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Image research: Jagadish Shukla & COLA

Compiled 2026-05-08. License rule: only CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, public domain (PD-USGov, PD-no-notice 1978-89, PD-old). Fair use, CC BY-NC, CC BY-NC-SA, and CC BY-NC-ND are NOT acceptable.

For each candidate I verified the licence on the file’s own description page on Wikimedia Commons (not on the article that uses it). Direct URLs are upload.wikimedia.org bytes (no thumbnail redirects). All candidate URLs verified against upload.wikimedia.org direct bytes 2026-05-08 with HTTP 200 and matching content-length.

TL;DR

The big find: there is a free-licensed Jagadish Shukla portrait on Wikimedia Commons – a 2004 NOAA-authored photograph from the symposium marking 50 years of operational NWP. It is PD-USGov-NOAA (William G. Collins, NOAA employee, 17 June 2004). 532x800, 109 KB. This is the strongest single image available for a Shukla post and the recommended header / lead.

Everything else is contextual:

Subject Status
1. Jagadish Shukla portrait (2004 NOAA NWP symposium) HIGH – PD-USGov-NOAA, recommended lead
2. Ballia district / Mirdha village context LOW – only railway station / Shaheed Park CC0 photos available
3. Banaras Hindu University (alma mater) HIGH – 2016 main gate (CC BY-SA 4.0) is canonical
4. MIT meteorology – Green Building (Building 54) HIGH – 2018 Green Building (CC BY-SA 4.0)
5. GFDL Princeton reuse GFDL_building.jpg from existing repo
6. UMD College Park – 1984-2004 faculty position HIGH – McKeldin sundial / Morrill Hall (CC BY-SA 3.0/4.0)
7. COLA at George Mason University MEDIUM – 2012 GMU Fairfax campus (CC BY-SA 3.0)
8. Beowulf cluster MEDIUM – museum-style cluster photos only; original 1994 NASA image is © Mark Richards
9. MacArthur 2009 ceremony NOT AVAILABLE – all MacArthur photos are © Foundation
10. IPCC working group meetings NOT AVAILABLE for Shukla-specific
11. Header image recommended: the PD-USGov-NOAA Shukla portrait itself

1. Jagadish Shukla portrait (the find)

Best (PD-USGov-NOAA, 2004 symposium)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg
  • Author: William G. Collins (NOAA employee).
  • Licence: Public Domain (PD-USGov-NOAA) – “This image is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.”
  • Date: 17 June 2004 (verified from EXIF / Nikon D100 camera metadata).
  • Dimensions / size: 532x800 pixels, 111,716 bytes (verified HTTP 200).
  • Description: Photograph of Jagadish Shukla speaking at the 2004 symposium commemorating fifty years of operational numerical weather prediction. Shukla was a featured speaker at the event.
  • Suggested caption: “Jagadish Shukla speaking at the symposium marking fifty years of operational numerical weather prediction, June 2004. Shukla founded the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies in 1993 and was awarded the IMO Prize in 2007 and the Padma Shri in 2012. Photo: William G. Collins / NOAA, public domain.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence (NOAA-employee work, by-default PD-USGov); HIGH on documentary value – this is the canonical Wikipedia infobox portrait, the only file in Category:Jagadish_Shukla, and the symposium context is itself thematically relevant for a Shukla post.
  • Caveat: the resolution (532x800) is modest. It will work for a 16:9 header crop at 800px wide but cannot be enlarged. The framing is a three-quarter speaking-podium shot, suitable for portrait or a header with side text.

2. Ballia district / Mirdha village (birthplace context)

Result: LOW availability under a clean licence.

Shukla was born in 1944 in the village of Mirdha, Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh. Wikimedia Commons searches for “Mirdha village”, “Mirdha Ballia” return zero results. The Ballia category itself contains only ~6 files (district map, two railway-station photos, a memorial park, and government PR photos with PM Modi).

Best contextual: Ballia Railway Station (CC0)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Ballia_Railway_Station_1.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballia_Railway_Station_1.jpg
  • Author: NiteshSingh6789.
  • Licence: CC0 1.0 (Public Domain Dedication).
  • Date: 11 September 2021.
  • Dimensions / size: 753x407, 41,555 bytes.
  • Description: Ballia Railway Station, Ballia district, Uttar Pradesh.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW on documentary value (railway station, not Mirdha village or rural fields).

Backup: Shaheed Park, Ballia (CC0)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Shaheed_Park_Ballia_UP.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shaheed_Park_Ballia_UP.jpg
  • Author: Ayubz26.
  • Licence: CC0 1.0.
  • Date: 3 February 2024.
  • Dimensions / size: 640x479, 46,002 bytes.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW on documentary value – a memorial park in Ballia town, not a rural village scene.

Backup B: Ballia Railway Station alternative (CC0)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Ballia_Railway_Station.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballia_Railway_Station.jpg
  • Author: NiteshSingh6789.
  • Licence: CC0 1.0.
  • Date: 11 September 2021.
  • Dimensions / size: 640x480, 36,128 bytes.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW on documentary value.

Recommendation: prose-attribute Mirdha village. Use the small Ballia photos only if a “rural Uttar Pradesh, ~80 km west of Varanasi” geographical beat is needed. None of the available photos depicts the village or rural context Shukla describes in his autobiographical writing. Honest prose is better than a misleading station photograph.

3. Banaras Hindu University (alma mater)

Shukla earned his BSc, MSc, and PhD at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (1962-1971). The 2016 BHU Main Gate photo is the canonical Wikipedia infobox image and the strongest visual marker.

Best (CC BY-SA 4.0, 2016 main gate)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/BHU_Main_Gate%2C_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BHU_Main_Gate,_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
  • Author: Kuber Patel, Rosehub.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Date: 2 August 2016.
  • Dimensions / size: 5482x3084, 2,672,002 bytes.
  • Description: Entrance gate of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
  • Suggested caption: “The main gate of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, where Shukla earned his BSc, MSc, and PhD between 1962 and
    1. Photo: Kuber Patel / Rosehub, CC BY-SA 4.0.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on documentary value (canonical BHU infobox image).

Backup A: BHU Aerial Panorama (CC BY 4.0, 2024)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/BHU_Panaroma_Aerial_View.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BHU_Panaroma_Aerial_View.jpg
  • Author: Rosehubwiki.
  • Licence: CC BY 4.0.
  • Date: 6 October 2024.
  • Dimensions / size: 7116x2785, 19,932,876 bytes (19.9 MB – large).
  • Description: Aerial panorama of BHU campus.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on documentary value (panoramic campus shot). Use only if the post wants a wide campus context frame – the resolution is excellent but the file is heavy.

Backup B: BHU Gate (CC0, 2025)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/Banaras_Hindu_University%2C_Varanasi.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Banaras_Hindu_University,_Varanasi.jpg
  • Author: Sundrampixel.
  • Licence: CC0 1.0.
  • Date: 10 March 2025.
  • Dimensions / size: 3000x4000, 3,062,656 bytes.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on resolution. Vertical aspect. Useful as a CC0 alternative if the CC BY-SA attribution chain is uncomfortable – but the 2016 main gate is more recognisable and has better wide-angle framing.

Backup C: BHU aerial (GODL-India, 2017)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Aerial_View_of_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aerial_View_of_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
  • Author: Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Government of India.
  • Licence: GODL-India (Government Open Data Licence – India). Considered a free licence by Commons but flagged “unreviewed” – attribution is required.
  • Date: 19 December 2017.
  • Dimensions / size: 1183x359, 168,439 bytes (low resolution / aspect).
  • Confidence: MEDIUM on licence (GODL-India is acceptable per Commons policy but not as universally recognised as CC BY); LOW on resolution. Use only if no alternative.

4. MIT meteorology context (1971-1976 doctoral period)

Shukla did his ScD in Meteorology at MIT (1971-1976) under Jule Charney. The Cecil and Ida Green Building (Building 54), I.M. Pei, 1964, is the visible home of MIT atmospheric science. The Charney portrait and MIT meteorology context are already covered in Post 6 of the NWP series.

Best (CC BY-SA 4.0, 2018 Green Building)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/MIT_Building_54_%28Green_Building%29.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MIT_Building_54_(Green_Building).jpg
  • Author: Alacoolwiki.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Date: 17 September 2018.
  • Dimensions / size: 3108x4662, 7,717,151 bytes (7.4 MB).
  • Description: Building 54 (Cecil and Ida Green Building), MIT, viewed from McDermott Court. Designed by I.M. Pei, completed 1964; home to MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences.
  • Suggested caption: “The Cecil and Ida Green Building (Building 54), MIT, designed by I.M. Pei and home to the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Shukla earned his ScD in Meteorology here in 1976 under Jule Charney. Photo: Alacoolwiki, CC BY-SA 4.0.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on documentary value. Vertical aspect (good for tall sidebars).

Backup (CC BY-SA 3.0, 2005)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Green_Building%2C_MIT%2C_Cambridge%2C_Massachusetts.JPG
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Green_Building,_MIT,_Cambridge,_Massachusetts.JPG
  • Author: Daderot.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 + GFDL 1.2+.
  • Date: 5 September 2005.
  • Dimensions / size: 1920x2560, 1,027,111 bytes.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on documentary value. Older photograph but closer to the 1971-1976 period when Shukla was on campus.

Charney portrait: already covered in Post 6 (“The man who tamed the equations”). For the Shukla post, prose-attribute Charney as Shukla’s adviser and cross-link Post 6.

5. GFDL Princeton (1976-1984 visiting scholar period)

Shukla was at GFDL on the Princeton Forrestal Campus during 1976-1984. The repo already has GFDL_building.jpg (920x430, 81,315 bytes), used in Post 16 (“The forecast that reached the Nobel”) and Post 25 (“The forecast on a VAX”). Reuse from existing repo asset:

  • Repo path: /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/GFDL_building.jpg
  • Already used in: Post 16 (Manabe / Nobel), Post 25 (VAX)
  • Reuse for Shukla: prose-attribute as “the GFDL building on Princeton’s Forrestal Campus, where Shukla was a visiting scholar 1976-1984”. Cross- link Post 16.

6. University of Maryland College Park (1984-2004 faculty position)

Shukla joined UMD as Professor of Meteorology in 1984. He founded COLA under UMD auspices in 1993. He moved with COLA to George Mason University in 2003-2004.

Best (CC BY-SA 4.0, Morrill Hall winter 2019)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg
  • Author: Bluesnote.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 + GFDL 1.2+.
  • Date: 1 February 2019.
  • Dimensions / size: 3264x2448, 3,140,066 bytes.
  • Description: Morrill Hall, the oldest original academic building at the University of Maryland, College Park, during a snowstorm.
  • Suggested caption: “Morrill Hall, the oldest original academic building at the University of Maryland, College Park, where Shukla was Professor of Meteorology from 1984 and where he founded the Center for Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Studies in 1993. Photo: Bluesnote, CC BY-SA 4.0.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary value – Morrill Hall is the historic UMD building but is not specifically the meteorology department.

Backup (CC BY-SA 3.0, McKeldin sundial 2010)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/UMD_McKeldin_sundial.JPG
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UMD_McKeldin_sundial.JPG
  • Author: Bgervais.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0 + GFDL 1.2+.
  • Date: 29 May 2010.
  • Dimensions / size: 3264x2448, 5,578,516 bytes.
  • Description: Sundial in front of McKeldin Library, McKeldin Mall, centre of UMD campus.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; HIGH on documentary value. McKeldin Mall is the visual centre of UMD and the photo composition is strong.

7. COLA at George Mason University (2003-onwards)

COLA relocated from UMD to George Mason University in 2003-2004 following funding restructuring. GMU’s Fairfax campus is the current institutional home (College of Science / Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and Earth Sciences).

Best (CC BY-SA 3.0, 2012 GMU Fairfax campus)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG
  • Author: Lucien Dalarun (Wikimedia user Richeid).
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Date: 26 August 2012.
  • Dimensions / size: 3648x2736, 1,787,309 bytes.
  • Description: George Mason University Fairfax Campus.
  • Suggested caption: “George Mason University’s Fairfax campus. COLA moved here from the University of Maryland in 2003-2004 and remains hosted by GMU’s College of Science. Photo: Lucien Dalarun, CC BY-SA 3.0.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary value (general campus shot, not specifically the COLA building). GMU has multiple campuses; this is Fairfax, the main one, where COLA is based.

Backup (CC BY-SA 4.0, 1967 GMU aerial)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/George_Mason_College%2C_Fairfax_campus%2C_1967%2C_aerial_photograph_looking_north.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:George_Mason_College,_Fairfax_campus,_1967,_aerial_photograph_looking_north.jpg
  • Author: Blue Ridge Aerial Surveys (digitised April 2015).
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
  • Date: photograph 1967; Commons upload 6 April 2015.
  • Dimensions / size: 2400x1942, 2,644,559 bytes.
  • Description: 1967 aerial of GMU’s then “George Mason College” Fairfax campus, before its 1972 elevation to university status.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW documentary fit for COLA – this is GMU’s pre-COLA founding-era aerial. Useful only as institutional history context if the post discusses GMU’s growth from a small Northern Virginia college into the research university that now hosts COLA.

8. Beowulf cluster (the architectural pattern COLA adopted)

Critical licensing finding: the original 1994 NASA Goddard Beowulf is NOT free. The canonical photograph of Sterling and Becker’s 1994 Beowulf prototype is by Mark Richards and is © Mark Richards – the Computer History Museum catalogue lists “Credit Line: NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center” but “Copyright: © Mark Richards”. The image is fair-use only and thus excluded under our rule.

Wikimedia Commons holds 14 Beowulf-cluster files but none depicts the original NASA Goddard prototype under a free licence. The closest available free-licensed cluster images are museum / lab installations from 2000-2012.

Best (CC BY 2.0 / Copyrighted Free Use, 2005 McGill “Borg” cluster)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg
  • Author: Aarchiba (uploaded by Aavindraa).
  • Licence: Copyrighted Free Use (free reuse permitted including commercial). Acceptable under our rule.
  • Date: 22 April 2005.
  • Dimensions / size: 1104x1064, 414,173 bytes.
  • Description: “The Borg, a beowulf cluster used by the McGill University pulsar group to search for binary pulsars (among other things).”
  • Suggested caption: “A Beowulf cluster of the kind COLA adopted in the late 1990s – here, McGill University’s pulsar-hunting cluster, 2005. By replacing single supercomputers with networks of commodity Linux machines, climate groups like COLA could scale compute on academic budgets. Photo: Aarchiba, free reuse permitted.”
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary value (not COLA’s cluster specifically, not NASA’s original).

Backup A (PD, 2013 Linux supercomputing cluster)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg
  • Author: Leon Brooks.
  • Licence: Public Domain (released by copyright holder).
  • Date: 1 March 2013 (Commons upload).
  • Dimensions / size: 2560x1920, 463,541 bytes.
  • Description: A Linux supercomputing cluster (Beowulf style).
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary value. Cleanest PD option but generic cluster, not COLA-specific.

Backup B (CC BY-SA 3.0, BSC Beowulf cluster)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/BSC-Beowulf-cluster.JPG
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BSC-Beowulf-cluster.JPG
  • Author: Vcarceler.
  • Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.
  • Date: 25 April 2012.
  • Dimensions / size: 4288x2848, 6,983,895 bytes (7 MB).
  • Description: Part of the first Beowulf cluster at the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre. Useful as a “European Beowulf-style installation” illustration.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; MEDIUM on documentary value.

Backup C (CC BY 2.0, “Ye Olde Beowulf” 2000-era)

  • Direct URL: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Ye_Olde_Beowulf_%28circa_2000%29.jpg
  • File page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ye_Olde_Beowulf_(circa_2000).jpg
  • Author: Kieran Huggins.
  • Licence: CC BY 2.0.
  • Date: photograph circa 2000; Commons upload 10 October 2007.
  • Dimensions / size: 493x373, 32,031 bytes (low resolution).
  • Description: A college DIY Beowulf cluster of surplus 486 DX machines, ~2000.
  • Confidence: HIGH on licence; LOW on resolution. Most period-appropriate for the late-1990s / early-2000s era when COLA was first adopting cluster computing, but the photograph is small.

Recommendation for the post: use the McGill “Borg” image as the lead Beowulf-cluster visual with an honest caption that flags it as illustrative (not COLA’s own cluster, not the NASA original). Alternatively use the Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg PD image if the cleanest licence chain is preferred. Prose-attribute the 1994 NASA Goddard prototype as the architectural ancestor.

9. MacArthur Foundation 2009 ceremony

Result: NOT AVAILABLE under a clean licence.

The 2009 MacArthur “genius” Fellowship was awarded to Shukla in September

  1. All MacArthur Foundation photographs are © MacArthur Foundation and not CC-released. The MacArthur Foundation’s media library explicitly licences photos for editorial / news use only, not for derivative or commercial reuse.

Wikimedia Commons searches for “MacArthur Foundation Fellow” return only profile photos contributed by individual fellows themselves, and these are on a per-individual basis (no Shukla MacArthur photo). No portrait of Shukla at the 2009 MacArthur ceremony is on Commons.

Recommendation: prose-attribute the MacArthur recognition. If a closing beat needs visual support, fall back to the 2004 NOAA portrait (section 1) or the COLA / GMU institutional shot (section 7).

(Note: the user’s brief listed MacArthur 2009 – but the MacArthur Fellowship was awarded to Shukla in 2009. Cross-check: the user may have been thinking of the 2007 IMO Prize ceremony or the 2012 Padma Shri ceremony, both equally not CC-released.)

10. IPCC working group meetings

Result: NOT AVAILABLE for Shukla-specific images.

Shukla contributed to IPCC assessments, particularly through Working Group I. The IPCC website hosts photo galleries of plenary sessions and authors’ meetings, but the IPCC’s Terms of Use require permission for photo reuse and the photos are not CC-released.

Wikimedia Commons holds IPCC AR6 figures (CC BY 4.0 – the science graphics are explicitly CC-released) but the working-group meeting photographs are not free.

Recommendation: prose-attribute Shukla’s IPCC contributions. If the post wants a “what the IPCC produced” frame, the AR6 WGI graphics on Commons (global temperature change, extreme weather frequency) are CC BY 4.0 and acceptable – but they’re modern AR6 (2021-2022) outputs, not the AR4 / AR5 era when Shukla was most active.

11. Header image candidate

Recommended header: the Jagadish Shukla portrait itself (PD-USGov-NOAA, section 1).

Reasoning:

  • It is the only known free-licensed portrait of Shukla.
  • It is PD-USGov, the cleanest possible licence.
  • The 2004 symposium context (50 years of operational NWP) is itself thematically apt for a Shukla post – Shukla helped define the seasonal / climate-prediction shoulder of NWP.
  • 532x800 is enough for a 1600x900 header crop only at low effective resolution. The image cannot be enlarged. For a 16:9 header at full width on a desktop blog, the image will need to be either upscaled (visible quality loss) or letterboxed / cropped tightly.

Backup A: BHU Main Gate (CC BY-SA 4.0, section 3). High resolution (5482x3084) and the strongest institutional visual marker. If the post opens with Shukla’s BHU education and frames him as the Indian-American climate scientist, the BHU gate is a powerful header.

Backup B: Morrill Hall in winter (CC BY-SA 4.0, section 6). Strong visual composition – the brick winter shot is moody and identifiable as UMD. If the post centres on the 1984-2003 UMD / COLA founding period rather than on Shukla’s biography, this works.

Backup C: GMU Fairfax campus (CC BY-SA 3.0, section 7). The current institutional home of COLA. Lower documentary punch than the BHU or UMD options.

Stash convention: save the original full-resolution Shukla portrait as assets/images/Jagadish_Shukla.jpg. If a header crop is needed, save it as assets/images/header-shukla.jpg. This matches the existing repo naming convention (e.g. header-cray.jpg, header-bryan.jpg).

12. Reuse from existing repo assets

Confirmed from /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/:

Existing file Licence Reuse for Already used in
GFDL_building.jpg (verified) “Princeton GFDL 1976-1984” beat Posts 16, 25
Mark_Cane.jpg (existing in repo, untracked at conversation start) Cross-reference if Shukla post bridges to Cane/Zebiak ENSO work Cane post (Post 22 / Cane-Zebiak)
Bryan_Manabe_Smagorinsky_1969.png (verified) If post bridges the GFDL / GCM lineage Shukla joined Posts 16-19
early_GCM.jpg (verified) “Pre-Shukla seasonal-prediction GCM context” frame Earlier GCM posts
Cray_1_EPFL.jpg CC BY 2.0 If post discusses Shukla’s GFDL-era compute environment Posts 26, 27, 30, 31
header-bryan.jpg, header-arakawa.jpg (verified) Series-style references Bryan, Arakawa posts

Note: there are no existing repository assets for Shukla, BHU, UMD, GMU, COLA, MIT meteorology buildings, or Beowulf clusters. All section 1-8 images are net new downloads.

13. Documented gaps (for honesty in the post)

The following subjects are unreachable under our licensing rule. The post should describe them in prose:

  1. Mirdha village, Ballia district, Shukla’s birthplace. No CC-licensed image of the village exists on Commons. The available Ballia photos are of the railway station and a memorial park in town – not the rural village setting of Shukla’s autobiographical writing.
  2. The 1994 NASA Goddard Beowulf prototype (Sterling & Becker). The canonical Mark Richards photograph is © Mark Richards, fair-use only. Use a museum-style cluster image instead.
  3. The 2009 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship ceremony. All MacArthur photos are © MacArthur Foundation, not CC-released.
  4. 2007 IMO Prize ceremony (Geneva, WMO). WMO archive photos are not CC-released.
  5. 2012 Padma Shri ceremony (Rashtrapati Bhavan). Government of India ceremonial photos are typically GODL-India but the specific Shukla investiture photos are not on Commons.
  6. IPCC working-group meetings featuring Shukla. IPCC photos are not CC-released.

The post can honestly acknowledge these gaps. The pattern – a major climate scientist’s institutional career documented mostly in proprietary archives, with one PD-USGov NOAA portrait providing the only free-licensed visual anchor – is consistent with how mid-career contemporary scientists tend to appear in the free commons.

Summary table

Subject Status Asset / Source
1. Jagadish Shukla portrait (2004 NWP symposium) HIGH (PD-USGov-NOAA) Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg
2. Mirdha village / Ballia LOW (CC0; not village-specific) Ballia_Railway_Station_1.jpg / Shaheed_Park_Ballia_UP.jpg
3. Banaras Hindu University HIGH (CC BY-SA 4.0) BHU_Main_Gate,_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
3.b BHU panorama HIGH (CC BY 4.0); large file BHU_Panaroma_Aerial_View.jpg
4. MIT Green Building HIGH (CC BY-SA 4.0) MIT_Building_54_(Green_Building).jpg
4.b MIT Green Building 2005 HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0) Green_Building,_MIT,_Cambridge,_Massachusetts.JPG
5. GFDL Princeton covered by repo reuse GFDL_building.jpg
6. UMD College Park (Morrill Hall) HIGH (CC BY-SA 4.0) Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg
6.b UMD McKeldin sundial HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0) UMD_McKeldin_sundial.JPG
7. GMU Fairfax campus HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0) GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG
7.b GMU 1967 aerial HIGH (CC BY-SA 4.0); off-period George_Mason_College,_Fairfax_campus,_1967,_aerial_photograph_looking_north.jpg
8. Beowulf cluster (McGill Borg) HIGH (Copyrighted Free Use) Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg
8.b Linux supercomputing cluster HIGH (PD) Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg
8.c BSC Beowulf cluster HIGH (CC BY-SA 3.0); large file BSC-Beowulf-cluster.JPG
9. MacArthur 2009 ceremony NOT AVAILABLE – prose only
10. IPCC working group meetings NOT AVAILABLE for Shukla – prose only
11. Header image – Jagadish_Shukla portrait (recommended); BHU_Main_Gate / Morrill_Hall as backup

Suggested wget commands

Run from /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/:

cd /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/

# PRIMARY: Jagadish Shukla portrait (William G. Collins / NOAA, PD-USGov, 2004)
# The only free-licensed Shukla portrait. PD-USGov-NOAA. Recommended header.
wget -O Jagadish_Shukla.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg

# Banaras Hindu University main gate (Kuber Patel / Rosehub, CC BY-SA 4.0, 2016)
# Shukla's BSc / MSc / PhD alma mater 1962-1971
wget -O BHU_main_gate.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/BHU_Main_Gate%2C_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg"

# MIT Green Building (Alacoolwiki, CC BY-SA 4.0, 2018)
# Building 54, MIT EAPS -- Shukla's ScD adviser was Charney here, 1976
wget -O MIT_Green_Building.jpg \
  "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/MIT_Building_54_%28Green_Building%29.jpg"

# UMD Morrill Hall in winter (Bluesnote, CC BY-SA 4.0, 2019)
# UMD College Park, where Shukla was Professor of Meteorology 1984-2003 and
# founded COLA in 1993
wget -O UMD_Morrill_Hall.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg

# GMU Fairfax Campus (Lucien Dalarun, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2012)
# Current home of COLA, since 2003-2004
wget -O GMU_Fairfax_Campus.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG

# McGill "Borg" Beowulf cluster (Aarchiba, free reuse, 2005)
# Architectural illustration -- not COLA's, but the cluster pattern COLA
# adopted in the late 1990s
wget -O Beowulf_cluster_McGill.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg

# OPTIONAL: BHU aerial panorama (Rosehubwiki, CC BY 4.0, 2024)
# Wide campus context. Large file (~20 MB).
wget -O BHU_aerial_panorama.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/BHU_Panaroma_Aerial_View.jpg

# OPTIONAL: UMD McKeldin sundial (Bgervais, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2010)
# Alternative UMD visual -- the sundial in front of McKeldin Library
wget -O UMD_McKeldin_sundial.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/UMD_McKeldin_sundial.JPG

# OPTIONAL: Linux supercomputing cluster (Leon Brooks, PD, 2013)
# Cleanest PD alternative for the Beowulf-cluster illustration
wget -O Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg

# OPTIONAL: Ballia Railway Station (NiteshSingh6789, CC0, 2021)
# Only available CC-licensed Ballia visual (not Mirdha village specifically)
wget -O Ballia_Railway_Station.jpg \
  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Ballia_Railway_Station_1.jpg

(All Shukla-specific Commons URLs verified against upload.wikimedia.org direct bytes 2026-05-08 with HTTP 200 and matching content-length:

  • Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg – 111,716 bytes
  • BHU_Main_Gate,_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg – 2,672,002 bytes
  • BHU_Panaroma_Aerial_View.jpg – 19,932,876 bytes
  • Banaras_Hindu_University,_Varanasi.jpg – 3,062,656 bytes
  • Aerial_View_of_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg – 168,439 bytes
  • MIT_Building_54_(Green_Building).jpg – 7,717,151 bytes
  • Green_Building,_MIT,_Cambridge,_Massachusetts.JPG – 1,027,111 bytes
  • Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg – 3,140,066 bytes
  • UMD_McKeldin_sundial.JPG – 5,578,516 bytes
  • GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG – 1,787,309 bytes
  • George_Mason_College,_Fairfax_campus,_1967,_aerial_photograph_looking_north.jpg – 2,644,559 bytes
  • Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg – 414,173 bytes
  • Linux_supercomputing_cluster.jpg – 463,541 bytes
  • BSC-Beowulf-cluster.JPG – 6,983,895 bytes
  • Ye_Olde_Beowulf_(circa_2000).jpg – 32,031 bytes
  • Ballia_Railway_Station.jpg – 36,128 bytes
  • Ballia_Railway_Station_1.jpg – 41,555 bytes
  • Shaheed_Park_Ballia_UP.jpg – 46,002 bytes No thumbnail redirects.)

Attribution block to keep at the bottom of the post

  • Jagadish Shukla speaking at the Symposium on the 50th Anniversary of Operational Numerical Weather Prediction, June 2004. Photo: William G. Collins / NOAA, public domain (PD-USGov-NOAA). Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jagadish_Shukla_at_Symposium_on_the_50th_Anniversary_of_Operational_NWP.jpg
  • Banaras Hindu University main gate, Varanasi, August 2016. Photo: Kuber Patel / Rosehub, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BHU_Main_Gate,_Banaras_Hindu_University.jpg
  • (If used) MIT Cecil and Ida Green Building (Building 54), September 2018. Photo: Alacoolwiki, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MIT_Building_54_(Green_Building).jpg
  • (If used) Morrill Hall, University of Maryland, College Park, February
    1. Photo: Bluesnote, CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Morrill_Hall_in_the_Winter.jpg
  • (If used) George Mason University Fairfax campus, August 2012. Photo: Lucien Dalarun, CC BY-SA 3.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GMU_Fairfax_Campus.JPG
  • (If used) Beowulf cluster (“The Borg”), McGill University, April 2005. Photo: Aarchiba, free reuse permitted. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beowulf-cluster-the-borg.jpg
  • (If used) GFDL building, Princeton Forrestal Campus. Reused from repository – already credited in posts 16 and 25.