
  • The exploration of the haute atmosphere à laide des engins autopropulsés . 1949
  • Physique de l'atmosphère 1 .. 3 . Gauthier-Villars, 1956-1966
  • L'intérêt scientifique des satellites artificiels . 1958
  • with Arlette T. Vassy: La luminiscence nocturne . In: Siegfried Flügge : Handbook of Physics . Vol. 49-5, 1976

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Philippe Varnoteaux: La part du CNRS dans les débuts de la conquête de l'espace (1945-1965). Retrieved June 24, 2014 (French).
  2. ^ Jacques Blamont: Origines et principes de la politique spatiale de la France. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on April 13, 2014 ; Retrieved June 24, 2014 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.rayonnementducnrs.com
  3. ^ Hans Mende, Karl Rawer, Etienne Vassy, ​​in: Ann. Geophys. 13, 231 (1957)
  4. ↑ http://www.pagerankstudio.com/Blog/2010/10/arlette-vassy-bio
personal data
SURNAME Vassy, ​​Etienne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Hauterives
DATE OF DEATH October 30, 1969
Place of death La Croix-Valmer