Abstract
Abstract. The International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) was founded in 1919 as the Section of Meteorology of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG). Significant advances over human history, particularly during the 19th century, in the gathering, communication, assembly and analysis of observations of the changing weather and in theoretical understanding of the fundamental physical relationships and processes governing atmospheric circulation had been driven by the need for improved weather and climate forecasts to support the expansion of global trade, better public warnings of extreme weather, and safer and more effective military operations. Since its foundation, in parallel and cooperation with intergovernmental development under the auspices of what is now the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), IAMAS and its 10 international commissions have provided the international organizational framework for the convening of the general and scientific assemblies and other meetings that bring together expert scientists from around the world to further advance scientific understanding and prediction of the behaviour of the atmosphere and its connections to and effects on other components of the Earth's intercoupled geophysical system.
Highlights
The successes and failures of societies around the world have been and continue to be dependent on weather and climate, especially because of their critical role in determining the availability of vital agricultural, ecological and hydrological resources
4 decades later, recognizing the very important role of other traditional scientific disciplines in atmospheric studies, the name was officially changed to the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) at the 21st general assembly held in Boulder in 1995
Given the geophysical continua of the solid, liquid, and gaseous Earth, atmospheric studies under the umbrella of IAMAS benefitted significantly from the advances in observations and understanding led by a number of its sister associations, primarily involving IAGA (Mandea and Petrosky, 2019), IAPSO
Summary
The successes and failures of societies around the world have been and continue to be dependent on weather and climate, especially because of their critical role in determining the availability of vital agricultural, ecological and hydrological resources. Making progress required both (1) instruments that could quantify observations for analysis and display as maps and (2) advances in understanding of atmospheric physics and chemistry that would eventually provide a more rigorous basis for analysis and forecasting. The second and third sections of this paper highlight a number of early advances with relevance to the atmospheric sciences and the gradual awareness about the need for increasing international cooperation to accelerate progress in understanding of atmospheric behaviour and for forecasting These advances provided essential groundwork that enabled the foundation of the forerunner of today’s International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) after the severe historical incision of World War I.
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