Eginhard Peters
Eginhard Peters (born February 17, 1932 in Franzburg ; † September 12, 2014 in Potsdam , Brandenburg ) was a German meteorologist .
Life
Peters grew up as a child of Johannes Peters and Mrs. Gertrud, née Buck, in Franzburg with their grandparents. In 1955 the parents took over a dairy in Gingst . Peters went through elementary school and then the twelve-class high school in Franzburg.
After successfully completing school education, Peters began studying at the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1952 . He was unable to implement his original intention to study chemistry because the course was already being taken. Peters then decided to study meteorology. .
1956-58 Peters became an employee of the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of the GDR in the central office of the radio probe service in Berlin / Rummelsburg, where he made his first acquaintance with meteorological measurement technology in the technical department in the field of radiosonde calibration. There he was responsible for the quality assurance of the radiosondes used at the radiosonde ascent points .
From 1958 to 1961 Peters was a research assistant in the research department of the management of the Meteorological Service (MD) of the GDR.
In 1961 he founded the Instrument Office (IA), which he headed for the next five years. In addition to the procurement of equipment for the meteorological observation network of the MD, the task was calibration, repair of the equipment in the IA and their constant maintenance in the observation network. During this time, Peters also devoted himself to the development of an automatic meteorological station for use in the observation network.
From 1971 to 1985 Peters was the deputy director of the Meteorological Service of the GDR. He then worked until 1987 as head of the GDR's environmental protection inspectorate, and in this capacity was Deputy Minister for Environmental Protection and Water Management . After the reunification he switched to the private sector and worked from 1990 to 1994 in the sales of meteorological measurement technology, especially in the former partner services of the Meteorological Service of the GDR.
Peters was married and had a son from the marriage. Peters died on September 12, 2014 and was buried in the New Cemetery in Potsdam .
Projects
In the course of his work as the director's first deputy for the practical service, he implemented and supported the following projects:
- Automatic telecommunication meteorological station 1 and 2
- The MD's messaging system
As a decisive step, to overcome the slow data supply from Prague by means of teleprinters and to achieve faster data provision by computer system for the headquarters and all departments of the MD. The messaging system had computer workstations that displayed meteorological data live and on time in map form, even if only on a black and white alphanumeric display. This was the first meteorological workplace in Europe and revolutionized work in the MD.
The headquarters (short-term and medium-term) and every regional office in the MD as well as the MD of the Air Force and the People's Navy had such jobs. The system worked until the mid-1990s.
- The so-called micro-messaging system. Since a screen workstation on the message switching system was not sufficient for the MD departments, a switching and presentation system based on microcomputers was developed. This system with several colored and graphic workstations worked in all departments of the MD and every water management department. The last system was in operation in a water management directorate until 2005. Such a system was exported to Vietnam in 1988 as part of a UN project .
- Satellite image processing . In the past, satellite images were received in analog form by foreign services. To overcome this path with poor quality and delayed image input, the project was realized in cooperation with the Academy of Sciences of the GDR , which was responsible for developing the antennas for the geostationary satellite Meteosat and the orbiting NOAA satellite in cooperation with the Lindenberg aeronautical observatory of the MD were responsible. The MD developed the user software and modified the computers for processing and presenting the satellite data.
Such a system was delivered to North Korea together with a Romanian partner as part of a UN project . The system worked in the headquarters of the MD of the GDR until 1997.
- Radar data processing
Here too, as with the "satellite data project", the aim was to replace analog technology. The user software was taken over and adapted from a Czech partner. The antennas were supplied from what was then the Soviet Union. The system was shut down in the 1990s.
World Meteorological Organization
After the two German states were admitted to the United Nations and the MD became a member of the WMO in October 1973, the MD had new obligations. Eginhard Peters and Stefan Klemm, as members of the CIMO (Commission for Meteorological Devices and Observation Methods), have taken part in world congresses and technical conferences, such as in Helsinki in 1973 , in Hamburg in 1977 , in Mexico City in 1981 , and in Ottawa in 1985 , and made their own contributions .
In 1986, Eginhard Peters hosted the preparation and implementation of the WMO conference RA VI in Potsdam, and in 1988 he was the WMO appointed Scientific Director of the Technical Conference of CIMO with an international equipment exhibition in Leipzig.
Scientific discoveries and inventions
Peters developed a device and a method for measuring visibility. The invention relates to a measuring device for determining the visibility according to the principle of forward scattering, which is especially suitable for installation in motor vehicles due to its size. The measuring device is arranged in such a way that the scattering behavior of the atmosphere is measured at a certain distance above the vehicle, transversely to the direction of travel. The fact that the visibility in the atmosphere layer close to the ground is homogeneous with a vertical thickness of a few meters (≤ 10 m) and a horizontal extent of a few 100 meters (≤ 500 m) is used, and thus direct conclusions about the visibility in the vertical direction can be drawn to the line of sight in the horizontal direction.
Awards
- Medal for excellent performance
- Medal of Merit of the GDR in gold
- Silver Medal of Merit of the National People's Army
- Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
- Medal for Combating Disasters 1979
- Badge of honor of the society for the dissemination of scientific knowledge in silver
- Merit medal of the NVA in gold
- Labor I banner
Memberships
Eginhard Peters was a member
- in the Presidium of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge
- in the Presidium of the German Meteorological Society
- on the Central Committee of the Union of Sciences
- on the Scientific Advisory Board of the University of Greifswald
- in the district leadership of the SED of the Meteorological Service
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Peters, Eginhard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Peters, Eginhard Ernst Erwin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German meteorologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 17, 1932 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Franzburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 12, 2014 |
| Place of death | Potsdam |