J. W. Sandström—a biographical sketch

Abstract

J. W. Sandström’s (1874–1947) activities encompassed meteorological and oceanographic research in Sweden, as well as Norway. As shown in this biographical sketch, his scientific interests ranged over wide fields and were pursued well past his retirement from the Swedish Meteorological Office. In addition to Sandström’s well-known results with bearing on the global thermohaline circulation on which much of his present-day reputation rests, he made other highly important theoretical contributions to both oceanography and meteorology, at the same time not neglecting field research. At a very early date, Sandström, inspired by his academic benefactor Otto Pettersson, recognized the importance of the North Atlantic inflow to the Norwegian Sea for the climate of Northwestern Europe and, furthermore, attempted to investigate this process during a number of Nordic-Sea research cruises in the 1930s.