John Houghton

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John Houghton (2005)

Sir John Theodore Houghton (born December 30, 1931 in Dyserth - † April 15, 2020 ) was a British climatologist and influential warner of global warming .

Life and early career

Houghton grew up in Rhyl , on the north coast of Wales. His parents were devout Baptists , his father a history teacher, his mother initially a math teacher, and after their marriage a housewife. In 1948 John Houghton went to Oxford, where he studied at Jesus College . After completing his bachelor's degree in 1951, he joined a group of researchers led by Gordon Dobson , a pioneer in stratospheric and ozone research , and Alan Brewer . Houghton developed instruments for measuring radiation in the stratosphere, with which suspected poleward currents were to be investigated - these currents became known as Brewer-Dobson circulation . The variability of the atmosphere turned out to be too great. Therefore, the measurements at that time were not suitable for drawing conclusions about air currents. Houghton graduated from Jesus College in 1955 with a PhD.

To meet his conscription and at the same time to be able to continue his research, Houghton moved in 1955 to the Royal Aircraft Establishment , Farnborough . There he led a group that made and improved measurements of the absorption of infrared radiation by various gases in the atmosphere (see also infrared spectroscopy ). In addition to this main project, he was also concerned with the then nuclear weapons tests in Great Britain .

Houghton was a second marriage and had two children. According to a granddaughter, he fell ill with COVID-19 in 2020 and died in April of that year at the age of 88.

Remote sensing of the atmosphere, Oxford

In 1958, Houghton returned to Oxford at Jesus College and became a lecturer in atmospheric physics . There he set up a group that made groundbreaking contributions to remote sensing of atmospheric temperature and composition. The focus of his work was the development of instruments which should make use of the possibilities of satellite technology , which have been developing since the mid-1950s, for measuring the temperature stratification of the atmosphere.

In the 1970s he was a senior scientist involved in fundamental NASA space experiments ( Nimbus satellites) for remote sensing of the vertical temperature distribution of the atmosphere. From 1976 to 1983 he was Professor of Atmospheric Physics at Oxford University .

Management of scientific institutions

With the end of the Nimbus program, Houghton took a leave of absence from Oxford in 1979 and went to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory as deputy director until 1983 . The task of this institution was to support and coordinate space research at the country's universities. Houghton led the Appleton Laboratory, which was independent until 1979, to merge with the much larger Rutherford Laboratory.

MetOffice

Houghton did not return to Oxford, but succeeded John Mason as Director General of the UK Meteorological Office ( Met Office ) in 1983 , which he held until 1991.

In this role, Houghton was involved in the development of the structure and processes of the "Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" ( IPCC ), which began to take shape with the conference of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva in November 1987 with the participation of Houghton and in November 1988 in Geneva first time met. Houghton became the first head of Working Group I (WG I) of the IPCC, which deals with the scientific principles of climate change. In January 1989, WG I started its work. The aim of the first few years was to present a first report before the second world climate conference in 1990. An interim report was also drawn up prior to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio. To support the scientists in WG I, Houghton set up a Technical Support Unit (TSU) at the MetOffice .

Even under Mason, the MetOffice had a burgeoning climatological branch. With the British government's commitment to provide further information on climate change and to support relevant research, Houghton founded the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research on this basis in 1990 .

Under pressure from the Thatcher administration, Meteorological services were also significantly expanded to include the private sector under Houghton's leadership. In order to make the MetOffice financially more independent, he pushed ahead with its transformation into an authority with its own budget (executive agency) . Shortly before the end of his tenure in 1990, these efforts were successful.

Chairman of the IPCC Working Group I

When it was founded in 1988, Houghton took over the leadership of Working Group I (Science Working Group) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is often referred to in German as the " Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change" , which deals with the scientific basis of current climate change. He was editor of the working group's contribution to the IPCC's first assessment report (1990) and the interim report (1992).

For the preparation of the following assessment reports it became the rule that two scientists always lead a working group, one from an industrial and one from a developing country. Houghton and the Brazilian Luiz Gylvan Meira Filho headed working group I for the preparation of the second assessment report (1995). In an essay in a Nature series on meetings that changed the world, Houghton was able to praise the preparatory IPCC conference in Madrid at the end of November 1995 as such a meeting. It was a particular challenge for Houghton because of the activities of the Global Climate Coalition and other actors who worked closely with Saudi Arabia , Kuwait and other oil and gas exporting countries to weaken the summary.

For the development of the third assessment report (2002), Houghton and the Chinese meteorologist Yihui Ding shared the management.

More functions

Houghton was President of the Royal Meteorological Society from 1976 to 1978 . In addition, Houghton also took on leading positions in international scientific committees: 1981 to 1984 chaired the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), during which time important projects of the decade were initiated: the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) and the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere program (TOGA). As chairman of the Earth Observation Advisory Committee of the European Space Agency , he oversaw the development of the Earth observation satellite ERS-1 . From 1987-1991, Houghton was Vice President of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Houghton helped found the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) in 1992 and chaired the first founding committee.

From 1992 to 1998 he was chairman of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution founded in 1970 . From 1994 to 2000 he was a member of the UK Government Panel on Sustainable Development. In this role he advised the UK government on climate change issues, as he did before as Director of the Met Office.

From 2000 to 2010, Houghton was a trustee of the Shell Foundation. The foundation finances projects that are intended to contribute to energy supply and sustainable development in developing countries.

Houghton was active in Protestant circles ( Presbyterian Church ) and in this context chaired the John Ray Initiative , which wants to reconcile Christianity, science and environmental protection. He was a founding member of the International Society for Science and Religion and President of the Victoria Institute .

Honors and memberships

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society , the Learned Society of Wales , the Institute of Physics , the Optical Society of America and a member of the Academia Europaea . For his services he was accepted as "Commander" in the Order of the British Empire , and in 1991 he was ennobled as a Knight Bachelor .

Fonts

Monographs

  • In the Eye of the Storm: The Autobiography of Sir John Houghton , Oxford, 2013.
  • Global warming: the complete briefing , 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press 2004 (first 1994) (introduction to the scientific understanding of global warming at the undergraduate level)
  • Does God play Dice? A look at the strange story of the Universe , Leicester 1988
  • with FW Taylor, CD Rodgers Remote sounding of atmospheres , Cambridge University Press 1984
  • Physics of Atmospheres , 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press 2002 (first 1977) ("authoritative" book on atmospheric physics )
  • with SD Smith Infra-red physics , Clarendon Press, 1966.

Technical articles

  • Alan W. Brewer, John Theodore Houghton: Some measurements of the flux of infra-red radiation in the atmosphere . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A . August 1956, doi : 10.1098 / rspa.1956.0126 (about the stratospheric measurement campaign of Alan Brewer's group in the first half of the 1950s).
  • John Theodore Houghton, NDP Hughes, TS Moss, JS Seeley: An atlas of infra-red solar spectrum from 1 to 6.5μ observed from a high-altitude aircraft . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A . November 1961, doi : 10.1098 / rsta.1961.0012 .
  • John Theodore Houghton: The Stratosphere and Mesosphere . Presidential Address; delivered April 27, 1977. In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . January 1978, doi : 10.1002 / qj.49710443902 (Review of the stratospheric and mesospheric meteorology and how data from the Selective Chopper Radiometer , on board Nimbus 4 and 5, and Pressure Modulator Radiometer , Nimbus 6, contributed to the understanding).

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From the archives: Interview: Sir John Houghton, meteorologist, climate-change expert. In: Church Times. April 16, 2020, accessed April 16, 2020 .
  2. ↑ stratospheric circulation. In: Spectrum Lexicon of Geosciences. Retrieved October 25, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, The Incubation of a Scientist.
  4. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Glimpses of the Big Picture.
  5. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Loss and Optimism.
  6. ^ Coronavirus: Sir John Houghton dies of suspected Covid-19. In: BBC News. April 17, 2020, accessed April 18, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Return to the Spiers.
  8. ↑ a b c d Prof. Sir John Houghton. Winner of the World Award of Science 2009. World Cultural Council, November 25, 2009, accessed November 3, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Breakthrough.
  10. ^ A b Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Learning on the Job.
  11. ↑ a b Chris K. Folland, David J. Griggs, John T. Houghton: History of the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research . In: Weather . December 2006, doi : 10.1256 / wea.121.04 .
  12. ^ A b Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, The Formation of the IPCC, The First IPCC Assessment Report 1990.
  13. ^ Alexander Hall: From the Airfield to the High Street: The Met Office's Role in the Emergence of Commercial Weather Services . In: Weather, Climate, and Society . August 2015, doi : 10.1175 / WCAS-D-14-00021.1 .
  14. ↑ Klaus Bosselmann, Prasenjit Maiti: Global Environment: Problems and Policies, Volume 3 . Atlantic Publishers, ISBN 978-81-269-0847-9 , pp. 28-29 .
  15. ^ John Houghton: Meetings that changed the world - Madrid 1995: Diagnosing climate change . In: Nature . October 2008, doi : 10.1038 / 455737a .
  16. ↑ Thomas Hickmann: The relationship between science and policy in international environmental regimes: a comparison of the regime for the protection of the ozone layer and the climate (=  Horizons 21 . Band 5 ). Universitätsverlag Potsdam, 2012, ISBN 978-3-86956-163-9 , p. 72-73 .
  17. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, The Third and Fourth IPCC Reports.
  18. ^ News - Sir John Houghton. Aberystwyth University , July 2006, accessed November 23, 2019 .
  19. ^ A b Laureates of the Japan Prize - Sir John Houghton. The Japan Prize Foundation, accessed November 23, 2019 .
  20. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Commissions and Reports.
  21. ↑ Houghton: In the Eye of the Storm . 2013, Making Money Work.
  22. ^ John Houghton: The Bakerian Lecture, 1991 The predictability of weather and climate . In: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A . December 1991, doi : 10.1098 / rsta.1991.0136 .
  23. ↑ Malcolm Walker: History of the Meteorological Office . Oxford University Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-139-50448-5 , Winds of Change, pp. 410-427 .
  24. ^ FW Taylor: Review Article - Forty years of satellite meteorology at Oxford . In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society . January 2011, doi : 10.1002 / qj.755 .
personal data
SURNAME Houghton, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Houghton, John Theodore (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British climatologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 30, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Dyserth
DATE OF DEATH April 15, 2020