Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks

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Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks (born November 10, 1888 , † December 14, 1957 in Ferring, Sussex ), usually written for short C. E. P. Brooks , was a British meteorologist and climatologist . He is considered to be one of the leading researchers of his time in the fields of climate history and the application of statistical methods in meteorology.

Life and work

Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks was born on November 10, 1888. His father, Charles Thomas Brooks, was a typesetter according to the London Census of 1881 and later, in 1891, a cloth merchant. Brooks first lived with his parents and older sisters in north London, in St Pancras . After his father's death in 1894, Charles Ernest moved to Islington with his mother . Brooks attended Dame Alice Owen's School there . His family wanted Brooks to be a businessman. He received a scholarship to the University College School , where he studied 1903-1907 economics. During his studies he won a mathematics competition, although he could hardly deal with mathematics against his inclination.

After completing his school career, Brooks took on October 4, 1907 a job at the Met Office , the meteorological service of the United Kingdom. While working, Brooks studied geology at London University , which he later called "his first love", with a minor in zoology and graduated in 1916 with a Master of Science degree . In 1926 he received a Doctor of Science for his meteorological work The Variations of Pressure in the Neighborhood of the British Isles .

Brooks remained an employee of the Met Office for 41 years, throughout his professional life, becoming Assistant Director in charge of the climatology department. Brooks retired in November 1948, but continued to work for the Met Office for two years on the application of statistical methods in meteorology.

Brooks' creative period was still under the influence of "classical climatology". This climate- geography- oriented orientation of climate research, which was influential until the middle of the 20th century, was shaped by the interest in the climate parameters that had a noticeable influence on people, i.e. temperature, humidity and air pressure, wind speed and wind direction. In addition to this “medical climatology”, attention was paid to the influences on agriculture and forestry.

Brooks is considered one of the most productive climatologists of his time. He was the editor of Meteorological Magazine for 22 years . In addition to climate history and statistics, he also made contributions to seasonal weather forecasting and solar climate influence. Brooks was from 1917 librarian of the MetOffice, from 1948 that of the Royal Meteorological Society and contributed significantly to the development of the bibliography of meteorology. The Royal Meteorological Society Brooks was also a Fellow connected, 1927-1931 as its secretary, 1932-1933 as Vice President.

His book Climate in everyday life , which appeared in 1951, dealt with the influence of regional climatic conditions on human productivity. It still shows the influence of climate determinism in the early 20th century. For example, he said that life in Eastern Europe and Siberia was completely dominated by the climate; he saw the climate in south-east England as ideal for most types of human activity. His book The English Climate (1954), also aimed at a lay audience, described the English climate and its presumed impact on human health. In it he gave recommendations as to which climatic regions are conducive to a healthy life, retirement or vacation. It was picked up posthumously by Hubert Lamb and revised for a second edition, which appeared in 1964.

Brooks married his then colleague Dora Buckeridge in 1916. The couple had a son. Brooks was a good chess player and an enthusiastic bridge and turf tennis player and swimmer.

Brooks died on December 14, 1957 in Ferring, Sussex , at the age of 69.

In 2012, the British meteorologist Joan M. Kenworthy judged the significance of his work today, that it should continue to be worth our attention by providing the context for modern meteorology and recalling open questions.

Climate history

Brooks was a pioneer in historical climatology . He himself saw his research on climate history as an offspring of the union of his field of study geology with his professional field meteorology. Brooks used early forms of climate indices with which the representations of climate and weather conditions contained in narrative texts, such as chronicles or annals , could be made accessible for quantitative and comparative evaluation. The method of index formation in historical climatology was further developed by Hubert Lamb and expanded by Christian Pfister into an important instrument for climate reconstruction.

His main work is considered to be "classic" or "monumental" called Climate Through the Ages , which appeared for the first time in 1926 and in 1949 in a revised version. Brooks viewed the theses about the causes of climate change that were known at the time and were generally only qualitatively supported .

Brooks himself saw various factors at work on different timescales :

  • Climate changes over millions of years would be caused by the formation and erosion of mountains and the geographical consequences of these processes in the broadest sense, including changes in the content of carbon dioxide and volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
  • Climate changes over thousands to tens of thousands of years are caused by minor changes in the distribution of land and sea , which in turn are the result of mass displacements due to erosion and isostatic effects of changes in ice sheets . Changes in the Earth's orbit parameters would also play a role on timescales of thousands to tens of thousands of years. He did not rule out long-term fluctuations in solar activity as a possible third cause.
  • He attributed changes in solar activity to climatic fluctuations over a few hundred years.
  • For even shorter periods of time, he primarily saw internal climate variability at work.

Brooks also relied on mathematical-statistical reasoning - an approach that was not very common at the time. With regard to the onset of glacials , Brooks believed that geographic factors alone, such as changes in the distribution of land and ocean areas , changes in relief and ocean currents , could explain this. He argued that a growing arctic ice cap - for example as a result of changing ocean currents - would lead to a pronounced downward flow of the strongly cooling air masses into the vicinity of the ice cap . In the area of ​​influence of the cold air, new areas of snow would quickly expand, which could freeze large parts of the earth via the ice-albedo feedback . Changes in solar radiation as a result of fluctuations in the orbital parameters of the earth's orbit gave Brooks only a marginal role in his glacial theory.

He devoted the third part of his work, The Climates of the Historical Past , to the discussion of climate fluctuations in Europe, Asia, Africa and America since 5200 BC. u. Z. Among other things, Brooks concluded from the advance of the Huns at the beginning of the so-called Great Migration in the 4th century AD. Currently on a less favorable climate in their area of ​​origin (→ pessimum of the migration period ). The French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie criticized this as "reverse determinism ".

Inaccuracies in his work were complained about on various occasions.

Honors

In 1931 he was awarded the Buchan Prize of the Royal Meteorological Society (RMS). The award commemorates the Scottish meteorologist Alexander Buchan and is awarded for a complete work of articles that have been published in the journals of the RMS and are classified as particularly important contributions to meteorology.

Brooks was named Companion of the Imperial Service Order (I. S. O.) shortly before his retirement for his long and meritorious work in the civil service .

Cape Brooks , on the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula , is named after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Evolution of Climate . With a Preface by FC Simpson. Benn Brothers Limited, London 1922 ( archive.org ).
  • Climate Through the Ages: a study of the climatic factors and their variations . Ernest Benn, London 1926 ( hathitrust.org ).
  • Brooks received the Buchan Prize for the following articles published in 1925–1929:
    • The problem of warm polar climates . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . April 1925, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705121405 .
    • The meteorological conditions during the glaciation of the present tropics, being some remarks on the climatological basis of Wegener's theory of continental drift . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . July 1926, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705221905 .
    • The variations of pressure from month to month in the region of the British Isles . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . July 1926, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705221906 (for this work he was awarded the doctorate).
    • Pressure distributions associated with wet seasons in the British Isles . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . October 1926, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705222004 .
    • The influence of forests on rainfall and run-off . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . January 1928, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705422501 .
    • The mean cloudiness over the earth . In: Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 1 , no. 10 , 1927, pp. 127–138 (one of the first descriptions of global cloud cover based on the monthly average of more than 1000 weather measuring stations and ship diaries worldwide).
    • Periodicities in the Nile flood . In: Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 2 , 1928, p. 9–26 (an early attempt to find periodicity in the historical values ​​of the Nile floods 640–1870, listed as a classic article by the Royal Meteorological Society).
  • with John Glasspoole: British Floods and Droughts . Ernest Benn, London 1928.
  • Climate. A Handbook for Business Men, Students and Travelers . Ernest Benn, London 1929 ( hathitrust.org - characterizes the earth's climates).
  • with Theresa M. Hunt: The zonal distribution of rainfall over the earth . In: Memoirs of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 3 , no. 28 , 1930, p. 139–158 (listed as a classic article by the Royal Meteorological Society).
  • The Role of the Oceans in the Weather of Western Europe . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 66 , no. 234 , 1930.
  • Climate in everyday life . Ernest Benn, London 1950 (on the influence of climate on human productivity and on agriculture, construction and the design of packaging).
  • with Nellie B. Carruthers: Handbook of statistical methods in meteorology . HM Stationery Office, 1953.
  • The English Climate . English Universities Press, London 1954 (popular science book on the English climate, was the basis for a second edition by Hubert Lamb , published in 1964 ).

literature

  • Joan M. Kenworthy: Meteorologist's profile - Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks ISO, D.Sc. (1888-1957) . In: Weather . August 2012, doi : 10.1002 / wea.1920 .
  • MK Rigby and M. Rigby: Annotated bibliography on selected works of Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks . In: American Meteorological Society (Ed.): Meteorological Abstracts and Bibliography . tape 10 . Boston, MA 1959, p. 99-130 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Joan M. Kenworthy: Meteorologist's profile - Charles Ernest Pelham Brooks ISO, D.Sc. (1888-1957) . In: Weather . August 2012, doi : 10.1002 / wea.1920 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h G. A. Bull: Dr. CEP Brooks, ISO In: Nature . 1958, p. 1698-1699 , doi : 10.1038 / 1811698a0 .
  3. ↑ a b Nellie B. Carruthers: Dr. CEP Brooks, ISO: Climatologist . In: Weather . March 1949, doi : 10.1002 / j.1477-8696.1949.tb01012.x .
  4. ^ A b C. EP Brooks: My By-Ways in Meteorology . In: Weather . March 1949, doi : 10.1002 / j.1477-8696.1949.tb01011.x .
  5. ^ A b c d Charles H. Smith: Brooks, Charles Ernest Pelham (England 1888-1957) - climatology. Retrieved March 25, 2018 .
  6. ^ Matthias Heymann , Dania Achermann: From Climatology to Climate Science in the Twentieth Century . In: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History . 2018, p. 606-607 , doi : 10.1057 / 978-1-137-43020-5_38 .
  7. ^ Douglas HK Lee: Climate in everyday life . In: Quarterly Review of Biology . No. 1 , March 1952, p. 75-76 , doi : 10.1086 / 398686 .
  8. ^ The English Climate . English Universities Press, London 1954, blurb.
  9. ↑ HH Lamb: The English climate . 2nd Edition. English Universities Press, 1964, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49709138829 .
  10. ^ Christian Pfister, Sam White, Franz Mauelshagen: General Introduction: Weather, Climate, and Human History . In: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History . 2018, p. 6 , doi : 10.1057 / 978-1-137-43020-5_1 .
  11. ↑ Christian Pfister, Chantal Camenisch, Petr Dobrovolný: Analysis and Interpretation: Temperature and Precipitation Indices . In: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History . 2018, p. 116-117 , doi : 10.1057 / 978-1-137-43020-5_11 .
  12. ^ Rüdiger Glaser et al .: Seasonal Temperature and Precipitation Fluctuations in Selected Parts of Europe During the Sixteenth Century . In: Climatic Change . September 1999, doi : 10.1023 / A: 1005542200040 .
  13. ^ A b Franz Mauelshagen: Climate history of the modern age . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2010, ISBN 978-3-534-21024-4 , pp. 24,27,41,55 .
  14. ↑ LCW Bonacina: Dr. CEP Brooks, ISO-1888-1957 . In: Journal of Glaciology . tape 3 , no. 24 , 1958, pp. 322 ( igsoc.org [PDF]).
  15. ↑ James Rodger Fleming: Historical Perspectives of Climate Change . Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-518973-5 , pp. 108-111 .
  16. ^ EL Hawke: Climate Through the Ages (revised edition). CEP Brooks London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1949. Demy 8vo, 395 pages, 36 diagrams. 21s . In: Journal of Glaciology . 1949, p. 342-343 , doi : 10.3189 / S0022143000010182 . s
  17. ^ Climate Through the Ages . 1949, p. 377-378 .
  18. ↑ Spencer Wheart: The Discovery of Global Warming - Simple Models of Climate Change. February 2018, accessed April 15, 2019 .
  19. ↑ For example: Arie S. Issar, N. Brown (Eds.): Water, Environment and Society in Times of Climatic Change . Contributions from an International Workshop within the framework of the International Hydrological Program (IHP) UNESCO, held at Ben-Gurion University, Sede Boker, Israel from 7–12 July 1996. 1998, ISBN 978-0-7923-5282-2 , pp. 76 . Or: John D. Post: Meteorological Historiography . In: The Journal of Interdisciplinary History . tape 3 , no. 4 , 1973, p. 721 .
  20. ^ Proceedings at the meetings of the society: Buchan Memorial Prize 1931 - Presentation to Dr. CEP Brooks . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 57 , no. 239 , April 1931, p. 198 , doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705723912 .
  21. ^ Report of the council . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . tape 57 , no. 239 , April 1931, p. 182-195 , doi : 10.1002 / qj.49705723910 (see under literature).
  22. ^ NA Hughes: Global Cloud Climatologies: A Historical Review . In: Journal of Climate and Applied Meteorology . tape 23 May 1984, pp. 727 .
  23. ^ R. Said: The River Nile: Geology, Hydrology and Utilization . Elsevier, 2013, ISBN 978-1-4832-8768-3 , pp. 161 .
  24. ↑ a b Publications - Classic Papers. Royal Meteorological Society, accessed March 30, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Brooks, Charles Ernest Pelham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British meteorologist and climatologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1888
DATE OF DEATH December 14, 1957
Place of death Ferring, Sussex