Henry Stommel

Henry Melson Stommel(September 27, 1920 – January 17, 1992) was a major contributor to the field ofphysical oceanography.Beginning in the 1940s, he advanced theories about globalocean circulationpatterns and the behavior of theGulf Streamthat form the basis of physical oceanography today. Widely recognized as one of the most influential and productive oceanographers of his time, Stommel was both a groundbreaking theoretician and an astute, seagoing observer.

Henry Stommel
Henry Stommel
Born	(1920-09-27)September 27, 1920 Wilmington, Delaware
Died	January 17, 1992(1992-01-17)(aged 71)
Alma mater	Yale University
Known for	ocean circulation Gulf Stream
Awards	ForMemRS Bigelow Medal(1974) Maurice Ewing Medal(1977) Alexander Agassiz Medal(1979) William Bowie Medal(1982) Crafoord Prize(1983) National Medal of Science(1989)
Scientific career
Fields	physical oceanography
Institutions	Yale University MIT

Early life and education

Stommel was born inWilmington, Delaware.An anomaly among modern scientists, Stommel became a full professor without an earned doctorate. He received his B.S. in astronomy fromYale University(1942) and served there as instructor in mathematics and astronomy (1942–44).

Academic posts

He was research associate at theWoods Hole Oceanographic Institutionfrom 1944 to 1959 where theOffice of Naval Researchgenerously supported his projects.He became professor of oceanography atHarvard Universityin 1959 and moved toMassachusetts Institute of Technologyin 1963, where he remained until 1978, returning to Woods Hole until his retirement. Stommel established the PANULIRUS station (begun in 1954) inBermuda.PANULIRUS was the name of a wooden, round bilged research vessel (thus R/V Panulirus) operated by the Bermuda Biological Station for Research for many years. On a monthly schedule, the vessel obtained sea water samples at vertical intervals from the surface to great depths, which yielded temperature, salinity and some additional chemical data. Because the sea bottom falls away very sharply, particularly to the East-south-east of Bermuda, it is possible to obtain a representative sampling within a few miles of land. The resulting data set constitutes the longest such data series of similar character in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Stommel was elected to theNational Academy of Sciencesin 1962 and received theNational Medal of Sciencein 1989.

Discoveries

Henry Stommel showed that the north-south gradient of the strength of the horizontalCoriolisforce (the "beta effect" ) was responsible for the observed fact that the return flow of the slow interior gyre circulations is concentrated in fast moving western boundary currents, such as theGulf Streamand theKuroshio Current,a process known aswestern intensification.As a result, these western boundary currents have a larger and steadier transport than the corresponding boundary currents, such as theCalifornia CurrentandCanary Current,on the eastern side of the ocean basins. In subtropical latitudes, the western boundary currents are important in transporting the excess heat the earth receives in the tropics towards the poles.

Together with Arnold Arons, Stommel extended this circulation to the deep ocean, proposing a global circulation in which surface water sinks in the polar regions to feed the deep boundary currents on the western sides of basins, while the interior flow actually moves towards the pole. This work, based on laboratory studies, predated the discovery of such boundary currents, and remains one of the great triumphs of theoretical physical oceanography. Stommel also developed early models of thethermohaline circulationwhich suggested that it might have more than one stable state.

In addition to his work on large-scale ocean currents, Stommel did research on a variety of problems in oceanography and meteorology. These include work on the classification of estuaries, estimates of turbulent diffusion, and studies of the impact of volcanoes on climate.

Marriage

Stommel married Elizabeth Brown, daughter of Huntington Brown, professor of English at theUniversity of Minnesota,and Elizabeth Waldo Wentworth Brown, originally of Boston, on December 6, 1950. They had three children: Matthew (a professional fisherman inFalmouth, Massachusetts), Elijah (a physician at theDartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center), and Abigail Stommel Adams (a nurse practicing in Falmouth).

Bibliography

• Science of the Seven Seas,Cornell Maritime Press, 1945.
• The Gulf Stream; A Physical and Dynamical Description,Second Edition, University of California Press, 1972.ISBN0-520-01223-2
• Lost Islands: The Story of Islands That Have Vanished from Nautical Charts,University of British Columbia Press, 146 pages, 1984.ISBN0-7748-0210-3Dover reprint, 2017
• "A view of the sea: A Discussion between a Chief Engineer and an Oceanographer about the Machinery of the Ocean Circulation",Princeton University Press, 184 pages, 1987.ISBN0-691-08458-0.This book has been translated into Chinese (Simplified) by Shanghai Scientific & Technological Education Publishing House, 2001.ISBN7-5428-2738-3
• An Introduction to the Coriolis Force(with Dennis W. Moore), Columbia University Press, 297 pages, 1989.ISBN0-231-06637-6

Sources

• Biographical Memoirs: Henry Stommel,by Carl Wunsch, The National Academies Press, 1987.

External links

• Information on the Henry Melson Stommel Medal and a Biography at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution