Günter Skeib

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Günter Skeib (born September 16, 1919 in Berlin ; † April 12, 2012 in Potsdam ) was a German meteorologist and polar researcher . As an author , he reached a wide audience with books about his travels to the Tienshan and Antarctica .

Life

Günter Skeib studied meteorology at the University of Vienna until 1943 . In 1946 he began his professional career at the Main Meteorological Observatory in Potsdam. Six years later he became head of the Experimental Meteorology Department. He received his doctorate in 1952 under Hans Ertel at the Humboldt University in Berlin with the thesis model experiments for monsoonal circulation and in 1955 became director of the main observatory in succession to Horst Philipps (1905–1962).

The international geophysical year 1957/1958 shaped Skeib's further scientific career. Scientists from the GDR took part in three large Soviet expeditions - the oceanographic Atlantic expedition on the research ship Mikhail Lomonossow , the Tienschan expedition to the glacier area southeast of Almaty and the Pamir expedition with the photogrammetric survey of the Fedchenko glacier . Skeib was personally involved in two of these ventures. In November and December 1957 he went to the North Atlantic on the Mikhail Lomonossow , and in 1958 he headed the meteorological working group as part of the glaciological expedition to the Tienshan.

From 1959 to 1961 Günter Skeib was the head of a group of German meteorologists who took part in the 5th Soviet Antarctic Expedition. Their base station was Mirny in East Antarctica . In 1960 he spent the winter with two Soviet colleagues in a tent on Drygalski Island , a gigantic ice block of 220 km² that sits on a shoal 90 km off the coast of the continent . After his return from Antarctica, Skeib was made head of the newly established department for expeditions at the National Committee for Geodesy and Geophysics . Among other things, the committee coordinated all expeditions to Antarctica and Spitzbergen that were undertaken by research groups from the GDR. 1974 to 1975 Skeib led a group of German scientists who took part in the 20th Soviet Antarctic Expedition. He then gave up the management of the main meteorological observatory and was still in charge of the “heat balance” department until he left active scientific work in 1981. He died in 2012 as a recognized meteorologist and pioneer of German polar research.

Günter Skeib was married to Gisela Skeib nee Hausmann (* 1926), with whom he had two children.

power

The scientific focus of Günter Skeib's work was based on fundamental investigations into the heat balance of the air layers close to the ground , also with devices newly developed by him. In addition, the bearings from Sferics , work on sound propagation and climatological studies should be mentioned. His exemplary radiation and turbulence measurements on the Tujuksu glacier in Tienshan contributed to a deeper understanding of the heat balance of glaciers.

With Christian Popp (1928–1960) and Joachim Kolbig (1933–1999), who accompanied him in 1959, Günter Skeib can be counted among the pioneers of German Antarctic research after the Second World War. With his work he tied in with earlier studies by Potsdam scientists, e. E.g. the investigations of the atmospheric turbulence by Erich Barkow (1882-1923), the meteorologist of the Second German Antarctic Expedition 1911-1912 led by Wilhelm Filchner . Skeib's scientific achievements and his personality made him one of the pioneers for German polar research, which is internationally recognized today.

The list of his popular scientific publications includes four books, some of which have also appeared in western Germany and other European countries, as well as around 50 articles and numerous public lectures. He made a significant contribution to the popularization of polar and glacier research.

Honors

After his first expedition to the Antarctic, Skeib was awarded the GDR Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze in 1961 . The Meteorological Society of the GDR honored him in 1984 with the Reinhard Süring plaque in gold. In 1987 he was awarded the Georgi Prize of the Alfred Wegener Foundation , which was awarded for the first time . His honorary membership in the Meteorological Society of the GDR, which has existed since 1989, was taken over by the German Meteorological Society , which was reunited in 1991 .

Fonts (selection)

Scientific publications

  • A rotating radiation conversion meter with inductive transmission of the measuring voltage . In: Journal of Meteorology . 7, No. 6, 1953, pp. 167-171.
  • Finding atmospheric disturbances by synchronizing direction and waveform . (= Treatises of the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of the German Democratic Republic . 48), Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1958 (with Heinz Kaiser and Christian Popp).
  • Report on the meteorological work during the glaciological expedition of the GDR in the summer of 1958 on the central Tujuksu glacier in the Transilian Alatau (Tienschan mountains) . In: Journal of Meteorology . 15, 1961, pp. 255-263.
  • About the radiation and heat balance of the Central Tujuksu Glacier in the Tienschan Mountains . In: Journal of Meteorology . 16, No. 1-2, 1962, pp. 1-9.
  • Some remarks about the orography and weather of Drygalski Island . In: Polar Research . 32, No. 1/2, 1962, pp. 132-135, hdl : 10013 / epic.29227.d001 .
  • Accuracy and evaluation of profile measurements to determine the energy exchange . In: Journal of Meteorology . 30, 1980, pp. 346-360 (with Thomas Foken).
  • Profile measurements in the atmospheric near surface layer and the use of suitable universal functions for the determination of the turbulent energy exchange . In: Boundary-Layer Meteorology . 25, 1983, pp. 55-62 (with Thomas Foken).
  • Application of a procedure for the parameterization of the turbulent energy exchange in the atmospheric soil layer . In: Geodetic Geophysical Publications, Series II . 26, 1984, pp. 80-85 (with Sieghard H. Richter).

Popular science books

  • Tents in the glacier ice. In the high mountains of Central Asia , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1960 (with Georg Dittrich).
  • Hurricanes over Antarctica. Research work in snow and ice , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1961.
  • White World of the Antarctic , Brockhaus, Leipzig 1963.
  • Antarctica. Continent in the focus of research , Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1965.

literature

  • Thomas Foken, Diedrich Fritzsche, Sieghard H. Richter: Dr. Günter Skeib on his 80th birthday . In: Polar Research . 66, No. 3, 2000, pp. 42-43, hdl : 10013 / epic.29765.d001 .
  • Diedrich Fritzsche, Hartwig Gernandt , Thomas Foken: In Memoriam Günter Skeib . In: Polar Research . 81, No. 2, 2012, pp. 127-128, hdl : 10013 / epic.40202.d001 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilfried Schröder: About the national committee for the International Geophysical Year at the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in the years 1956–1961 . In: Leibniz-Online 5, 2009, ISSN  1863-3285
  2. ↑ a b Erich Bruns: Oceanographic expeditions of the GDR on the research ship “M. Lomonossov ”in the Atlantic Ocean . In: Contributions to Oceanography 1, 1961, pp. 7–18 ( PDF ; 25.4 MB).
  3. ^ Diedrich Fritzsche, Hartwig Gernandt, Thomas Foken: In Memoriam Günter Skeib . In: Polar Research . 81, No. 2, 2012, pp. 127-128, hdl : 10013 / epic.40202.d001 .
  4. ↑ List of the Reinhard Süring badge holders (until 2016) ( PDF ; 41 kB) on the website of the German Meteorological Society, accessed on April 13, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Skeib, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German meteorologist and polar researcher
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 12, 2012
Place of death Potsdam