SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT -- CALL FOR PAPERS:

From Beaufort to Bjerknes and Beyond:
Critical perspectives on observing, analyzing and predicting weather and climate

5-9 July 2004, Polling Monastery, Weilheim, Germany

Proposal deadline, 29 February 2004.

The year 2004 marks the anniversary of a number of important developments in atmospheric and marine sciences, including the founding of the British Met Office (1854), publication of the paper "Weather forecasting as a problem in mechanics and physics" by Vilhelm Bjerknes (1904), and the establishment of operational numerical weather prediction (1954). Proposals (with 200-word abstracts) for critical, historically-informed papers and sessions on understanding, predicting, and controlling weather and climate may be sent to any member of the program committee: Cornelia Lüdecke: C.Luedecke@lrz.uni-muenchen.de, Jim Fleming: jfleming@colby.edu, Tsukahara Togo: eug@cs.cla.kobe-u.ac.jp, or Vladimir Jankovic: vladimir.jankovic@man.ac.uk.

The conference will be held in the baroque-style former monastery of Polling, an idyllic village close to Weilheim. The Klosterkirche and the recently restored grand library hall belong to the architectural highlights of the culturally rich region, while the alte Kosterwirtschaft and its renowned beergarden will serve our gastronomic needs (below left). The venue is ideally located between Munich and the Bavarian Alps. It is near Hohenpeißenberg, which has maintained a continuous meteorological record since 1781, when it was a station of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina. Today the mountain hosts a meteorological observatory of Deutscher Wetterdienst and a basis station of the Global Atmospheric Watch (below right).

The conference is sponsored by the International Commission on History of Meteorology (ICHM), with support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the Deutsche Meteorologische Gesellschaft (DMG), the Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), and the Institute of History of Science at Hamburg.

In addition to five full days of papers and discussion, meeting highlights include:

• An ice-breaker party on the first day of the conference (Monday) in the "Klosterwirt" across from the Monastery at Polling, with free beer provided by the Spaten Brewery.

• A guided tour of the Hohenpeißenberg Observatory, including a coffee break, and an introduction to the historical station of the Societas Meteorologica Palatina, hosted by the Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD).

The local arrangements chair is Dr. Stefan Emeis: stefan.emeis@imk.fzk.de

Hotel accomodations will be in nearby Weilheim at an estimated cost of 60 to 70 Euros.

Additional information about registration is coming soon.

Check http://www.meteohistory.org for conference updates.