Draft Correction: Post 39 — Thirty-Eight Years on the Sphere
Draft Correction: Post 39 — Thirty-Eight Years on the Sphere
Post: /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/_posts/2026-05-14-Thirty-eight-years-on-the-sphere.md
Severity scale
- HIGH: factual error, must be fixed
- MEDIUM: imprecise/misleading, should be tightened
- LOW: nuance/style, optional
HIGH-1: Silberman first name and institution
Location: line 68 of the post.
Current text:
The first spectral barotropic experiment was due to the Princeton meteorologist Leonard Silberman in 1954.[^4]
Problem: The 1954 paper Planetary Waves in the Atmosphere (Journal of Meteorology 11: 27-34) was authored by Isadore Silberman, affiliated with New York University, not Princeton.
Proposed correction:
The first spectral barotropic experiment was due to the NYU meteorologist Isadore Silberman in 1954.[^4]
Footnote 4 (line 316) is already correct as cited; no change needed there.
HIGH-2: “Andrew Simmons” should be “Adrian Simmons” (two occurrences)
Location 1: line 120.
Current text:
Three months later in the same calendar year, in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Brian Hoskins and Andrew Simmons at the University of Reading published the parallel formulation…
Proposed correction:
Three months later in the same calendar year, in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Brian Hoskins and Adrian Simmons at the University of Reading published the parallel formulation…
Location 2: line 247.
Current text:
The Met Office, the institutional descendant of the British meteorological tradition that had produced Reading-side spectral work through Hoskins-Simmons and Andrew Simmons (who had moved from Reading to ECMWF in 1979), did not itself go spectral operationally.
Proposed correction:
The Met Office, the institutional descendant of the British meteorological tradition that had produced Reading-side spectral work through Hoskins-Simmons and Adrian Simmons (who had moved from Reading to ECMWF in 1978), did not itself go spectral operationally.
Note the joint correction of the year (see MEDIUM-1 below).
MEDIUM-1: Adrian Simmons joined ECMWF in 1978, not 1979
Already folded into HIGH-2 above. Source: Copernicus farewell page for Adrian Simmons states “After joining ECMWF in 1978”. This is also consistent with the EGU Bjerknes-medal biographical sketch noting that he joined “on the establishment of ECMWF” — operations formalised in 1975, with hires staggered through the late 1970s.
LOW-1: Optional clarification on Kamal Puri’s doctorate
Location: line 154.
Current text:
Kamal Puri – a CMRC and then ANMRC research scientist who had taken his physics doctorate at the University of Manchester…
Status: This specific biographical claim is not independently verified by any source I located. Researcher profiles on ResearchGate and the World Economic Forum list only Puri’s BoM/BMRC roles. The Manchester PhD detail may be correct (perhaps drawn from a Bureau biographical sketch the author has on file) but cannot be cross-checked from open sources within the tool budget.
Recommendation: If the author has a primary source for the Manchester PhD claim, retain. Otherwise, soften to “a CMRC and then ANMRC research scientist who had co-authored Bourke’s 1974 paper…” and drop the specific institution.
LOW-2: CCM0 release year (no change recommended)
Location: line 156.
Current text:
The first CCM was released as a community-supported model in 1983.
Note: NCAR sources are inconsistent — some say CCM0 was released in 1982, others say 1983. Pitcher et al. 1983 and Williamson 1983 are the canonical description-of-CCM0 papers, which lends weight to the 1983 framing. No correction recommended; flagging only.
LOW-3: NCAR CCM0A/B basis (no change recommended)
Location: line 156.
Current text:
“the original versions of the NCAR Community Climate Model, CCM0A and CCM0B, were based on the Australian spectral model (Bourke et al., 1977).”
Note: The canonical NCAR phrasing is fuller: “based on the Australian spectral model and an adiabatic, inviscid version of the ECMWF spectral model.” The post’s truncation is defensible — it is specifically discussing the Australian propagation pathway — but a reader could mistakenly conclude CCM0 was exclusively Bourke-derived. Consider adding a parenthetical “(supplemented by an adiabatic, inviscid version of the ECMWF spectral model)” if precision matters.
Summary
Two HIGH-severity factual errors (Silberman’s first name and institution; Simmons’ first name x2). One MEDIUM-severity date error (Simmons joined ECMWF 1978, not 1979 — folded into HIGH-2). Three LOW-severity / informational notes. All remaining citation and date claims verified or consistent with sourced evidence.