Making Weather Vertical: Meteorology and the Temporalities of Infrastructural Atmospheres in New Zealand, Ca. 1920–1950 (2020)
Henry, Matthew (Author)
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 62
Issue: 4
Pages: 744-762
In the decades after World War I, the development of aviation and meteorology became increasingly entangled, with the result that meteorology became a necessary part of the epistemic infrastructure of routine aviation. This paper explores the complex re-spatialisation of meteorological practice that occurred as the New Zealand Meteorological Service (NZMS) transformed its data collection, interpretation, and forecasting services to support New Zealand's aspirations for aviation prior to the Second World War. Crucial to this work was the transformation of meteorology's spatialities to incorporate a volumetric understanding of the upper atmosphere's turbulent dynamics. Making meteorology three-dimensional required profound conceptual and practical work to fashion new spaces of concern. This meant developing instruments and practices through which phenomena, such as high-altitude winds, could be recorded, mapped, and communicated. However, this spatial transformation was also simultaneously a temporal transformation framed by the demands of becoming infrastructural. New Zealand's meteorologists lobbied the government for the resources to synchronise atmospheric dynamism with the demands for increasingly quick and fine-grained forecasts. Making the atmosphere three-dimensional profoundly changed meteorology, but meteorology in New Zealand was only able to become infrastructural to the extent that it was able to integrate, and strategically mobilise, new forms of temporality into its emerging spaces of concern.
...MoreArticle Wilko Graf von Hardenberg; Martin Mahony (2020) Introduction—up, down, Round and Round: Verticalities in the History of Science. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 595-611).
Similar Citations
Article
Booth, Brian J.;
(2009)
“An Experimental Measure”: The First Meteorological Office at South Farnborough and the Meteorological Office Radio Station Aldershot January 1911 to December 1918
(/isis/citation/CBB001321070/)
Article
Jeon, Chihyung;
(2010)
Flying Weather Men and Robot Observers: Instruments, Inscriptions, and Identities in US Upper-Air Observation, 1920--1940
(/isis/citation/CBB001033646/)
Article
Neil Clayton;
(2008)
"Poorly Co-ordinated Structures for Public Science That Failed Us in the Past"? Applying Science to Agriculture: A New Zealand Case Study
(/isis/citation/CBB604195808/)
Chapter
Cushman, Gregory T.;
(2006)
The Struggle over Airways in the Americas, 1919--1945: Atmospheric Science, Aviation Technology, and Neocolonialism
(/isis/citation/CBB000740869/)
Essay Review
Schatzberg, Eric;
(2013)
Why Airplanes Fly: The Strong Programme and the Theory of Lift
(/isis/citation/CBB001500272/)
Article
Anderson, K. D.;
(2009)
Weather Services at War
(/isis/citation/CBB001321068/)
Article
Ogden, R. J.;
(2001)
Meteorological Services Leading to D-Day
(/isis/citation/CBB001321064/)
Article
Jack Linzhou Xing;
(December 2021)
The Temporality of and Competition between Infrastructures: Taxis and E-Hailing in China
(/isis/citation/CBB794014683/)
Article
Jens Ivo Engels;
(July 2022)
Rhythm Analysis: A Heuristic Tool for Historical Infrastructure Research
(/isis/citation/CBB181771307/)
Article
José David Gómez-Urrego;
(2019)
The intersections between infrastructures and expectations: Repair and breakdown in Yachay, the city of knowledge in Ecuador
(/isis/citation/CBB172370519/)
Article
Jonas van der Straeten;
Julia Obertreis;
(2022)
Technology, Temporality and the Study of Central Asia
(/isis/citation/CBB176455660/)
Book
Fleagle, Robert G.;
(2001)
Eyewitness: Evolution of the Atmospheric Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB000101230/)
Chapter
Liba Taub;
(2016)
Meteorology
(/isis/citation/CBB683361936/)
Book
McCormack, Derek P.;
(2018)
Atmospheric things: on the allure of elemental envelopment
(/isis/citation/CBB335978115/)
Article
Nöbauer;
(2018)
Von der Goldmine zum Gletscher: All Weather Snow als multiples Frontier-Phänomen. (From gold mine to glacier: All Weather Snow as a multiple frontier phenomenon.)
(/isis/citation/CBB028645396/)
Chapter
Edwards, Paul N.;
(2000)
A brief history of atmospheric general circulation modeling
(/isis/citation/CBB001181679/)
Book
Eric Chassefière;
(2022)
Physique de l'environnement Terrestre, Matières Subtiles et Hauteur de L'atmosphère Conceptions de l'atmosphère et Nature de l'air Au Siècle des Lumières
(/isis/citation/CBB574885901/)
Article
Richter, Linda;
(2019)
The Meteorology and Medicine of the Romantic Era in Context: Henrik Steffens’ Ideas on Medical Meteorology (1811) and Its Reception by the Prussian State
(/isis/citation/CBB683986668/)
Book
James Rodger Fleming;
(2016)
Inventing Atmospheric Science: Bjerknes, Rossby, Wexler, and the Foundations of Modern Meteorology
(/isis/citation/CBB994549217/)
Article
Wallace, Matthew L.;
(2012)
“The Rainmakers”: le Service météorologique du Canada et la recherche sur la modification du temps dans l'après-guerre
(/isis/citation/CBB001211539/)
Be the first to comment!