Modern Era Contributors to Meteorology
Bjerknes, Vilhelm

(1862–1951)

Modern Era

Contributors to Meteorology

(post World War I)

Below are checklists of Modern Era Contributors to Meteorology on postal items (stamps, souvenir sheets, aerogrammes, postal cards, etc.) and numismatic items (banknotes and coins). Catalog numbers, years of issue, and notes on the items featured are given when available. If readers know of additional information or images, please contact the authors using the e-mail addresses at the bottom of this page.

Contributors to MeteorologyTime Period CoveredNumber Ancient and pre-RenaissanceThrough 1300s AD34 Precursor EraRenaissance [~1400 AD] through World War I230 Modern Era (this page)Post World War I143 Chronological and Alphabetical Indexes407

Modern Era Contributors to meteorology covered:

Alfven Alvarez Anderson Antoine Appleton Armstrong Aston Bacon, J Berger Bjerknes Bonnel Bower Braine Brault Bravo Brewer Brooks Burbank Byrd Camus

Carlson Chambers Charlton Copeland Crutzen Davies Day de Viviès Demuyter Dobson du Toit Dubois Dumbrava Dylan Eckener Ewins Faure Fedorov Fish Flouttard

Foot Freckleton Fridman Frolow Garcia Genty Giles Goddard Gökmen González Gore Gourdonneau Guinot Hayes Hess Ibarra Iosifyan Jinghe Jiuzhang Kapitsa Kaplan

Kent Kettley Kezhen Kibel Knabb Kolmogorov Krenkel Lambert Lang Langmuir Law Lebeau Le Moal Leonard Libbrecht Libby Lindbergh Lorenz Mader Manabe Mărăcineanu

McCaskill Mégie Milanković Molchanov Molina Morlet Nakaya Oakley Page Parent Piccard, A Piccard, J Post Potocnik Priestley, R Prud'homme Regener Revelle Rey Rivolier Roker

Rowland Rymill Sagan Sartre Schmidt Scholz Schonland Schwarzenegger Scott, J Scott, W Shackleton Shaw Simmers Simpson Somov Sorge Stevens Suomi Tanguy Tao

Terada Theon Thunberg Treshnikov Tu Urey Van Allen Väisälä Victor Vize von Kármán von Neumann Watson-Watt Webster, B Wegener White Wilkins Wilson Young Zubov

The Contributors on this page are listed in alphabetical order above and are presented in chronological order below.

Bjerknes, Vilhelm

(1862–1951)

Vilhelm Bjerknes was a Norwegian meteorologist. Early in his scientific career, beginning in 1890, he worked as assistant to Heinrich Hertz, and contributed to Hertz' work on electromagnetic resonance. This work eventually led to the development of radio.

Bjerknes is an important figure in 20th century meteorology: he introduced many of the common techniques and ideas used by modern meteorologists and weather forecasters. He was one of the originators of the Bergen classical school of thought in meteorology (also referred to at times as the Norwegian school). In the Bergen model, fronts are considered to be the sloping boundaries between cold and warm airmasses. They therefore have a three-dimensional structure, which was a new idea at the time.

Bjerknes was also a professor of meteorology, and published papers and books on dynamic meteorology and hydrodynamics. For example, in the paper On the Dynamic Principle of Circulatory Movements in the Atmosphere (Monthly Weather Review, October 1900), Bjerknes applied fundamental theorems in fluid motion by Helmholtz, Kelvin and Silberstein, along with others of his own discovery, to atmospheric circulation. This was one of the first papers to study dynamic meteorology in its modern framework.

In 1917, Bjerknes founded the Geophysical Institute of Bergen, with the goal of improving the country's meteorological forecast service. He established a large network of observing stations, mostly in southern Norway, that followed what was known as the "indirect" reporting method, in which detailed cloud observations were made in an attempt to compensate for the lack of upper-level sounding information (Bjerknes knew that information from upper levels was as important as information from the surface, but the modern radiosonde network had not yet been established). Starting in 1918, Bjerknes made analyses of his synoptic (i.e. large scale) weather maps, in which he integrated the available observations over large areas into complete meteorological patterns that included smaller scale features such as cold and warm fronts and their associated circulations. From his analyses, Bjerknes built a model of the cycle of the birth, development and decay of mid-latitude low pressure systems and their associated fronts. This was useful because the model could then be applied to observed patterns in order to forecast the evolution of the weather. This work was the foundation of what came to be known as the Bergen School of Meteorology. This idea still lies at the heart of the modern practice of weather forecasting.

While at the Institute, Bjerknes wrote his book On the Dynamics of the Circular Vortex with Applications to the Atmosphere and to Atmospheric Vortex and Wave Motion. It was published in 1921.

For more information about Vilhelm Bjerknes, as well as about his son Jacob who was also a meteorologist, see this document.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Norway403 (Mi466)1962100th anniv. birth "Vilhelm Bjerknes" Norway404 (Mi467)Norway403-404 fdc1Two stamps and (orange and blue printed)cachet on FDC Norway403-404 fdc2Two stamps and (Norsk Filatelistisk Tidsskrift) cachet on FDC Norway403-404 fdc3Two stamps and (gold and blue and grey printed) cachet on FDC Norway403-404 fdc4Two stamps and (Populaer Filateli no.74) cachet on FDC Norway403-404 fdc5Two stamps on FDC (blank/no cachet) Norway404 cardInformation card

Eckener, Hugo

(1868–1954)

Hugo Eckener was the commander of the German airship Graf Zeppelin.

In 1926 Fridtjof Nansen founded the International Association for Exploring the Arctic by Means of Airship (commonly known as "Aeroarctic"). According to its statement of purpose, Aeroarctic would support "the scientific investigation and permanent control of the Arctic by means of explorations (voyages) and by the disembarking and support of wireless stations". To this end, in 1928 Nansen discussed with Eckener the idea that Aeroarctic might sponsor the Graf Zeppelin in an Arctic mission. Through Eckener's knowledge of airships and Nansen's knowledge of weather, the two agreed that such a voyage would be feasible. Nansen wrote that "it may be understood that the object of the expedition with the Graf Zeppelin ... is not merely to fly across the North Polar region and to take a few accidental observations, but it is an important link in a great scientific programme, and will give results of importance to science". He expected that such a scientific program would provide information useful in weather forecasting, agriculture, shipping, trade and air traffic, but unfortunately died before it could take place.

The Aeroarctic/Graf Zeppelin Arctic expedition took place in 1931 with Eckener in command. The trip was a success on all fronts. A large amount of information was gathered related to meteorology, terrestrial magnetism and oceanography. Weather records were kept throughout the trip and meteorological isobaric maps were constructed three times per day. Molchanov sounding balloons were successfully launched from the airship near Franz Josef Land, Severnaya Zemlya and Vaigach Island. These balloons carried small radio transmitters that relayed measurements of temperature, pressure and humidity back to the airship.

Eckener would later write of the voyage that "my expectations, in so far as they were surpassed, were realized when I saw that, respecting the Arctic in summer, no anxieties need be felt regarding meteorological disturbances. Temperatures in the upper air regions are such that fears that an ice cap can be formed on the ship can be avoided by proper navigation".

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Antigua and Barbuda1632 (Mi1701)1992(125th anniv. birth, in 1993) Antigua and Barbuda1711 (Mi1850)1993125th anniv. birth "Dr. Hugo Eckener" Antigua and Barbuda1712 (Mi1851)Antigua and Barbuda1716 (Mi1852)Antigua and Barbuda1718 (BL265, Mi1853)

i1718SS1

Imperforate SS1 Azerbaijan513 (BL?)SS11995(40th anniv. death, in 1994) Barbuda1440 (Mi1573)Antigua and Barbuda 1711 overprinted "Barbuda Mail"1994125th anniv. birth (in 1993) "Dr. Hugo Eckener" Barbuda1441 (Mi1574)Antigua and Barbuda 1712 overprinted "Barbuda Mail" Barbuda1445 (Mi1575)Antigua and Barbuda 1716 overprinted "Barbuda Mail" Barbuda1447 (BL226, Mi1576)SS1 (stamp), Antigua and Barbuda 1718 overprinted "Barbuda Mail" Bequia (St. Vincent Grenadines)400c (Mi?)One of MS3 (400 (a-c))2007"Dr. Hugo Eckener" Dominica1568 (Mi1705)1993125th anniv. birth Dominica1570 (Mi1706)Dominica1573 (Mi1707)Dominica1576 (BL239)SS1 Dominica1576 fdcSS1 on FDC Gambia1380 (Mi?)1993125th anniv. birth Gambia1382 (Mi?)Gambia1383 (Mi?)Gambia1387 (BL?)SS1 GermanyNonePostcard back~1906"Dr. Hugo Eckener" GermanyNoneCancel on cover1925 GermanyNonePostcard back, also front1926 GermanyNoneCinderella (5pf, green)~1926Zeppelin fundraising campaign GermanyNoneCinderella (5pf, blue) GermanyNoneCinderella (10pf, red) GermanyNonePostcard, also back1932 GermanyNonePostcard back1936 GermanyNoneCommemorative card, also back1938 Germany (West)825 card (Mi? card)Cachet on card1968100th anniv. birth "Dr. Hugo Eckener" Germany (West)NoneCancel on cover1968100th anniv. birth Germany (West)None(Pictorial) cancel on postcard, also back1968100th anniv. birth Germany (West)NoneCachet on cover1976 Germany (West)NoneCachet on cover1978 GermanyNoneCancel on postal card1993(125th anniv. birth) Ghana1551A (Mi?)1993125th anniv. birth Ghana1553 (Mi?)Ghana1560 (Mi?)Ghana1562 (BL?)SS1 Grenada1794 (Mi?)1990"Dr. Hugo Eckener" (at left) Grenada2272 (Mi?)1993125th anniv. birth "Dr. Hugo Eckener" Grenada2273 (Mi?)Grenada2274 (Mi?)Grenada2275 (BL?)SS1 HungaryC390 (Mi3235)1977(110th anniv. birth, in 1978) Lesotho940 (Mi?)1993(125th anniv. birth) Malagasy RepublicC160 (BL?)In (right) margin of SS11976Eckener (rightmost of the three men) Mauritania346 (Mi540)

i346

Imperforate1976"Dr. Hugo Eckener" Nicaragua1989a (Mi?)From MS16 (1989 (a-i))1994(125th anniv. birth, in 1993) Nicaragua1989e (Mi?) Nicaragua1989o (Mi?) Nicaragua1991 (BL?)SS1 St. Vincent1866 (Mi?)1993125th anniv. birth "Dr. Hugo Eckener" St. Vincent1869 (Mi?)St. Vincent1870 (Mi?)St. Vincent1873 (BL?)SS1 St. Vincent1873 fdcSS1 on FDC Solomon IslandsUnknown d (Mi?)One of MS4 (a-d)2014"Dr. Hugo Eckener" Solomon IslandsUnknown fdcMS4 on FDC Upper VoltaC237 (BL42)

iC237In (upper-right) margin of SS1

In (upper-right) margin of imperforate SS11976"Dr. Eckener" United StatesC11 fdc (Mi? fdc)Cachet (signature) on FDC1928 United StatesNonePostcard back, also front1929 United StatesNoneCachet (signature) on (airmail) cover1929 United StatesNoneCachet (signature) on (airmail) cover (different)1929 United StatesNone(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet on (airmail) cover1930 United StatesNone(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet on (airmail) cover (different)1930 United StatesNoneCachet on cover (4-line cancel)1933 United StatesNoneCachet (same) on cover (3-line cancel)1933 Uruguay1519b (Mi?)

i1519bOne of MS4 (1519 (a-d)) (BL60), stamps-on-stamp: Germany C39 and Uruguay C426c

One of imperforate MS4 (i1519 (a-d))1993125th anniv. birth "Dr. Hugo Eckener"

Bonnel, Ferdinand

(1869–1945)

Ferdinand Bonnel, born in France near the border with Belgium, was a Jesuit priest and educator who worked in Sri Lanka. He founded St. Michael's College, which became known for its programs in meteorology and astronomy. Bonnel was the College director for more than 40 years.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Sri Lanka870 (Mi?)1988(120th anniv. birth, in 1989)

Wilson, Charles Thomson Rees

(1869–1959)

Charles Wilson was a Scottish physicist best remembered for his cloud chamber and for his work in atmospheric electricity.

After his studies at Cambridge University, Wilson spent a short time as a volunteer at the Ben Nevis Observatory in 1894. Ben Nevis is the highest point in Scotland, and the observatory was at the summit. Wilson found the glories (philatelic examples 1 and 2) and coronas (philatelic examples 1 and 2) in the clouds and mists of the mountain particularly beautiful and was inspired to study them. Glories and coronas are two types of atmospheric optical phenomena. Furthermore, the thunderstorms that Wilson experienced may have been the seeds of his later interest in atmospheric electricity.

The Cloud Chamber

Wilson worked from 1895 to 1900 as a researcher at the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge University. His starting point was the work of John Aitken (1839–1919), a Scottish atmospheric physicist who cooled a sample of air in an expansion chamber to cause condensation and showed that the resulting water droplets formed on small atmospheric particles such as dust. Such particles are now known as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Wilson developed an updated expansion chamber that came to be called the "cloud chamber" and used it to show that water droplets would also form in pure air (with no dust) if it was cooled enough to attain a very high humidity. He noticed that such droplets reacted to an electric field and hypothesized that the nuclei on which they had formed must therefore be ions (charged particles). Wilson then passed X-rays (discovered late in 1895) through the cloud chamber and found a resulting large increase in the number of cloud droplets. This experiment confirmed his hypothesis, since other researchers had established that the passage of X-rays through air makes it electrically conductive, and furthermore that air conductivity was due to the presence of ions.

Wilson demonstrated the cloud chamber to some other interested scientists in the late 1890s, including Kelvin, who had previously made some measurements of the atmospheric electrical field.

Wilson had some hopes of using his cloud chamber results as a basis for linking the behaviour of ions with the formation of clouds in the real atmosphere. In this he was unsuccessful. Such a link may not even be possible, since the conditions in the cloud chamber differ greatly from those in the real atmosphere.

In 1911, Wilson was the first to observe and photograph the tracks of alpha- and beta-particles and electrons in the cloud chamber. He described them as "little wisps and threads of clouds". The cloud chamber later provided other discoveries in the field of nuclear physics. As a result, Wilson, together with Arthur Compton, received the 1927 Nobel Prize for Physics. Wilson was cited for the invention of the cloud chamber, which the Nobel committee described as being at the heart of "his method of making the paths of electrically charged particles visible by the condensation of vapour".

Atmospheric Electricity

Wilson's interest in atmospheric electricity grew in the late 1890s. Then in 1900 he was asked by the Meteorological Council of the Royal Society to do some scientific work on the subject. To start, he made observations of the atmospheric electric field in 1900 and 1901 in Peebles, Scotland, where he used captive balloons and kites to measure the electric field strength at various heights, and also made improvements to the Kelvin electrograph technique. Within a few years he had constructed an instrument to measure the atmospheric electric potential gradient and the vertical flow of current in fair weather. Those measurements allowed him to calculate the electrical conductivity of the air. Of this work Wilson would reminisce, in an article published posthumously in 1960:

"I remember the satisfaction I had when my work led to the fulfilment of my dream of isolating a portion of the Earth's surface and measuring the charge upon it and the current flowing into it from the atmosphere".

His instrument, later called the "Wilson apparatus" by the Meteorological Office, became a standard for measurements of atmospheric electricity. Instruments with the same basic design were used at the Kew Observatory until 1979. Interestingly, data from the Wilson apparatus has also been used to reconstruct historic air pollution data in England.

Since atmospheric conductivity is almost exclusively due to the presence of ions, Wilson's measurements of electrical conductivity allowed him to calculate the concentration of those ions. He was also able to examine them in the cloud chamber. He published papers describing the cloud chamber and its uses in 1911 and 1912. In subsequent years he continued to make observations of atmospheric electricity and worked on droplet charging, thunderstorm electrification and the development of a capillary electrometer. In 1913 he was appointed Observer in Meteorological Physics at the Cambridge Solar Physics Observatory, where he carried out in particular work on thunderstorm electricity. In 1918 he was appointed Reader in Electrical Meteorology at the Cavendish Laboratory, and he was the Jacksonian Professor at Cambridge from 1925 until his retirement in 1935.

In the years after WWI, Wilson turned to the question of why the Earth's surface should retain an overall negative charge despite the observed electrical gradient (positive charge in the atmosphere, negative at the surface) which at first glance should neutralize the surface negative charge. It was known that there were electrical discharges associated with thunderstorms, and this led to the suggestion that lightning might be the replenishing agent of the surface negative charge. Wilson's cloud chamber experiments suggested another mechanism: they showed that if the CCN on which cloud droplets formed were negatively charged, more vapour would condense onto them than if they were positively charged. He therefore suggested that raindrops descending to the ground in thunderstorm areas (or possibly in other areas of unsettled weather with rain) were negatively charged, so that lightning and raindrops together could act to continuously replenish the observed surface negative charge in the presence of the overall atmospheric positive charge. To complete the picture, it was necessary to postulate that a vertical charge separation occurs in thunderstorms: negative at the base and positive at the top. The high level positive charge could migrate upward to a conducting layer (the ionosphere) which then would transfer it to all the remaining areas without thunderstorms, thus maintaining the observed electrical structure of the atmosphere and the surface. This theory has come to be known as the global atmospheric electrical circuit, and current flowing in the circuit is referred to as the Wilson current. Even today all the details have not been worked out, but the general theory is well-accepted. Wilson published these ideas in various papers including those of 1921, 1929 and 1956.

References (some scientific papers by Wilson):

Wilson, C.T.R., 1899: On the condensation nuclei produced in gases by the action of Rontgen rays, uranium rays, ultraviolet light and other agents, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 192, 403-453.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1906: On the measurement of the earth-air current and on the origin of atmospheric electricity, Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc., 13, 363-382.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1911: On a method of making visible the paths of ionising particles through a gas, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 85, 285-288.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1912: On an expansion apparatus for making visible the tracks of ionising particles in gases and some results obtained by its use, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 87, 277-292.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1921: Investigations on lightning discharges and on the electric field of thunderstorms, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 221, 73-115.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1927: On the cloud method of making visible ions and the tracks of ionising particles, Nobel lecture, 12 December 1927.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1929: Some thundercloud problems, J. Franklin Inst., 208, 1-12.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1956: A theory of thunderstorm electricity, Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A, 236, 297-317.

Wilson, C.T.R., 1960: Reminiscences of my early years, Notes Rec. Roy. Soc. Lond., 14(2), 163-173.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content LiberiaMi2903From and in (left) margin of MS17 (Mi2893-2909 + label)2000(Charles) Wilson's cloud chamber LiberiaMi2905Charles Wilson LiberiaMi2907Photograph from (Charles) Wilson's cloud chamber

Aston, Francis W.

(1877–1945)

Francis Aston was a British chemist who invented the mass spectrometer. Modern measurements of atmospheric CO2 concentration have been done by gas chromatograph and laser absorption techniques, but can also be done using mass spectrometers (Bender, M.L., Sowers, T., Barnola, J.-M., Chappellaz, J. Geophys. Res. Lett., 1994; 21: 189).

Aston's research was interrupted by WWI. During the war years he studied the effects of atmospheric conditions on the fabrics and dopes used in airplanes, as part of the war effort.

He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1922.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Gabon804h (Mi?)One of MS9 (804 (a-i))1995(50th anniv. death)

Gökmen, Fatin

(1877–1955)

Fatin Gökmen was a Turkish mathematician and astronomer. From 1904 to 1910, he was professor of Astronomy and Mathematics at the University of Istanbul.

The Imperial Meteorological Observatory had been established in 1868 but was destroyed in the uprising of March 1909. The new government formed after the uprising appointed Gökmen director of the Imperial Observatory and charged him with finding a location for a new building. He established the new Observatory, named Kandilli, in 1911. A class 1 meteorological observing station was set up there, and from 1 July 1911 continuous weather observations were made and recorded there. Also from that time, daily weather forecasts for Istanbul were prepared at the Observatory. Magnetic observations were introduced by Gökmen in 1927. The modern Observatory has maintained its meteorological function, but other geophysical and astronomical areas of study have been added to its responsibilities over the years, including, most recently, the study of earthquakes.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content TurkeyB83 (Mi1812)1961Gökmen; 50th anniv. Kandilli Observatory Turkey1674 (BL11)SS1, stamp-on-stamp: B83 (detail) partially reproduced in (right) margin1964(10th anniv. death, in 1965)

Terada, Torahiko

(1878–1935)

Torahiko Terada was a Japanese meteorologist and university professor. He established the Earth Sciences Department at Tokyo University, where he taught meteorology. One of his students was Sakuhei Fujiwara, who became well-known for his research on what came to be called the "Fujiwara effect" in tropical cyclones.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Japan496 (Mi?)1952

du Toit, Alexander Logie

(1878–1948)

Alexander Du Toit was a South African geologist who was one of the strongest early supporters of Wegener's theory of continental drift. Du Toit's arguments were mostly geological, but he also was intrigued by the observations that some fossils from tropical plants had been found in Antarctica, and glacial deposits had been found in Africa. Like Wegener, du Toit realized that historical climate change could be explained if the continents had drifted from one climatic zone to another, and furthermore that a rearrangement of the Earth's continents and oceans could act to change climate patterns.

In his 1937 work Our Wandering Continents: A Hypothesis of Continental Drifting, du Toit expressed these climate-related ideas: he stated that different continents could show "in their fossil remains common or allied forms of terrestrial life, possessed during certain epochs of climates that may have ranged from glacial to torrid or pluvial to arid, though contrary to meteorological principles when their existing geographic positions are considered".

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content British Antarctic Territory86-91 fdc (Mi88-93 fdc)Insert back from FDC, also insert front and cover front1982"Dr. Alex du Toit" South Africa813 (Mi828)1991du Toit and maps of early continents South Africa813 maxiStamp and cancel and cachet on maxicard South Africa810-813 fdcOne of four stamps on FDC

Simpson, Sir George Clarke

(1878–1965)

Simpson was an English meteorologist. He studied atmospheric electricity in Lapland in 1902 and was appointed meteorological lecturer at Manchester University in 1905. He became the Imperial Meteorologist for the Indian Meteorological Service in 1906, where his responsibilities included inspecting meteorological observing stations in India and Burma. In 1910 he joined Robert Scott's second Antarctic expedition (the British Antarctic Expedition) as expedition meteorologist. He served aboard the ship Terra Nova as it made its way to Antarctica. In Antarctica, he was responsible for one of the continent's first weather observing stations, at the Cape Evans base camp. A knoll just behind the Cape Evans hut, 66 feet above sea level, was named Wind Vane Hill. A run-of-the-wind anemometer and a Stevenson screen were set up on the knoll. Electric wires connected the anemometer cups to a recorder in the hut. The cup rotations were electrically counted; with every four miles of wind a signal sent to the hut caused a pen on a chronograph to register a step. The screen was visited (generally by Simpson) at 0800 each morning, in all weather, and the thermometers (maximum, minimum and present) were read. BAT Scott 432b shows Simpson standing in front of the screen and recording those temperatures. Furthermore, Simpson made the first Antarctic upper-air measurements using instrumented balloons. This document describes in some detail those measurements. This stamp shows expedition members, including Simpson, launching a weather balloon. Simpson also studied the local meteorological effects of the area. For example, he established that Minna Bluff acts to divide the airflow into two separate currents, which results in the cold and foggy "windless bight" area on the south coast of Ross Island.

Simpson returned to the Indian Meteorological Service early in 1912. There he compiled his notes about Antarctic meteorology. In 1919 he published the first volume of the expedition's meteorological records, entitled British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913. Meteorology. Two other volumes followed.

Simpson was drafted into WWI military service and served in 1916 as meteorological advisor to the British Expeditionary Force in Mesopotamia. In 1920 he became the Director of the British Meteorological Office in London, where he conducted research into atmospheric electricity, ionization, lightning, radioactivity and solar radiation. In 1926 he established a wind force scale known as the Simpson scale, a modification of the Beaufort wind force scale.

Simpson retired from the Meteorological Office in 1938 but was recalled into active service in 1939 because of WWII. He was appointed head of the Kew Observatory, where he continued to study the electrical structure of thunderstorms until 1947. He served as president of the British Meteorological Society from 1940 to 1942.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content British Antarctic Territory426f (Mi534)One of MS8 (426 (a-h)) (Mi529-536)2010(probably) Simpson recording temperatures at the Stevenson screen in 1911 near the Cape Evans Hut, during Robert Scott's second Antarctic expedition British Antarctic Territory430c (Mi563)One of MS8 (430 (a-h)) (Mi561-568)2011Simpson (one of two men holding the balloon) British Antarctic Territory432b (Mi?)From MS4 (432 (a-d))(probably) Simpson recording temperatures at the Stevenson screen in 1911 near the Cape Evans Hut, during Robert Scott's second Antarctic expedition British Antarctic Territory432c (Mi?)Simpson's lab in the Cape Evans Hut in 1911 during Robert Scott's second Antarctic expedition. The white vertical drum in the centre of the image rotated and recorded the wind speed measured by an anemometer on a knoll behind the hut known to the expedition as Wind Vane Hill.

Milanković, Milutin

(1879–1958)

Milutin Milanković was a Serbian engineer and mathematician who was intrigued by the ice ages and the climatic changes that must have caused the advance and retreat of the glaciers. His general ideas about this question followed those of the Scot James Croll, who in 1864 had published a paper in the Philosophical Magazine that hypothesized that variations in the Earth's orbit might have caused the ice ages.

In the WWI years Milanković studied the interactions between solar radiation and the temperature of the Earth. His results were published in Paris in 1920 in a monograph entitled Théorie mathématique des phénomènes thermiques produits par la radiation solaire (Mathematical theory of thermal phenomena caused by solar radiation). In it, he presented a curve describing the solar insolation at the Earth's surface. Köppen and Wegener used it in their 1924 work Klimate der geologischen Vorzeit (Climates of the Geological Past). In 1927 they invited Milanković to collaborate with them on their Handbuch der Klimatologie (Handbook on Climatology). He wrote the introduction to the Handbook: Mathematische Klimalehre und astronomische Theorie der Klimaschwankungen (Mathematical science of climate and astronomical theory of the variations of the climate). The ideas contained therein would form the basis of a theory that he formulated in the 1930s. That theory, which came to be known by the name of "Milanković cycles", presents a relationship between long-term cycles in the Earth's climate and changes in its orbital eccentricity, axial tilt and precession. The precession changes slightly in an approximate 26,000 year cycle. The Earth's orbit about the Sun changes in 100,000 year and 400,000 year cycles. The tilt of the Earth's axis changes in a cycle of about 41,000 years. Milanković derived the mathematical formulas that describe these cycles and showed how they can interact so that at some times there is more sunlight striking the Earth, and at others there is less. When there is less, snow and ice can accumulate and glaciers can advance, forming an Ice Age. When there is more, there is warming and the ice retreats. Milanković presented the complete theory in his 1941 work Kanon der Erdbestrahlung und seine Anwendung auf das Eiszeitenproblem (A Study of Insolation reaching the Earth and its Application to the Problem of the Ice Ages).

The theory of Milanković cycles remained controversial, but a paper published in the journal Science in 1976 ("Variations in the Earth's orbit: pacemaker of the Ice Ages" by Hayes, Imbrie and Shackleton) confirmed the basic ideas. In it, measurements from deep ocean sediment cores along with new understanding of celestial mechanics were used to show that variations in solar insolation were the main cause of the advance and retreat of ice sheets in the Quaternary period. Here is the abstract of their paper.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb Admin.)226 (Mi303)Stamp + label, from MS8 (8x single + label)2004125th anniv. birth Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb Admin.)226 fdcStamp and cancel and cachet on FDC Serbia374 (Mi174)2007(50th anniv. death, in 2008) Serbia374 fdc1Stamp on FDC Serbia374 fdc2Stamp on FDC (different) Serbia-KrajinaMi62A

Mi62BFrom strip of 2 and label, or from MS8 (8x Mi62A + label)

Mi62B and label from imperforate MS8 (8x Mi62B + label)1996 Serbia-KrajinaMi62A fdcStamp and cancel and cachet on FDC Serbia242 (Mi319)2004125th anniv. birth Serbia242 fdcStamp and cancel and cachet on FDC Serbia242 var (Mi?)Variety, with the initials of the stamp designer printed in the stamp image SerbiaNone(Bronze) medallion, also reverse? SerbiaNone(Silver) medallion, also reverse SerbiaKM5220 dinara (copper-nickel-zinc) coin obverse, also reverse2009 SerbiaP61(2000 dinara) banknote, also back2011-2012 Serbia862 (Mi822)2019140th anniv. birth Serbia1128 (BL44, Mi1205)SS12023"100th anniv. Milankovic calendar" Serbia1128 fdcSS1 and (Serbia Post) cachet on FDC Yugoslavia1432 (Mi1793)

i1432

Imperforate1979100th anniv. birth Yugoslavia1432 fdc1Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on FDC Yugoslavia1432 fdc2Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (slightly different) on FDC

Wegener, Alfred

(1880–1930)

Alfred Wegener was a German scientist and Arctic explorer who made major contributions to geophysics, glaciology, climatology and meteorology. His research in atmospheric physics and meteorology included the studies of cloud microphysics, thermodynamics, the vertical structure of the chemical composition of the atmosphere, atmospheric optics, and European tornadoes. In addition to all that, he proposed the then-revolutionary theory of continental drift, which was a seminal contribution to the field of geophysics.

Wegener received a doctorate in astronomy in 1904, but found that he was more interested in geophysics, meteorology and climatology. At that time the telegraph, Atlantic cable and wireless were beginning to supply the data necessary for analysis and forecasting of storms. In 1905 he went to work at the Royal Prussian Aeronautical Observatory near Berlin, where he studied the atmosphere with kites and balloons. He was then invited to join a 1906 Danish expedition to Greenland's northeast coast. This was a dream come true for Wegener. In Greenland from 1906 to 1908 Wegener became the first person to use kites and tethered balloons to study the polar atmosphere. From 1909, he lectured on meteorology and astronomy at the University of Marberg. In 1911 he collected his meteorology lectures into a book, Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre (The Thermodynamics of the Atmosphere), which became a standard text in Germany.

Wegener also worked in the area of cloud and precipitation physics. As early as 1784, Benjamin Franklin had speculated that rainfall at the ground began as some form of snow in the clouds. Wegener considered that water can exist in the atmosphere in supercooled liquid form (at a temperature below 0°C), and also that the saturation vapour pressure over liquid water is greater than that over ice. He concluded that as a result, cloud ice crystals would necessarily grow at the expense of supercooled liquid cloud droplets. The resulting large ice crystals would be Franklin's 'snow', which could melt to form raindrops as it fell. These ideas were contained in Thermodynamik der Atmosphäre. Wegener never got the chance to document this process in real clouds, but Tor Bergeron and Walter Findeisen proved the theory in the 1930s. The process, often now known as the Bergeron-Findeisen process, is more correctly referred to as the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process.

Wegener went back to Greenland in 1912-13 and crossed the Greenland ice cap with Danish explorer J.P. Koch and two others in a trip from Dove Bay on the east coast to Upernavik on the west coast. The data that he gathered during this journey made him one of the world's leading experts on polar meteorology and glaciology. According to fellow meteorologist and Greenland explorer Dr. Johannes Georgi, "Wegener was the first to trace storm tracks over the Greenland ice cap". He continued to work at Marburg until 1919, when he was appointed head of the Department of theoretical meteorology at the German Hydrographic Office (The Deutsche Seewarte) in Hamburg. In 1924 he was appointed professor of Meteorology and Geophysics at the Institute of Physics, University of Graz. In addition to his continuing interest in continental drift and polar meteorology, he also conducted investigations concerning processes in the upper atmosphere and the Aurora Borealis. Furthermore, he also studied optical effects in the frigid air above the Greenland ice cap, where spectacular optical phenomena can occur in the presence of ice crystals. In a 1926 article, Wegener explained the formation process of two rare arcs that can appear opposite the Sun in the presence of ice crystals. The arcs were then named in his honour.

Wegener's interest in tornadoes probably dates from the first of his four Greenland expeditions, for which he acted as physicist and meteorologist. In July of 1907, he and other expedition members observed a series of waterspouts from Cape Bismarck in the Northeast Greenland National Park. In subsequent years he tried to provide a physical explanation for the formation of tornadoes and waterspouts. He was drafted into the German army in 1914 and served in WWI. In 1916, as commanding officer of the German Army's Field Weather Station 12, he was responsible for the station's weather observations. He devoted his free time to meteorological research and focused on the theory of tornadoes and on bringing together all available empirical observations of European tornadoes. He corresponded with Wladimir Köppen about this project. His book on tornadoes, Wind- und Wasserhosen in Europa (Tornadoes and Waterspouts in Europe), was finished in August of 1916 and published in 1917. It was essentially a synthesis of everything that was known at the time about European tornadoes. It included Wegener's ideas about their formation and structure and effects, along with the first catalogue of all known observations of tornadoes and waterspouts in Europe before 1915. Wegener presented 258 such reports, which served as the basis for his European tornado climatology, the first such climatology that had ever been produced. He showed, for example, that European tornadoes occurred mainly in the months of June through August, with a peak in July. Modern work has confirmed the overall conclusions of Wegener's climatology of European tornadoes.

In addition to his meteorological work, Wegener originated a revolution in geophysics: the idea of continental drift. This theory accounted for geological and fossil evidence that ancient climates had been vastly different from modern ones. Wegener thought that actual motion of continents might explain this climatic puzzle, so he and the climatologist Wladimir Köppen (who was also his father-in-law) plotted ancient deserts, jungles and ice sheets on paleogeographic maps based on the theory. The result was a plausible picture of past climates. Evidence of an ice age from some 280 million years ago, for example, scattered over almost all the Earth in modern times, clustered neatly around the South Pole in Wegener's map. This was because Africa, Antarctica, Australia and India had once comprised a southern hemispheric supercontinent (Gondwanaland). Wegener considered such paleoclimatic validation one of the strongest proofs of his theory. Conversely, continental drift has since become one of the main supporting principles of paleoclimatology. The South African geologist Alexander du Toit, working more or less independently, reached similar conclusions to those of Wegener and so became one of the early supporters of his theory.

Wegener returned to Greenland in the spring of 1930 as the leader of an expedition designed to systematically study the Greenland ice cap and its climate. Ernst Sorge, Johannes Giorgi and Fritz Lowe were part of this team. During this expedition, three research stations were set up: West camp, East camp, and Eismitte (Middle Ice camp, located on the ice cap at some 3000 m elevation). Unfortunately, in November 1930 Wegener and Rasmus Villumsen died while trying to reach West camp from Eismitte. Wegener was only 50. Despite his death, the expedition succeeded in its goal of recording one full year of meteorological observations at the Eismitte station as well as at the West camp station.

Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine research, established in 1980, was named in honour of Wegener.

Other selected publications by Wegener:

Durch die weiße Wüste (The Crossing of the Ice Cap, 1912-13) (1919) The Origin of Continents and Oceans (published in German in 1912 and 1915, and translated to other languages in 1922) Die Klimate der Geologischen Vorzeit (The Climates of the Geological Past) (with W. Köppen, 1924).

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Austria1169 (Mi1660)1980(100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death) Austria1169 fdc1Stamp on FDC Austria1169 fdc2Stamp and cachet on FDC Austria1169 fdc3Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (same) on FDC Austria1169 fdc4Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Austria1169 fdc5Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Austria1169 fdc6Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (different) and cachet (same) on FDC Austria1169 fdc7Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Austria1169 fdc8Stamp and (pictorial) cancel on FDC Austria1169 fdc9Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Austria1169 scSouvenir card AustriaNoneCancel on cover1984Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) British Antarctic Territory86-91 fdc (Mi88-93 fdc)Insert back from FDC, also insert front and FDC front1982"Professor Alfred Wegener" Denmark1004 (Mi?)1994Wegener's weather balloon, 1906-1908 Danish Greenland expedition (same design as cachet on Greenland 268-269 fdc) Denmark1004-1005 fdcOne of two stamps on FDC Germany (Berlin)9N451 (Mi616)1980Wegener and continental drift; 100th anniv. birth; (50th anniv. death) Germany (Berlin)9N451 fdc1Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on FDC Germany (Berlin)9N451 fdc2Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Germany (Berlin)9N451 fdc3Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Germany (Berlin)9N451 fdc4Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Germany (Berlin)9N451 maxiMaxicard Germany (Berlin)9N451 scSouvenir card Germany (Berlin)9N451 cover1 (Mi616 cover1)Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on cover1980Wegener's polar exploration; continental drift; (100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death) Germany (Berlin)9N451 cover2 (Mi616 cover2)Stamp and (text) cancel on cover1980Wegener's polar exploration; continental drift; (100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death) Germany (Berlin)9N451 cover3 (Mi616 cover3)Stamp and (text) cancel and cachet on cover1980Wegener's polar exploration; continental drift; (100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death); "Dr Sorge's route" (in German text) Germany (Berlin)9N451 cover4 (Mi616 cover4)Stamp and (text) cancel and cachet on cover1980Wegener's polar exploration; continental drift; (100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death) Germany (Berlin)None(Pictorial) cancel1986Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Germany (East)2091 (Mi?)1980(100th anniv. birth; 50th anniv. death) Germany (East)2088+2091+2093 fdcOne of three stamps on FDC Germany (East)2091 cover (Mi? cover)(Text) cancel and cachet on cover1980100th anniv. birth; (50th anniv. death) Germany (East)None(Black printed) cachet on postal card1980(100th anniv. birth); 50th anniv. death Germany (East)NoneCancel on cover1988"Koch/Wegener" cross Greenland "1912/1913" Germany (West)NoneCachet on cover1982Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) for Polar Research Germany (West)1404 sc (Mi1187 sc)Souvenir card back, also front1983"Wegener" Germany (West)None(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet1983Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-1 Germany (West)1353 cover (Mi? cover)(Lower-left rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1984Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-2 Germany (West)None(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet1985Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-3 Germany (West)NoneCachet on cover1985Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-4 Germany (West)1353 cover (Mi? cover)(Pictorial) cancel on cover1986"Alfred Wegener Institut" Germany (West)None(Black rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1986Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Germany (West)None(Black rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1986Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-5-1/3 Germany (West)None(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1986Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-5-1/3 Germany (West)None(Purple rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1987"Alfred Wegener Institut" (AWI); Antarktis-5-4 Germany (West)None(Red rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1987Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-6 Germany (West)None(Blue rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1987Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); air-sea interaction project GermanyNoneOne of two (blue rubber-stamp) cachets on cover2001Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) GermanyNoneCancel on cover2003Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) GermanyNoneCancel on cover2005Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) GermanyNoneCancel (different) on cover2005(125th anniv. birth; 75th anniv. death) GermanyNoneCancel (different) on cover200525th anniv. Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) GermanyNoneCancel (different) on cover200525th anniv. Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) GermanyNone(Pictorial) cancel on cover2006Wegener's 1930 Greenland expedition GermanyNone(Pictorial) cancel2007Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) Greenland268-269 fdc (Mi247-248 fdc)(Greenland Post Office) cachet on FDC1994Wegener's weather balloon, 1906-1908 Danish Greenland expedition (same design as Denmark 1004) Greenland475 (Mi?)2006 Greenland475 fdcStamp on FDC Greenland475a (BL?)SS1 Greenland475a folderFolder (front and back), also inside NorwayNoneCachet on cover1993Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) RomaniaNone(Pictorial) cancel and cachet on card2005125th anniv. birth; 75th anniv. death RomaniaNone(Pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on card2005125th anniv. birth; 75th anniv. death RomaniaNone(Pictorial) cancel on cover2005125th anniv. birth; 75th anniv. death Russia (USSR)NoneCancel and cachet on cover197140th anniv. 1930-31 Wegener expedition to Greenland RussiaNone(Violet rubber-stamp) cachet on cover2005Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) St. Vincent2764f (Mi?)One of MS18 (2764 (a-r + label))1999Wegener and continental drift South AfricaNone(Violet rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1984Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI); Antarktis-2 United StatesNonePostcard2007Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) logo

Regener, Erich

(1881–1955)

Erich Regener was a German physicist and professor of physics at Berlin and Stuttgart. He was also the director of the early Max Planck Institute for Stratospheric Physics in the years between the two World Wars (this Institute is now known as the Institute for Aeronomy). His research with upper air balloons launched from the Institute helped to define the chemical composition of the troposphere and the stratosphere. One particular area of interest for Regener was the influence of ultraviolet (UV) light on the chemical equilibrium between molecular oxygen (O2) and ozone (O3). In 1934 he became the first scientist to directly measure the absorption of UV energy in the ozone layer. He also studied cosmic rays in the stratosphere, and had plans to study Earth's upper atmosphere with instruments aboard a German V-2 rocket.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Germany2052 cover (Mi2073 cover)(Pictorial) cancel on cover2000"Erich Regener, extraterrestrial physics pioneer" and his A-4 research rocket and ejected instrument package; also 120th anniv. birth, in 2001 GermanyB857 cover (Mi2097 cover)(Pictorial) cancel and (black printed) cachet on cover2000"Prof. Dr. Erich Regener"; "A-4 rocket with a 'Regener canister' for high atmospheric research" (in German text and also illustrated in the cachet); "Erich Regener, extraterrestrial physics pioneer" and A-4 research rocket and ejected instrument package (in the cancel); also 120th anniv. birth, in 2001

Langmuir, Irving

(1881–1957)

Irving Langmuir was an American physical chemist who spent much of his career with the General Electric (GE) corporation. He was awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1932, but is remembered by meteorologists mostly for his pioneering work in the area of weather modification through cloud seeding.

He invented the Langmuir probe, an instrument designed to measure the properties of ionized gases (known as 'plasma', a term that he coined in 1927) in the upper atmosphere. In 1946, a Langmuir probe and other instruments were carried aloft from White Sands Missile Range by a V2 rocket. Although the V2 failed, the launch marked the first attempt to explore the upper atmosphere through direct measurements by rocket-borne instruments.

Langmuir had a strong interest in meteorology, particularly in the area of cloud microphysics. In the war years, he was involved in research on smoke screens and on aircraft de-icing capabilities. He and his colleague Vincent Schaefer invented the artificial fog smoke screen generator widely used during WWII. This work led him to think about clouds in general, and airborne particulates and ice nucleation in particular. In 1946, Langmuir and Schaefer realized that clouds might be modified by "seeding" them with dry ice pellets. The dry ice supplied to the cloud would form extra ice particles to which cloud water would migrate, resulting in more cloud droplets and potentially more rain. They demonstrated the effect later that year. Their work continued in the post-war years with dry ice and also silver iodide as seeding agents. The hope was that a certain amount of seeding could induce clouds to produce rain, while overseeding could potentially reduce hail and so reduce hail damage to crops. The work was controversial, and considerations of possible financial liability led GE to turn the program over to the military in 1947. The military continued to conduct cloud seeding experiments, some of which were carried out in the area of Socorro, New Mexico, which since 1963 has been home to the Irving Langmuir Laboratory for Atmospheric Research.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Micronesia471 (BL98)SS12001Irving Langmuir, cloud seeding pioneer

von Kármán, Teodor

(1881–1963)

Teodor von Kármán was a Hungarian fluid dynamicist and aerodynamicist whose work has some applications to the atmosphere. He emigrated to the US in 1930. In the period 1915–1938, von Kármán and Prandtl developed mixing-length hypotheses for the atmosphere, using eddy diffusivities and flux-gradient concepts based on analogies with molecular transfer (Garratt, J. R., 1992. The Atmospheric Boundary Layer, p.3-4. Cambridge University Press).

The von Kármán constant is used in studies of turbulence in the planetary boundary layer. Von Kármán "cloud streets" can occur in some cases in the low levels of the atmosphere downstream of an island or other low barrier across which a moderate wind is blowing. These atmospheric flow patterns may be visible in the low level cloud formations downstream of the barrier. If there is no obscuring middle or upper-level cloud, satellite imagery can clearly show them. Here is an example.

Von Kármán was the recipient of many awards, including, in 1963, the first US Medal of Science, which he received from John F. Kennedy.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content von Kármán (on non-launch-cover postal items) Central African Republic761 (Mi1165A)

i761 (Mi1165B)

Imperforate1985 Central African Republic761a (BL347A)

i761a (BL347B)SS1 (761)

Imperforate SS1 (i761) Central African Republic1060a (Mi?)One of strip of 3 (1060 (a-c))1994(30th anniv. death, in 1993) Chad710d (Mi1520A)

i710d (Mi1520B)One stamp of MS6 (710 (a-f)) (Mi1517A-1522A)

One stamp of imperforate MS6 (i710 (a-f)) (Mi1517B-1522B)1997 HungaryNone (Mi_P255)Postal card1981(100th anniv. birth) Hungary3353 (Mi?)1992(110th anniv. birth, in 1991); (30th anniv. death, in 1993) Maldive IslandsMi8214One of MS4 (Mi8214-8217)2019"Von Kármán Crater" Maldive IslandsMi8214-8217_ms4 fdcMS4 on FDC Mali1037d (Mi2270)One of MS4 (1037 (a-d)) (Mi2267-2270)1999 Mali1037 fdcMS4 on FDC Micronesia178b (Mi?)One of block of 8 (178 (a-h)), or two of MS16 (2x (a-h))1993(30th anniv. death) Micronesia178b fdcStamp and cancel and cachet on FDC United StatesNone dOne of (RRI) imperforate cinderella MS41969 United StatesNoneCachet on cover, also back1990 United States2699 (Mi2313)Also partial sheet with selvedge1992(110th anniv. birth, in 1991); (30th anniv. death, in 1993) United States2699 fdc1Stamp on FDC (multi-color cachet) United States2699 fdc2Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (design like stamp) on FDC (blank/no cachet) United States2699 fdc3Stamp and (ArtCraft/PCS) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc4Stamp and (ArtCraft) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc5Stamp and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC, also back United States2699 fdc6Stamp and tab1 and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC, also back United States2699 fdc7Stamp and tab2 and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC, also back United States2699 fdc8Stamp and tab3 and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC, also back United States2699 fdc9Stamp and tab1 and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC card United States2699 fdc10Stamp and (Artmaster) cachet on FDC, also back United States2699 fdc11Stamp and (Robert C. Graebner Chapter #17 AFDCS) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc12Stamp and (PCS) cachet on FDC, also insert United States2699 fdc13Stamp and (? hand-painted) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc14Stamp and (HF) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc15Stamp and (Therome Cachets) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc16Stamp and (Edken) cachet on FDC (with extra stamps) United States2699 fdc17Stamp and (Steve Wilson Design) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc18Stamp on FDC (Collage cachet) United States2699 fdc19Stamp and (Elmer Otto) cachet on FDC, and insert United States2699 fdc20Stamp and (Fridson hand-painted) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc21Stamp on FDC (Geerlings cachet) United States2699 fdc22Stamp on FDC (Kribbs cachet) United States2699 fdc23Stamp and (David Peterman) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc24Stamp and (Collins) cachet on FDC (Landing NJ cancel) United States2699 fdc25Stamp and (Fleetwood) cachet on postcard FDC, also back United States2699 fdc26Stamp and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC (with extra stamp) United States2699 fdc27Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (design like stamp) and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC United States2699 fdc28Stamp and tab1 and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC (different extra stamp) United States2699 fdc29Stamp and tab2 and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and magenta) cachet (and signature) on FDC (with extra stamp) United States2699 fdc30Stamp and tab3 and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and green) cachet (and signature) on FDC (different extra stamp) United States2699 fdc31Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (design like stamp) and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and green) cachet (and signature) on FDC United States2699 fdc32Stamp and (Colorano silk) cachet on FDC United States2699 fdc33Stamp and (purple pictorial) cancel (design like stamp) on FDC card United States2699 fdc34Stamp on FDC (Ranto cachet), also back United States2699 fdc35Stamp on FDC (Ranto cachet, different), also back United States2699 fdc36Stamp on FDC (Ranto cachet, different), also back United States2699 fdc37Stamp on FDC (Ranto cachet, different), also back United States2699 fdc38Stamp and (KMC Venture) cachet on FDC (Washington DC cancel), also back United States2699 fdc39Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (design like stamp) and (KMC Venture) cachet on FDC (Houston TX cancel), also back United States2699 fdc40Stamp and (LRC) cachet on FDC (Washington DC cancel) United States2699 fdc41Stamp on FDC (photo/sticker cachet) United States2699 fdc/sdoiStamp and (pictorial) cancel and (JPL Stamp Club) cachet (and signature) on FDC/SDOI (Second Day of Issue) cover United States2699 sdoi1Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and magenta) cachet (and signature) on SDOI (Second Day of Issue) cover United States2699 sdoi2Stamp and (pictorial) cancel on SDOI (Second Day of Issue) cover United States2699 sc(PCS) souvenir card (or commemorative panel?) United StatesSP1022(USPS) souvenir page (2699) United StatesCP400(USPS no.392) commemorative panel (2699)

CountryCancel DateCancel LocationType of ItemNotes on Content von Kármán (on satellite launch covers) United States2019-06-20Monument Beach MA(Coverscape) cachet on (sub-orbital) rocket launch coverA V-2 rocket launched on 20 June 1944 from Peenemünde reached 176 km altitude and was "the first man-made object ever to travel into outer space" (i.e. to rise above the "Kármán line" (100 km altitude) which was named for "Theodore von Kármán") United States2019-11-05GSFC, Greenbelt MD(Red Eagle) cachet on Chang'e-4 event coverChang'e-4 "made the first-ever soft landing in the Von Kármán crater ... on the far side of the Moon"

Mărăcineanu, Ştefania

(1882–1944)

Ştefania Mărăcineanu was a Romanian physicist and chemist. In Paris under Marie Curie she studied the effects of solar radiation on radioactive substances. She claimed that it could induce what she termed an 'artificial radioactivity' in those substances. Modern research does not support this idea.

Mărăcineanu moved to the University of Bucharest in 1930 where she continued her research. One of her colleagues, Dimitrie Bungentianu, was interested in the atmosphere and meteorology, and she was drawn to those areas as well. Her work with radiation led her to theorize that radioactive sources might have something to do with the onset of rain. In 1931 the hypothesis was tested in Baragan, Romania, which was experiencing a drought. Low clouds were injected with radioactive salts released from an airplane, and some rainfall was noted. In 1934, the French government supported similar artificial rainfall experiments in the Touggourt desert region of Algeria. The results were inconclusive, and the idea faded away with the approach of World War II. After the war, the focus of weather modification research shifted to the United States, where it was found that dry ice or silver iodide (without radioactivity) could be used as cloud seeding agents.

Mărăcineanu also claimed that there was a correlation between earthquake activity and rainfall, because of certain electrical or radioactive perturbations in the atmosphere and in the ground at the time of the earthquake. The mechanism was not clear and the idea was not confirmed by other researchers.

Mărăcineanu died in 1944, probably as a result of cancer caused by her lifelong work with radioactive substances.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Romania5441 (Mi?)From MS6 (5441a (6x 5441))2013First artificial rain experiment, based on the work of Ştefania Mărăcineanu Romania5441-5443 fdcOne of three stamps and cachet on FDC RomaniaNone(Posta Romana) stamped envelope

Goddard, Robert H.

(1882–1945)

Robert Goddard was an American physicist, engineer and rocketry pioneer whose work created the foundations of space flight. He is now considered to be the "father" of modern rocketry.

In 1899, Goddard first speculated about using rockets to explore the upper atmosphere. In 1919 he published his classic work, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, in which he proposed that rockets could be used to explore the upper atmosphere by lifting weather-recording instruments to higher levels than would be possible with balloons. In 1920 he repeated that proposal in a paper titled The Possibilities of the Rocket in Weather Forecasting (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, VI (1920), p 493). However, his main challenge was to develop rockets that worked.

In 1926 Goddard launched the first liquid fuel rocket. On 17 July 1929 he launched the first instrumented rocket, carrying a barometer, a thermometer, and a small camera to record the readings of the instruments (the idea was that the camera shutter would be tripped when the rocket's parachute was deployed). These instruments were secondary to the goals of the flight, and were really no more than interesting secondary engineering devices that Goddard wished to test. In any case, the launch failed, reaching only 52 m altitude.

Nevertheless, the seed of the idea of sounding rockets was planted, and a very few people in America considered their scientific potential. For example, in 1931 W.J. Humphreys published an article titled "Mining the Sky for Scientific Knowledge" (Scientific American, 144, Jan 1931, p 22). On 27 January 1932, John A. Fleming, Head of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee that some thought was being given to using Goddard's rockets for research during the Second International Polar Year beginning 1 August 1932. Nothing came of this proposal, though, and such ideas about rocketry continued to fall on deaf ears in America in the 1930s.

It was in Russia that the first rockets that could actually deliver atmospheric information were developed. They were based on the GIRD (Group for the Investigation of Reaction Propulsion) rockets developed in the early 1930s. GIRD-9 was successfully tested in August 1933, and GIRD-10 in November of that same year. As members of GIRD, the Soviet rocketry pioneers F. A. Zander and M. K. Tikhonravov were involved in the development and testing of those rockets. Zander did not live to see the two successful launches: he died in March 1933. Another GIRD-10 launch in 1935 apparently carried instruments for upper atmospheric research and reached an altitude of 11 km (Reference: Frederick Ordway III and Ronald C. Wakeford, International Missile and Spacecraft Guide, New York, 1960, p 4). As far as is known, no details of the instruments carried or the results ever reached the West. Tikhonravov continued to work on liquid-fuel rockets for upper-atmospheric research until the end of the 1930s.

Military rockets were developed by German scientists and engineers before and during WWII, and after the war and in the 1950s many of those same people contributed to the rapid development of American sounding rockets.

From the brief history presented above, we see that atmospheric sounding rocket instruments can be traced back to their most humble beginnings: Goddard`s test of 17 July 1929.

In 1963 the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) was formed, honouring Goddard with its name. The Center's Laboratory for Atmospheres had as its mission to study the Earth's atmosphere through the use of satellite remote sensing techniques.

In 1970 the astronomical/telescope satellite OAO-B was named "Goddard" to honour his accomplishments. Unfortunately, the launch of OAO-B failed.

A well-known photo of Goddard shows him standing beside the frame that supported his first liquid-propelled rocket in 1926. Many philatelic items reproduce this photo in their designs. A few others have a similar design but with Goddard in a different position beside the frame. We consider all such items depicting Goddard standing beside the frame as "common design" items, and they are highlighted in yellow in the table below.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Goddard (on non-launch-cover postal items) AjmanMi9971971Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design); (90th anniv. birth, in 1972) AjmanMi997 proofsProgressive proofs AjmanMi997 dsDeluxe sheet (Mi997) AjmanMi997 ds proofsDeluxe progressive proofs AjmanMi991-998 ds proofsOne proof in proof deluxe sheet of 8 (Mi991-998) British Virgin Islands1118 (Mi1205)2009"Goddard Rocket Shop"; Goddard (at left) Central African Republic1365b (Mi2586)One of MS3 (1365 (a-c)) (Mi2585-2587)2000Goddard and launch of a rocket to 2300 m in 1935 Chad435 (Mi954A)

i435 (Mi954B)

Imperforate1983(100th anniv. birth, in 1982) Chad435a (BL145A)

i435a (BL145B)On stamp of SS1

On stamp of imperforate SS1 Chad710b (Mi1518A)

i710b (Mi1518B)One stamp and in selvedge of MS6 (710 (a-f)) (Mi1517A-1522A)

One stamp and in selvedge of imperforate MS6 (i710 (a-f)) (Mi1517B-1522B)1997"Robert H. Goddard" DjiboutiUnknown a (Mi none)One of MS2 (a-b) [known illegal issue]2013Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) DjiboutiUnknown ss (BL none)SS1 [known illegal issue]2014Test launch of Goddard's first liquid-propelled rocket; "Goddard" name (in stamp and margin); 70th anniv. death (in 2015) Equatorial GuineaBL57SS11973Goddard (at left) Equatorial GuineaBL173Imperforate SS11975Goddard (at left) Franklin Mint (USA)None(Silver) medallion, also reverse1970s"March 16 1926: Robert Goddard launched America's first liquid-fuel rocket" GabonUnknown b (Mi?)One stamp and in (upper-left) margin of MS4 (a-d)2020"Robert Goddard" (on stamp), frame that supported Goddard's first liquid-propelled rocket in 1926 (in upper-left margin) Gambia783 (Mi793)1988"Robert Goddard" Gambia800 (Mi820)1988"Robert Goddard" Germany (West)None(Pictorial) cancel and (orange and brown and green printed) cachet on cover196950th anniv. publication of Goddard's A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes Germany (West)None(Pictorial) cancel and (black printed) cachet on cover1969"Dr. Robert Hitchings Goddard" Germany (West)None(Icarus) cachet on cover1970"Dr. R.H. Goddard" Ghana2064 (BL360)1998Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Ghana2386 (BL450)SS12003Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Grenada2823a (Mi3828)One of MS6 (2823 (a-f)) (Mi3828-3833)1999"Robert H. Goddard" Guinea Republic1862h (Mi3555)From MS12 (1862 (a-l)) (Mi3548-3559)2000Same design (but mirror image) as USA C69 fdc2 GuineaRepublic1862k (Mi3558)"Goddard rocket first launched Aug 26, 1937 in NM" Guinea-BissauBL554SS12006"Robert H. Goddard" Guyana2811c (Mi4706)One of MS6 (2811 (a-f)) (Mi4704-4709)1995"Robert H. Goddard" Ivory CoastUnknown a (Mi none)

Unknown iaOne of MS2 (a-b) [known illegal issue]

One of imperforate MS2 (a-b)2017"Robert Hutchings Goddard" (in stamp); "Robert Goddard" (in cachet) Ivory CoastUnknown ms fdc1

Unknown ims fdc1MS2 and cachet on FDC

Imperforate MS2 and cachet on FDC Ivory CoastUnknown ms fdc2

Unknown ims fdc2(Multi-color printed) cachet on FDC

(Multi-color printed) cachet on imperforate-stamped FDC2017 Lesotho580 (Mi?)1987"Robert H. Goddard" Lesotho580 fdcStamp and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDC MalawiUnknown a (Mi none)

Unknown iaOne of MS2 (a-b) [known illegal issue]

One of imperforate MS2 (a-b)2007 MalawiUnknown1_ms fdc

Unknown1 ims fdcOn one stamp of MS2 and cachet on FDC

On one stamp of imperforate MS2 on FDC MalawiUnknown2 ms fdcOn cachet of FDCGoddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) (in cachet at lower left) Mali1037b (Mi2268)One of MS4 (1037 (a-d)) (Mi2267-2270)1999Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Mali1037 fdcMS4 on FDC Marshall Islands345a (Mi250)One of MS25 (345 (a-y)) (Mi250-274)1989Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Marshall IslandsKM52$50. (silver coin)1989Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Marshall Islands654h (Mi959)One of MS15 (654 (a-o)) (Mi952-966)1998Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Marshall Islands654h fdcStamp and cachet on FDC Micronesia210a (Mi406)One of block of 8 (210 (a-h)) (Mi406-413), or two of MS16 (2x (a-h))1995"Robert H. Goddard" NetherlandsNone(DSTA) local post stamp and (cyan pictorial) cancel and (DSTA no.16) cachet on cover1964"Dr. Robert H. Goddard" Netherlands343 cover (Mi? cover)(DSTA no.16 and red rubber-stamp) cachet on cover (USS Albany cancel)1964"Dr. Robert H. Goddard" Portugal1265 (Mi1293)1975"R. Hutchin Goddard" (at left of group of four men) Ras Al KhaimaMiA714A fdc(G. George) cachet (reproduction of USA C69) on FDC (silver foil stamp)1971"Robert H. Goddard" Ras Al KhaimaMiB714A fdc(G. George) cachet (reproduction of USA C69) on FDC (gold foil stamp) RomaniaC281 (Mi4578)1989Goddard lecturing at Clark University in 1924 RomaniaC278+C281-C282 fdcOne of three stamps on FDC Romania5111 maxi (Mi6365 maxi)Annotated cachet on maxicard2009"Goddard" crater on Moon RwandaUnknown o (Mi none)One of MS15 (a-o) [known illegal issue]2010Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) St. Helena985 (Mi1086)2009"Early [rocket] experiment by Dr. Robert Goddard" St. Vincent2698 (Mi?)1999"Robert H. Goddard" St. Vincent2080g (Mi2967)One of MS9 (2080 (a-i)) (Mi2961-2969)1994Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) St. Vincent2080 fdcMS9 on FDC St. Vincent2080g specimenOne of MS9 (2080 overprinted "specimen" (a-i)) Satellite Beach (USA)

Cape Kennedy (USA)LocalsTwo local post stamps1966"First liquid fuel rocket launched by Dr. Robert H. Goddard, March 16, 1926" Satellite Beach (USA)

Cape Kennedy (USA)Locals fdcTwo local post stamps on FDC (with extra C69 stamp) Tonga1452 (Mi2427-2430)MS4 (1452 (a-d))2021Goddard and the "Science of Rocketry"; also stamp 'b' shows Goddard testing the first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Tonga1454 (BL144)SS1 (Mi2432)Model of Goddard's first liquid-propelled rocket (from 1926) and its supporting frame Tonga1455 (BL145)SS1 (Mi2433)Launch of Goddard's A-series rocket in Roswell NM in 1935 Tristan da CunhaUnknown (Mi?)From MS6 (6x single)2012"Goddard Rocket, 1936" Turks and Caicos Islands658 (Mi?)1985Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United StatesNone

None imperfCinderella

Imperforate cinderellaearly 1960s"Robert H. Goddard" United States1193 fdc

3142f cover(Sarzin metallic) cachet on cover1962

1998"Dr. Robert Goddard" United StatesC69 (Mi866)1964"Robert H. Goddard" United StatesC69 fdc1Stamp on FDC (blank/no cachet) United StatesC69 fdc2Stamp and (ArtCraft) cachet (same design (but mirror image) as Guinea Republic 1862h) on FDC (large-font cancel) United StatesC69 fdc3Stamp and (ArtCraft) cachet (same design (but mirror image) as Guinea Republic 1862h) on FDC (small-font cancel) United StatesC69 fdc4Stamp and (Ken Boll/Cachet Craft) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc5Stamp and (Sarzin metallic) cachet on FDC (small-font cancel) United StatesC69 fdc6Stamp and (Marq) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc7Stamp and (An Exquisite Historical Cachet/T.D. Productions) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc8Stamp and (Fluegel Covers) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc9Stamp and (Artmaster) cachet on FDC (small-font cancel) United StatesC69 fdc10Stamp and (Artmaster) cachet on FDC (large-font cancel) United StatesC69 fdc11Stamp and (R. Dyer) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc12Stamp and (Chickering-Jackson) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc13Stamp and (IB) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc14Stamp and (HF) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc15Stamp and (ATA Space Unit) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc16Stamp and (Goldcraft, no logo) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc17Stamp and (tan and brown printed) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc18Stamp and (Fleetwood) cachet on FDCGoddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) (on cachet) United StatesC69 fdc19Stamp and (The Aristocrats) cachet on FDC United StatesC69 fdc20Stamp and cinderella and (RRI) cachet on FDC, also insert United StatesC69 fdc21Stamp and (imperforate) cinderella and (RRI) cachet on FDC, also insert United StatesC69 program(Post Office Department) FDOI ceremony program(As above for stamp) United StatesSP117(Post Office Department) stamp poster (C69) United States (AFA)Local specimenOverprinted "specimen"1964(AFA) rocket mail; design like USA C69 United StatesNone aOne of (RRI) imperforate cinderella MS41969"Robert H. Goddard" United StatesNone ssCinderella SS1 United States (NASA local post)Local(NASA) local post, from MS12 (12x local)197025th anniv. death "Dr. Goddard"; also reproduction of USA C69 (in cachet) United StatesLocal cover(NASA) local post dual-cancel cover United States1435b fdc (Mi1046-1047 fdc)(C. Stephen Anderson) cachet on FDC1971"Dr. Robert Goddard" United StatesSC18(BEP/14th Interpex) Souvenir Card of 4 (4x 1173, background includes 976, 1435b, and C69)1972"Robert H. Goddard" United States1529 folder (Mi1136 folder)(Fleetwood) FDC folder (with extra C69 canceled stamp)1974"Robert H. Goddard" United States1570a fdc (Mi1179-1180 fdc)(Pasted on) cachet (with black-and-white reproduction of USA C69) on FDC1975"Robert H. Goddard" United StatesNone(GSFC Stamp Club) postcard back, also postcard front1976"Robert H. Goddard" United StatesNone(MoF no.37) cachet on cover197650th anniv. Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United StatesNone(Space Voyage) cachet on cover197650th anniv. Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States (FMF Local Post)None(FMF) local post stamp1976"Fiftieth anniversary" of Goddard's "world's first liquid propellant rocket launch" (in 1926) United States (FMF Local Post)None fdc(FMF) local post stamp on FDC United States1710 cover (Mi1298 cover)(Midwest Postage Stamp and Coin Show/ATA) cachet (with stamp similar to C69) on cover1977"Robert H. Goddard" United States1759 cover1 (Mi1356 cover1)(Midwest Postage Stamp and Coin Show /ATA) cachet on cover1978Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1759 cover2 (Mi1356 cover2)(Midwest Postage Stamp and Coin Show /ATA) cachet on cover (different cancel date) United StatesNoneIn lower-center of (GSFC multi-satellite blue rubber-stamp) cachet on cover1979"Robert H. Goddard–American Rocket Pioneer"; also Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1283+1569 cover (Mi895+1179 cover)(W) cachet on cover1979"Goddard & rocket (1926)" United States1912 fdc (Mi1481 fdc)(Reader's Digest) cachet on cover1981Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1915+1919 fdc (Mi1484+1488 fdc)(Carrollton no.145, with USA C69) cachet on FDC1981"Robert H. Goddard" United StatesNoneCachet on cover1981"55th anniversary of Robert Goddard's first liquid-fuel rocket launch" United StatesNoneCachet on cover (different)1981"55th anniversary of Robert Goddard's first liquid-fuel rocket launch" United States1919 cover (Mi1488 cover)(William J??/Globe) cachet on cover1982(100th anniv. birth) United StatesNone(William J??/Globe) cachet on cover1982100th anniv. birth United StatesNone(Goddard Centennial Station) cancel and (black printed) cachet on cover1982100th anniv. birth United StatesNone(GSFC Stamp Club) cachet on cover1982100th anniv. birth United StatesNoneBack of cover, also front1983"Goddard Sculpture courtesy of Goddard Memorial Library" (at Clark University, Mass) United StatesNoneCachet on cover, also insert1989Cover contains Lesotho 580; Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) (on cachet) United States2699 fdc1 (Mi2313 fdc1)Extra (C69) stamp and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC (text cancel)1992"Robert Goddard" United States2699 fdc2 (Mi2313 fdc2)(Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC (Rocket Pioneer Station pictorial cancel) United States2699 fdc3 (Mi2313 fdc3)(Space Voyage/First Rank orange and cyan) cachet (and signature) on FDC (different extra stamp) United States2699 fdc4 (Mi2313 fdc4)Extra (C69) stamp and (Space Voyage/First Rank orange and magenta) cachet (and signature) on FDC United States2699 fdc5 (Mi2313 fdc5)(Space Voyage/First Rank orange and green) cachet (and signature) on FDC (different extra stamp, text cancel) United States2699 fdc6 (Mi2313 fdc6)(Space Voyage/First Rank orange and green) cachet (and signature) on FDC (Rocket Pioneer Station pictorial cancel) United States2699 sdoi (Mi2313 sdoi)(Space Voyage/First Rank orange and magenta) cachet (dand signature) on SDOI (Second Day of Issue) cover United States2741 fdc (Mi2337 fdc)(Mystic Stamp Company) back of FDC, also front1993"Robert H. Goddard published a paper in 1919 explaining how rockets could be fired to the Moon and used to explore the upper atmosphere" United States3187d fdc1 (Mi3126 fdc)(Paul Calle/Chris Calle) cachet (with reproduction of Romania C281) on FDC1999 United States3187d fdc2Extra (C69) stamp and (Ranto/SP117) cachet (with reproduction of C69) on FDC, also back United StatesNoneCachet on cover200180th anniv. Goddard's initial research into liquid propellants for rockets United StatesNoneCachet on cover201185th anniv. Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) Yemen Mutawakelite KingdomMi8651969"Robert H. Goddard"

CountryCancel DateCancel LocationType of ItemNotes on Content Goddard (on satellite and rocket launch covers) United States1966-08-29Wallops Island VA(Sarzin?) cachet on (sub-orbital) rocket launch coverGoddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) firing atmospheric research rockets from Wallops Island VA United States1968-04-04Cape Canaveral FL (machine cancel)(Orbit Covers) cachet on Apollo-6 launch cover"Dr. Robert H. Goddard" United States1968-04-04Cape Canaveral FL (hand cancel)(Orbit Covers) cachet on Apollo-6 launch cover United States1968-12-21Patrick AFB, FL(SpaceCraft/Swanson) insert2 from Apollo-8 launch cover, also insert2 back and insert1"Goddard" United States1970-11-30Cape Canaveral FL(Space Voyage) insert from OAO-B [failed] launch cover, also front"The telescope ... was named Goddard (for the late Dr. Robert H. Goddard) Experiment Package (GEP)" United States1970-11-30Satellite Beach FL(Space Voyage) insert from OAO-B [failed] launch cover, also front United States1970-11-30Kennedy Space Center FL (hand cancel)(Space Voyage) insert from OAO-B [failed] launch cover, also front United States1970-11-30Kennedy Space Center FL (machine cancel)(Space Voyage) insert from OAO-B [failed] launch cover, also front United States1970-12-01Kennedy Space Center FL (machine cancel)(Space Voyage) insert from OAO-B [failed] launch cover, also front United States1972-04-16Kennedy Space Center FL(C. Stephen Anderson) cachet on Apollo-16 launch cover"Dr. Robert Goddard" United States1974-12-02Cape Canaveral FL(USA C69) stamp and (?) cachet on Pioneer-11 event cover, from folderGoddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) (on cachet) United States1975-09-10

1976-07-20Greenbelt MD

Washington DCPostcard back for Viking-2 launch and Viking-1 landing on Mars, also postcard front (with USA C69 stamp)"Robert Hutchings Goddard ... flew the world's first liquid propellant rocket ... on March 16, 1926" United States1976-03-16Auburn MAIn lower-center of (GSFC Stamp Club blue printed) and red printed cachet on 50th anniv. first liquid fuel rocket flight/launch cover"Robert H. Goddard–American Rocket Pioneer"; also Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design); also "50th Anniversary of the First Liquid Fuel Rocket Flight, March 16, 1926, Auburn, Massachusetts" United States1978-05-20GSFC, MDIn lower-center of (GSFC multi-satellite blue rubber-stamp) cachet (same design as immediately above) on Pioneer-12 launch cover"Robert H. Goddard–American Rocket Pioneer"; also Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1978-10-24GSFC, MDIn lower-center of (GSFC multi-satellite blue rubber-stamp) cachet (same) on Nimbus-7 and CAMEO launch cover"Robert H. Goddard–American Rocket Pioneer"; also Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1979-05-04GSFC, MD(Two) cancels and (GSFC Tracking Team black rubber-stamp) cachet on FltSatCom-2 launch coverGoddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Tracking Team United States1983-01-25Greenbelt MDIn lower-center of (GSFC multi-satellite blue rubber-stamp) cachet (same as two above) on IRAS and PIX-2 launch cover"Robert H. Goddard–American Rocket Pioneer"; also Goddard testing first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 (common design) United States1983-01-31Cape Canaveral FL(Red typed) cachet on Explorer-1 anniversary cover"Robert H. Goddard–'Father of American Rocketry'. Goddard designed and built the world's first liquid-fuel rocket, in 1926." French Guiana1988-03-11Kourou(C.E. SEP Section Philatélie) cachet on Telecom-1C and Spacenet-3R launch coverGoddard's first liquid-propelled rocket, 1926 [#1 in the cachet] French Guiana1997-04-16Kourou(C.E. SEP Section Philatélie) cachet on Thaicom-3 and BSat-1A launch cover"On 16 March 1926, the American R.H. Goddard tested the world's first liquid-propelled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts"; he developed various "propulsion, guidance and flight systems" (in French text); (common design) United States2016-03-17Sagamore Beach MA(Coverscape) cachet on Gemini-8 (and GATS-8) event cover1966 "was the 40th anniversary of Dr. Robert Goddard's first successful launch of a liquid-fueled rocket"

Potocnik, Hermann

(1882–1929)

Hermann Potocnik was an Austrian astronautics pioneer (through his birthplace was in what is now Croatia). After serving in WWI, he graduated from the electrical engineering faculty of the Vienna Technology University. As part of his work in astronautics, he was the first to establish the scientific basis of the geostationary orbit. Satellites in such an orbit, at 36,000 km above the equator, remain constantly above the same spot on the Earth's surface, since they revolve around the Earth in the same time as the Earth takes to make one rotation on its axis. Many communications and weather satellites take advantage of this type of orbit.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Austria1586 (Mi2082)1992100th anniv. birth Austria1586 fdcStamp and (multi-color printed) cachet on FDC Slovenia149 (Mi?)1992(100th anniv. birth) Slovenia149 fdcStamp and (pictorial) cancel and (multi-color printed) cachet on FDC Slovenia-VitanjeLocal?

Hess, Victor Franz

(1883–1964)

Victor Hess was an Austrian physicist who did work in the area of atmospheric electricity.

In balloon flights in 1910, Alfred Gockel estimated the electrical conductivity of the atmosphere as a function of height by measuring the rate of charge leakage from an insulated Wulf electrometer, in ascents to as high as 4500 m. The leakage rate was found to be greater aloft than near the Earth's surface, which meant that the atmospheric ionization was greater aloft than near the surface. This was unexpected because at that time the ionization was thought to be greatest at ground level, due to local radioactivity of the soil. Gockel had no explanation for his observations, but they would turn out to be a precursor of the discovery of cosmic radiation in the atmosphere. In 10 balloon ascents made from 1911 to 1913, Hess repeated the measurements and showed clearly that the ionization reached a minimum at 800 m and then increased steadily up to the highest altitude which he reached. He explained this in terms of a penetrating radiation entering the atmosphere from outside but not from the Sun. This was eventually recognized as the discovery of what came to be called cosmic radiation, for which Hess would share the Nobel Prize in physics in 1936. He also founded a research station at Hafelekar mountain (at 2300 m) near Innsbruck for observing and studying cosmic rays.

Cosmic rays are hypothesized to have some influence on weather and climate. For example, the ionization due to cosmic rays can change the atmospheric electric field. Lightning (and the associated thunder) will occur if the electric field becomes large enough.

In a paper published in 1997, Henrik Svensmark and Eigil Friis-Christensen of the Danish Meteorological Institute in Copenhagen found a correlation between cloudy days and high cosmic ray concentrations. A possible causal mechanism was described by Fangqun Yu (State University of New York at Albany): cosmic ray energy encourages the formation of atmospheric aerosols which act as cloud condensation nuclei which are necessary for cloud droplets to grow, and therefore for clouds to form. This idea is still considered speculative, however.

Cosmic rays are at the basis of carbon-14 (14C) dating, since their energy acts to form the carbon-14 in the first place. Relative 14C amounts have been measured in materials for which the age is also known by some other means (e.g. using the rings in tree trunks). This is useful because one can then deduce the amount of 14C that was present in the atmosphere at that time in the past. This in turn gives a history of the 14C flux. Other proxy paleontological measurements can give some idea of the global historical weather at that time. The cosmic ray flux and the weather can then be compared, and it turns out that there is a correlation between the flux and the weather: when the weather was generally cold, cosmic ray fluxes were high, and vice-versa. If colder weather can be related to greater cloudiness (due to less solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface), then this framework is consistent with the work mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Another possible use of cosmic rays is in the measurement of soil moisture. A project being conducted by the University of Arizona called COSMOS (COsmic ray Soil Moisture Observing System) will study the low energy neutrons produced when cosmic rays strike the soil. Some of them are absorbed by the soil, while others are reflected back into space. It turns out that the number of neutrons in the air above the soil surface is inversely related to the soil moisture. Soil moisture can have a significant effect on weather, so improved measurement of soil moisture could lead to improved short term and longer term weather forecasts.

Hess's publications relating to the atmosphere include:

Elektrische Leitfähigkeit der Atmosphäre und ihre Ursachen (book), 1926 (The Electrical Conductivity of the Atmosphere and Its Causes, 1928); Ionenbilanz der Atmosphäre (The ionization balance of the atmosphere–book), 1933; Luftelektrizität (Electricity of the air–book, with H. Benndorf), 1928; and Lebensdauer der Ionen in der Atmosphäre (Average life of the ions in the atmosphere), 1927-1928;

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content Austria1245 (Mi1743)1983100th anniv. birth Austria1245 blackBlackprint Austria1245 fdc1Stamp on FDC Austria1245 fdc2Stamp on FDC Austria1245 fdc3Stamp on FDC Austria1245 fdc4Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on FDC Austria1245 fdc5Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet (different) on FDC Austria1245 maxi1Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on maxicard Austria1245 maxi2Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (different) and cachet (same) on maxicard Austria1245 maxi3Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on maxicard Austria1245 maxi4Stamp and (pictorial) cancel (different) and cachet (same) on maxicard Austria2374 (Mi2993)2012 Austria2374 maxiMaxicard Congo (Democratic Republic)Unknown a (Mi?)One of MS4 (a-d); also SS1; also four of MS42002(120th anniv. birth, in 2003) Guinea Republic2129c (Mi?)One of MS6 (2129 (a-f))2001 SpainNone(Multi-color printed) cachet on (un-canceled) (Spanish Post) stamped envelope (from 2011)2013 UruguayC427a (Mi?)One of MS4 (C427 (a-d))1977

Piccard, Auguste

(1884–1962)

Auguste Piccard was a Swiss physicist and aeronaut who explored both the heights of the atmosphere and the depths of the ocean. He and his twin brother Jean were pioneers in the balloon exploration of the stratosphere. Scientific balloon ascents in the 19th and early 20th Centuries had been done in an open nacelle, but in the 1920s the Piccards developed pressurized nacelles and new high-altitude balloons. On 27 May 1931, with his colleague Paul Kipfer, Auguste Piccard lifted off from Augsberg, Germany in the balloon FNRS and made the first manned balloon flight into the stratosphere, reaching a record altitude of about 15.8 km. On 18 August 1932, Piccard and Max Cosyns went even higher (approximately 16.2 km). During his flights, Piccard made measurements of cosmic rays in the stratosphere and also recorded stratospheric temperatures. Other aeronauts followed Piccard's lead in exploring the stratosphere by balloon, including Jean Piccard and the Americans Albert Stevens and Orville Anderson.

Following his work with stratospheric balloons, Auguste Piccard turned his interest to the exploration of the ocean depths. As a boy he had dreamed about pressurized gondolas that could be used underwater, and eventually realized that a bathyscaphe could be thought of as an underwater balloon that uses gasoline for lift, since gasoline is lighter than water, just as hydrogen and helium provide the necessary lift for atmospheric balloons because they are lighter than air. It is in this sense that he later wrote in his book Earth, Sea and Sky that "it was the submarine that led me to the stratosphere".

In the latter half of the 1930s and in the 1940s Jean Piccard worked to improve the materials used in high altitude balloons. Polyethylene eventually became the balloon fabric of choice. It was light, not too expensive, and allowed balloons to ascend to around 30 km, where scientific measurements could be made with almost no atmospheric interference. Instruments aboard high altitude balloons have since studied ozone, carbon dioxide, carbon-14, nitrous oxide, nitrogen, dust particles, solar energy, cosmic rays and radiation in the high atmosphere. Eventually James Van Allen would launch scientific rockets from high altitude balloons to get atmospheric measurements from even higher levels. All this work was possible in part as a result of the scientific legacy of the Piccard brothers.

CountryCatalog NumberType of ItemYear of IssueNotes on Content AustriaNoneCancel and cachet on cover1981FNRS balloon and 50th anniv. Piccard's 1931 flight, and landing in Obergurgl AustriaNone(Pictorial) cancel2007Piccard and balloon FNRS; 75th anniv. Piccard's stratospheric ascents (in 1931 and 1932) AustriaNone(Pictorial) cancel (different)2007Piccard's balloon FNRS Belgium251 (Mi344)1932Prof. A. Piccard; balloon FNRS; for Piccard's 1931 and 1932 ascents Belgium252 (Mi345)Belgium253 (Mi346)Belgium253 signatureStamp with A. Piccard signature Belgium252 card (Mi345 card)Stamp and cachet on card1933Prof. A. Piccard; balloon FNRS; for Piccard's 1931 and 1932 ascents Belgium251-253 cover (Mi344-346 cover)Three stamps on cover1933?Prof. A. Piccard; balloon FNRS; for Piccard's 1931 and 1932 ascents BelgiumNone aOne of (Aerophila Expo) cinderella MS41963Piccard's balloon FNRS BelgiumB889 cover (Mi? cover)Cachet on cover1972balloon FNRS; 1ière ascension dans la stratosphère [de Piccard] Cambodia417 (Mi?)1983Balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) Central African Republic658 (Mi1037A)

i658 (Mi1037B)

Imperforate1984"A. Piccard" and balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth) Central African Republic658 fdcCentral African Republic658a (BL285A)

i658a (BL285B)On stamp of SS1

On stamp of imperforate SS1 Central African Republici662b (Mi1036-1041)On one of imperforate MS6 (i657-i662) Central African Republic695 (Mi1076A)

i695 (Mi1076B)

Imperforate1984Piccard, balloon FNRS and bathyscaphe Trieste; (100th anniv. birth) Central African Republic695a (BL308A)

i695a (BL308B)On stamp and in (left) margin of SS1

On stamp and in (left) margin of imperforate SS1 Central African Republic1365a (Mi2585)From MS3 (1365 (a-c)) (Mi2585-2587)2000Piccard and balloon FNRS Chad550 (Mi1105)

i550

Imperforate1985Piccard and bathyscaphe Trieste; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984); also Piccard in front of balloon FNRS nacelle (in left margin of SS1) Chad550a (BL235A)

i550a (BL235B)SS1

Imperforate SS1 ChadUnknown ms (Mi?)In (left) margin of MS4 (a-d)2013"Auguste Piccard's balloon FNRS [and] first stratospheric flight 1931" (in French text) Congo (Democratic Republic)Unknown (Mi?)2004Piccard and bathyscaphe Trieste; (120th anniv. birth) Congo (Democratic Republic)Unknown ss (BL?)SS1 Congo (Democratic Republic)Unknown ms (Mi?)On one of MS2 (a-b) Congo (People's Republic)C312 (Mi924)1983Inaccurate drawing of balloon FNRS, 1931; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) Cuba1221 (Mi1291)1967A. Piccard's bathyscaphe Trieste (at lower-left) France3330 (Mi4260)One of MS6 (3334a (3329-3334)) (Mi4259-4264)2007Prof. Tournesol (Auguste Piccard was the model for this character from the popular French comic series Tintin) Germany (West)None(Blue printed) cachet on cover1962Rocket mail commemorating the first balloon flight into the stratosphere, on 27 May 1931 at Augsburg, in which Professor A. Piccard reached an altitude of 15,781 m in his balloon FNRS Germany (West)None(Cyan printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)None(Green printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)None(Red printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)None(Black and red printed) cachet on cover1962Rocket mail commemorating the first balloon flight into the stratosphere, on 27 May 1931 at Augsburg, in which Professor A. Piccard reached an altitude of 15,781 m in his balloon FNRS Germany (West)None(Blue printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)None(Cyan printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)None(Reddish-purple printed) cachet on cover Germany (West)NoneCachet (different) on cover1962Rocket mail commemorating the first balloon flight into the stratosphere, on 27 May 1931 at Augsburg, in which Professor A. Piccard reached an altitude of 15,781 m in his balloon FNRS Germany (West)NoneCachet (different) on cover1962Rocket mail commemorating the first balloon flight into the stratosphere, on 27 May 1931 at Augsburg, in which Professor A. Piccard reached an altitude of 15,781 m in his balloon FNRS Germany (West)None(MoF no.96) cachet on cover1981Piccard and 50th anniv. 1931 flight; inaccurate drawing of balloon FNRS Great BritainNone(Ardath Co.) tobacco card (with reproductions of Belgium 252 and Russia C38)1939balloon FNRS; balloon USSR Guinea Republic895 (Mi993)

i895

Imperforate1984Piccard, balloon FNRS and bathyscaphe Trieste; (100th anniv. birth) Guinea Republic895a (BL102A)

i895a (BL102B)On stamp and in (upper and right) margins of SS1

On stamp and in (upper and right) margins of imperforate SS1 Guinea RepublicUnknown ms (Mi?)MS3 (a-c + 3 labels)2009Piccard (on all 3 stamps, at right in upper-left stamp); "A. Piccard" and balloon FNRS and bathyscaphe Trieste (in lower-right label) Guinea RepublicUnknown ss (BL?)SS1Piccard and balloon FNRS (in stamp, also at right of the group of 3 in the left margin, also in text) ItalyNoneCancel on cover198250th anniv. Piccard's 1932 stratospheric ascent; (20th anniv. death) Ivory Coast625 (Mi720)1982(20th anniv. death) Korea (North)1935 (Mi?)

i1935

Imperforate1980Auguste and Jacques Piccard Korea (North)1936a (BL?)On one stamp and label of MS5 (1933-1937 + label) Laos464 (Mi?)1983Balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) Madagascar1391 (BL283)SS11998Piccard and inaccurate drawing of balloon FNRS MaliC344 (Mi667)1978Stamp-on-stamp: Belgium 252 (balloon FNRS) MaliC344 dsDeluxe sheet (C344) MaliC344 proofSigned proof Micronesia269c (Mi573)One of MS9 (269 (a-i)) (Mi571-579)1997Piccard and bathyscaphe (1954) Monaco523 (Mi?)1962Piccard's bathyscaphe Trieste Monaco523 maxi1Maxicard Monaco523 maxi2Maxicard (different) Monaco1433 (Mi1631)1984100th anniv. birth; balloon FNRS Monaco1433 fdcStamp and cachet on FDC Monaco1433 proofColor proof Monaco1433 maxiMaxicard Monaco1434 (Mi1632)100th anniv. birth; bathyscaphe Trieste Monaco1434 proofProof Monaco1434 fdc1Stamp and cachet on FDC Monaco1434 fdc2Stamp and cachet (different) on FDC Monaco1433-1434 fdcTwo stamps and cachet on FDC100th anniv. birth; balloon FNRS; bathyscaphe Trieste Monaco1433-1434 scTwo stamps and cachet on souvenir card Monaco2195 (Mi2535?)2000Stamp-on-stamp: Monaco 1433 (balloon FNRS) Monaco2195 fdc1Stamp and cachet on FDC Monaco2195 fdc2Stamp on FDC MongoliaC169 (Mi?)19821931 [balloon] FNRS, Switzerland; (50th anniv. Piccard's 1931 stratospheric ascent, in 1981) Rwanda1188 (Mi1272)1984Prof. Piccard et Kipfer, 27-5-1931; balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth); E. Demuyter, 1937 and balloon Belgica St. Thomas and Prince Islands560 (Mi624)1979Piccard's stratospheric balloon FNRS, 1931 St. Thomas and Prince Islands704b (Mi834A-836A_ms12)In (right) margin of MS12 (4x (703a+703b+704))1983"Prof. Auguste Piccard" San Marino1049 (Mi1278)1983Piccard and balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) San Marino1049 maxiMaxicard San Marino1049 fdc1Stamp on FDC San Marino1049 fdc2Stamp and cachet on FDCPiccard; balloon FNRS (on stamp); bathyscaphe Trieste (on cachet); (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) San Marino1049-1050 fdcTwo stamps and cachet on FDCPiccard and bathyscaphe Trieste and inaccurate drawing of balloon FNRS; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) San Marino1050 (Mi1279)Piccard and bathyscaphe Trieste; (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) San Marino1050 maxi1Maxicard San Marino1050 maxi2Maxicard (different) San Marino1050 maxi3Maxicard (different) SwitzerlandNoneMedallion1931"Auguste Piccard" and balloon FNRS SwitzerlandNone(WERABA-76) cinderella11976"from Piccard's stratospheric flight to planetary research"; balloon FNRS Switzerland496 cover (Mi? cover)(WERABA-76) cachet on cover Switzerland602+496+cinderella cover (Mi1049+896+cinderella cover)(WERABA-76) cinderella1 and (WERABA-76) cachet on cover (same, except with additional WERABA-76 magenta rubber-stamp cachet) Switzerland529+555+496+cinderella cover (Mi945+988+896+cinderella cover)(WERABA-76) cinderella1 on cover (WERABA-76 cachet, different) Switzerland471-472+602+496+555+529+cinderella cover (Mi823-824+1049+896+988+945+cinderella cover)(WERABA-76) cinderella1 on cover (WERABA-76 magenta rubber-stamp cachet) Switzerland665 (Mi1140)1978 Switzerland662-665 fdcOne of four stamps on FDC Switzerland665 cover (Mi1140 cover)Stamp and (pictorial) cancel and cachet on cover1981Balloon FNRS; 50th anniv. Piccard's 1931 stratospheric ascent Switzerland708 cover1 (Mi? cover1)Cancel and cachet on cover1982Piccard and balloon FNRS; 50th anniv. Piccard's 1932 stratospheric ascent Switzerland708+cinderella cover2 (Mi?+cinderella cover2)Cinderella (poster stamp) on cover SwitzerlandKM635 francs (copper-nickel coin)1984"A. Piccard" and balloon FNRS and bathyscaphe Trieste Switzerland946 (Mi1525)1994Piccard's bathyscaphe Trieste Switzerland947 (Mi1526)Piccard's balloon FNRS Switzerland946-947 fdcTwo stamps and cachet on FDCHeight reached by balloon FNRS in 1932; depth reached by bathyscaphe Trieste in 1960 Switzerland946-947 folder(Swiss PTT) FDOI folder outside (front and back), also inside United StatesNoneCachet (with reproduction of Belgium 251) on cover1933balloon FNRS United StatesNoneSignature on cover1933-08-05Auguste Piccard signature; but the cover commemorates the Jean Piccard/Arthur Compton Century of Progress balloon and [aborted] stratospheric flight (at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair) United StatesNoneCachet on cover1933-08-05Auguste Piccard portrait in cachet; but the cover commemorates the Jean Piccard/Arthur Compton Century of Progress balloon and [aborted] stratospheric flight (at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair) United StatesNoneCachet (same) and (black rubber-stamp) crash cachet on cover1933-08-05Auguste Piccard portrait in cachet; but the cover commemorates the Jean Piccard/Arthur Compton Century of Progress balloon and [aborted] stratospheric flight (at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair) United StatesNoneCachet (same, plus signature) on cover1933-08-05Auguste Piccard portrait in cachet; but the cover commemorates the Jean Piccard/Arthur Compton Century of Progress balloon and [aborted] stratospheric flight (at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair), the signature is of Jean Piccard United StatesNone(WERABA-76) cachet on cover1976"from Piccard's stratospheric flight to planetary research"; balloon FNRS Upper Volta623 (BL59)On stamp and in (lower and right) margins of SS11983Piccard–1931–premier homme dans la stratosphère; balloon FNRS; Piccard et Kipfer, 1931 (in text); (100th anniv. birth, in 1984) Upper VoltaC301 (Mi944)1984Piccard and bathyscaphe Trieste; (100th anniv. birth) Upper VoltaC301a (BL77)On stamp and in (right and lower-left) margin of SS1Piccard and bathyscaphe Trieste; balloon FNRS; Kipfer and Piccard; (100th anniv. birth) UruguayC433b (Mi?)One of MS3 (C433 (a-c)) (BL38)1978balloon FNRS (in background behind zeppelin) UruguayC433 fdcMS3 on FDC Vietnam2626 (Mi2700)1995"Piccard"; balloon FNRS Walli