Interview of Craig W. Brown by Brian Shoemaker
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Date
2009-07-22
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Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program
Abstract
Mr. Brown graduated from the University of Iowa in 1960 with a degree in electrical engineering. He was in graduate school at the University of Idaho when he read a U.S. Weather Bureau recruitment brochure for work in Antarctica. He answered the advertisement and was accepted by the USWB in 1962.
In June of 1962 he was sent to the USWB Station in Kansas City, KS where he was trained to maintain and repair the parabolic tracking radar to track weather balloons. From there he went to Herndon, VA where he learned to us the Dobson Ozone Spectro-Photometer and the Regener Chemiluminescent Ozone detector. The Dobson measured upper atmosphere ozone and the Regener measured surface ozone. The final training leg was at Scripps Institute of Oceanography where he was trained to measure carbon dioxide concentrations.
From there he proceeded to McMurdo Sound via Christchurch and after one day there was flown to the South Pole Station on the 12th of November 1962. He noted that it was 39 degrees below zero at the time. He describes the South Pole Station - the only evidence was a doorway arch sticking up above the terrain leading down to the station which was about 12 feet below the surface due to drifting snow. The scientists who spent the prior year left the day after he and other scientists arrived.
His partner from the USWB was Ken Jensen. He and Ken shared 24 hour per day scientific data-collection duties for a year. He describes his research measurement of upper atmosphere ozone using Ultra-Violet radiation via the Dobson Ozone Spectrophotometer year around, surface ozone via chemiluminesce, and carbon dioxide measurements day-in and day-out.
He briefly describes other scientific research that was taking place at South Pole at the time:
- Aurora studies by Bob Fries for the Arctic Institute of North America under the direction of N. J. Oliver of the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratory.
- Ionospheric studies of the D, E F1 and F2 layers by Bill Burgess for the Nationa Bureau of Standards under the direction of a Mr. Hough..
- VLF (Very Low Frequency) radio studies by Jim Petlock for Stanford University directed by Robert Helliwell
- Seismology research by Ron Davis for the US Coast and Geodetic Survey under the direction of Captain Robert A. Earle.
- Surface radioactivity by Jack Falkenhoff of the Weather Bureau for the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory under the direction of Dr. L. B. Lockhart, Jr.
- Weather by Charlie Roberts, Harry Spohn, and Ken Jensen of the U. S. weather Bureau.
Mr. Brown covers station life – movies at night, the food, a typical day in his life, the library, “house mouse” duties. He describes the sundown, lack of storms, temperature record of 110 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, auroras and other weather phenomena including the sunrise after a six-month absence. He was replaced after a year and describes the experience of arriving in Christchurch and seeing green grass, fresh food and women in November of 1963.
After a short stay at Scripps Institute of Oceanography writing up his research on carbon dioxide and publishing a paper with Dr Charles Keeling (The Concentration of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide in Antarctica – enclosed in file with the tape and transcript) he proceeded to the University of Idaho where he received an MS in Electrical Engineering. Afterward he spent a career with the Navy as a civilian researcher at what eventually became the Naval Ocean Systems Center (NOSC).
While at NOSC he conducted classified research from an ice station (APLIS) in the Arctic Ocean in 1986. He retired from the Naval Ocean Systems Center in 1995 and went to work for Raytheon He retired from Raytheon on April 30, 2002.
Description
The media can be accessed at the links below.
Audio Part 1: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/byrd/oral_history/Mr_Craig_W_Brown_1.mp3
Audio Part 2: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/byrd/oral_history/Mr_Craig_W_Brown_2.mp3
Audio Part 1: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/byrd/oral_history/Mr_Craig_W_Brown_1.mp3
Audio Part 2: http://streaming.osu.edu/knowledgebank/byrd/oral_history/Mr_Craig_W_Brown_2.mp3