Meteorologist, oceanographer, Python solvem probler, experimenter, Raspberry Pi tinkerer, geek dad, manager, space enthusiast, ham radio lover, science columnist, ADHDer, synthetic intellect curious, linux admin cosplayer.

Jule Gregory Charney (1917–1981)

Basic Information

  • Full name: Jule Gregory Charney
  • Born: 1 January 1917, San Francisco, California
  • Died: 16 June 1981 (aged 64), Sidney Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts (lung cancer, after a 20-month battle)
  • Nationality: American
  • Fields: Dynamical meteorology, numerical weather prediction, climate science

Family Background

  • Father: Ely Charney – Yiddish-speaking Jewish emigre from White Russia (modern Belarus); worked in the New York garment industry; fervent socialist who took an active role in union affairs
  • Mother: Stella Littman Charney – also a Russian Jewish immigrant and garment worker; held more leftist political positions than her husband; home political discussions were frequent
  • The parents met and married in St. Louis, then moved to Los Angeles in 1914 via Denver. Employment difficulties forced a temporary move to San Francisco, where Jule was born. He spent most of his youth in Los Angeles.

Marriages:

  1. Elinor Kesting Frye (married 1946) – a student of logic and semantics under H. Reichenbach at UCLA. Two children: Nora and Peter. Also raised Elinor’s son Nicolas (from a previous marriage), who took the Charney surname. Marriage lasted almost twenty-one years.
  2. Lois Swirnoff (married 1967) – painter and color theorist, professor at UCLA and Harvard. Marriage lasted almost ten years.
  3. Spent his last years with Patricia Peck, a photographic artist with roots in New York City and Venice.

Education

Calculus at Age 14

At age fourteen, Jule’s mother, temporarily estranged from his father, moved back to New York. Jule later recalled that he did not like New York, but it was here at a relative’s home that he came upon Osgood’s book on calculus. Calculus was not taught in any American high school at that time, but exposure to this book and the realisation that he could solve the problems excited his interest in science. By graduation from Hollywood High School in January 1934, he had already familiarised himself through independent reading with most of the standard material on differential and integral calculus.

Formal Education

  • UCLA – B.S. in Mathematics (1938); M.S. in Mathematics (1940, thesis on curved spaces under T. Y. Thomas)
  • Phi Beta Kappa election (1937)
  • Thomas considered Charney’s paper “Metric Curve Spaces” suitable for a doctoral thesis, but Jule had a lower opinion of its merit and never submitted it
  • UCLA Meteorology Programme (1941) – joined as teaching assistant under Jorgen Holmboe and Jacob Bjerknes
  • Ph.D. in Physics from UCLA (1946) – dissertation: “The Dynamics of Long Waves in a Baroclinic Westerly Current” (published October 1947 in Journal of Meteorology, filling an entire issue)
  • Postdoctoral: National Research Council Fellowship (1947–1948), University of Oslo, Norway

The Bergen School Connection via Holmboe

The connection to the Bergen School was indirect but pivotal. T. Y. Thomas led a mathematics seminar that included treatment of fluid turbulence and one day invited Jorgen Holmboe from the newly formed meteorology group in the Physics Department to speak. Having introduced Jule to the idea of meteorology as a field with scientific possibility, Holmboe invited him in spring 1941 to join the meteorology training programme.

Jule also consulted physicist Theodore von Karman, who counselled him to pursue meteorology over aeronautics, since the latter was “becoming too much of an engineering subject for a person of Jule’s theoretical inclination.”

At UCLA, Jacob Bjerknes was the leader of the meteorology group, very well known for the Bergen School’s description of cold and warm fronts. Holmboe was a younger Norwegian at ease with these concepts and more familiar with fluid dynamics. Morris Neiburger, educated under Rossby at MIT, exposed Charney to Rossby’s more analytical approach – and it was Rossby’s papers that most strongly influenced Charney’s thinking.

Career Timeline

Period Position Institution
1941–1946 Teaching assistant and instructor in physics and meteorology UCLA
1946–1947 Research associate University of Chicago (under Carl-Gustaf Rossby)
1947–1948 National Research Council postdoctoral fellow University of Oslo (with Arnt Eliassen and Ragnar Fjortoft)
1948–1956 Head of Meteorological Research Group, Electronic Computer Project Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
1956–1981 Professor of Meteorology MIT
1966–1981 Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology (first holder) MIT
1974–1977 Department Chairman MIT Department of Meteorology

Major Scientific Contributions

1. Baroclinic Instability Theory (PhD thesis, 1946)

Charney’s thesis explained why mid-latitude weather systems have the size, structure, and growth rate that they do. He showed that the atmosphere’s west-to-east winds, which increase with height because temperatures decrease from equator to pole, are unstable to perturbations of certain wavelengths.

The thesis required a set of consistent approximations to reduce the atmospheric equations to a tractable second-order differential equation. Phillips (1995) emphasises that “this type of reasoning was not then common in any branch of science” and that Charney “accomplished this without help from any established fluid dynamicist.”

2. Quasi-Geostrophic Theory (1948)

Charney’s most influential theoretical contribution. During his year in Oslo (1947–1948), he developed the quasi-geostrophic prediction equations, which filter out meteorologically irrelevant fast motions (sound waves and gravity waves) while retaining the slow, large-scale motions that matter for weather forecasting.

As Charney wrote in his 1948 paper “On the Scale of Atmospheric Motions”:

“The motion of large-scale atmospheric disturbances is governed by the laws of conservation of potential temperature and absolute potential vorticity, and by the conditions that the horizontal velocity be quasi-geostrophic and the pressure quasi-hydrostatic.”

This formulation solved the problem that had defeated Richardson – the initial condition imbalance that produced his absurd 145 hPa pressure rise. Phillips (1995) called the quasi-geostrophic theory “probably the most rewarding development in meteorology and oceanography since World War I.”

Arnt Eliassen in Oslo had independently reached similar equations, but Charney’s scale analysis proved that this system was a consistent approximation for large-scale atmospheric motions.

3. The ENIAC Forecast (April 1950)

In early 1948, John von Neumann invited Charney to head the meteorology group in the Electronic Computer Project at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Von Neumann had recognised weather prediction as a prime candidate for electronic computers.

The first nonlinear numerical weather forecast was computed in April 1950 on the ENIAC at Aberdeen Proving Ground. It required round-the-clock work by Charney, Ragnar Fjortoft, J. Freeman, George Platzman, and Joseph Smagorinsky – and, largely because of ENIAC breakdowns, more than 24 hours to compute a 24-hour forecast. The model used Charney’s barotropic vorticity equation at the equivalent barotropic level (~5 km).

Key publication: Charney, J., R. Fjortoft, and J. von Neumann (1950). “Numerical integration of the barotropic vorticity equation.” Tellus 2: 237–254.

The results, while imperfect, “produced forecast maps that looked meteorological.” Charney sent copies to Lewis Fry Richardson, who asked his wife to judge them. Richardson wrote back:

“Thus (d) has it on average, but only slightly. This, although not a great success of a popular sort is anyway an enormous scientific advance on the single, and quite wrong, result in which Richardson (1922) ended.”

By February 1954, the success led to establishment of the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit (representing the Weather Bureau, Air Force, and Navy). Operational computer forecasts began in May 1955.

4. Gulf Stream Inertia Theory

At Princeton, Charney also made major contributions to physical oceanography. While Stommel and Munk had presented theories of the Gulf Stream depending on poorly known friction parameters, Charney showed how conservation of potential vorticity could explain the narrow western boundary current without artificial friction – an inertia theory of the Gulf Stream.

5. The Charney Report on CO2 and Climate (1979)

In 1979, Charney chaired an Ad Hoc Study Group on Carbon Dioxide and Climate for the National Academy of Sciences. Eight climate scientists met at Woods Hole from July 23–27, 1979, and produced a 22-page report: Carbon Dioxide and Climate: A Scientific Assessment.

The report’s central conclusion: equilibrium climate sensitivity is 3 degrees C, with a probable error of plus or minus 1.5 degrees C (i.e., 1.5 to 4.5 degrees C for a doubling of CO2). This estimate has proven remarkably durable – subsequent IPCC assessments over four decades have barely narrowed this range.

6. Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP)

Charney conceived and organised GARP, described as “the most ambitious international effort in weather research ever undertaken.” He recognised that meteorology was “a global science” requiring global observations and international cooperation.

He chaired the NAS Committee on GARP from 1966 to 1971 and drove the effort with “evangelical zeal.” The culmination was the Global Weather Experiment (FGGE), beginning December 1978 – a five-hundred-million-dollar project using satellites, ocean buoys, and constant-level balloons at approximately 14 km altitude to observe the entire atmosphere of the Earth for the first time.

7. Sahel Desertification Hypothesis (1975)

During a sabbatical at the Weizmann Institute in Tel Aviv (1972–1973), Charney developed a theory of biogeophysical feedback to explain drought in the Sahel:

  • Loss of vegetation increases ground albedo (reflectivity)
  • Higher albedo means more solar radiation reflected back to space
  • Reduced surface heating decreases convection and mean upward motion of air
  • This leads to reduced rainfall, further vegetation loss, and further albedo increase – a positive feedback loop

His interest was stimulated by the ongoing Sahel drought and by fond childhood memories of spring trips to the Mojave Desert with his parents.

Key publications:

  • Charney, J. (1975). “Drought in the Sahara: A Biogeophysical Feedback Mechanism.” Science 187: 434–435.
  • Charney, J. (1975). “Dynamics of deserts and drought in the Sahel.” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 101: 193–202. (Based on the Symons Memorial Lecture, 20 March 1974.)

Poker Skills

Phillips (1995) records that “somewhere along the way he acquired experience in games of chance, a skill that was exercised much later on night watches during one of the two Indian Ocean ship expeditions in which he participated.”

After Charney’s death, oceanographer B. Taft recalled that Jule was the only scientist he knew who could play poker nightly with the ship’s crew, win their money consistently, and never engender the slightest ill will.

Personal Characteristics

  • Mathematical prodigy: Mastered calculus by age 14 through self-study; was on track to be UCLA’s first mathematics Ph.D. before switching to meteorology
  • Charismatic leader: Former MIT students describe “falling into orbit around the Charney sun.” His optimism and enthusiasm were infectious.
  • Problem reducer: Charney possessed “a tremendous ability to reduce complex problems” to their simplest essential components
  • Work ethic: He was convinced that “rewards in absence of hard work were meaningless” – the greater the challenge, the happier he was
  • Sports: A mistaken childhood diagnosis of a heart problem was corrected in his teens. Thereafter Jule learned to ski and play tennis, sports he enjoyed until the last several years of his life
  • Political engagement: After the invasion of Cambodia and the Kent State shootings (May 1970), Charney co-founded the Universities National Antiwar Fund with Lois Charney and S. Luria, raising ~$250000 for antiwar candidates
  • Music lover: Exposed to music through a family record collection (Caruso, Galli-Curci, Tchaikovsky); music was a lifelong source of enjoyment. As a child, he played with the young prodigy Yehudi Menuhin on top of Menuhin’s apartment building – a fact he later used “to establish an element of mutual recognition with the world-famous violinist”

The Year at Chicago

After his thesis defence in spring 1946, Charney stopped at the University of Chicago to visit Rossby. The two men hit it off at once, and Rossby persuaded Jule to postpone his European fellowship and stay for almost a year. Jule later viewed this year as “the most formative experience in his professional life.” Rossby described his own teaching method in a letter to Charney: “Perhaps I occasionally sought to give, or inadvertently gave, to the student a sense of battle on the intellectual battlefield. If all you do is to give them a faultless and complete and uninhabited architectural masterpiece, then you do not help them to become builders of their own.”

Teaching and Mentoring

Charney’s lecture performance was “often halting,” but his mentoring of thesis students was stellar. He supervised numerous prominent meteorologists including:

  • Norman Phillips (IAS period)
  • Joseph Pedlosky (1963)
  • James R. Holton (1964)
  • Eugenia Kalnay (1971)
  • Kerry Emanuel (1978)

R. Goody said at the 1982 memorial service: “As a teacher Jule molded the thoughts of several generations of students. We shall be completing his thoughts and building upon them for a long time to come.”

Honours and Awards

Award Year
Phi Beta Kappa 1937
Symons Gold Medal (Royal Meteorological Society) 1961
Carl-Gustaf Rossby Research Medal (AMS) 1964
Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology at MIT (first holder) 1966
Hodgkins Medal (Smithsonian Institution) 1969
International Meteorological Organization Prize (WMO) 1971
John von Neumann Lecturer 1974
William Bowie Medal (American Geophysical Union) 1976
National Academy of Sciences member  

Considered “the father of modern dynamical meteorology” and credited with having “guided the postwar evolution of modern meteorology more than any other living figure.”

Connections to Other NWP Pioneers

  • Vilhelm Bjerknes: Charney’s quasi-geostrophic theory fulfilled the programme Vilhelm outlined in 1904. Charney knew Vilhelm’s 1904 paper well.
  • Jacob Bjerknes: Leader of the UCLA meteorology group where Charney trained. Wrote detailed letters of support to Charney in Oslo.
  • Jorgen Holmboe: Direct supervisor at UCLA; introduced Charney to meteorology. The Bergen School connection via Holmboe was the single most consequential career pivot for Charney.
  • Lewis Fry Richardson: Charney’s work solved Richardson’s problem (unbalanced initial conditions). Charney sent Richardson the ENIAC results; Richardson died several years later.
  • John von Neumann: Charney’s partner in the ENIAC project. Von Neumann recognised weather as ideal for electronic computers. The two had “many discussions” and von Neumann was “an eager listener and willing participant in Jule’s thinking.”
  • Carl-Gustaf Rossby: Charney’s most important intellectual influence outside his own research. Exchanged 65+ letters. Rossby’s death in 1957 ended a decade-long correspondence.
  • Norman Phillips: Member of Charney’s IAS group; conducted the first GCM experiment there. Later Charney’s colleague at MIT. Phillips wrote Charney’s NAS biographical memoir.
  • Edward Lorenz: Charney recommended Lorenz’s promotion as a condition of his own move to MIT. Lorenz’s chaos work built on the predictability limits implied by Charney’s dynamical meteorology. Charney described Lorenz as having “a soul of an artist.”
  • Joseph Smagorinsky: Assisted with the ENIAC computations and later led GFDL, the research lab that grew from the Princeton work.

Death

Charney died of lung cancer on 16 June 1981 at the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, after a 20-month illness. He was 64 years old.

The MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences maintains the Charney Library in his honour. In February 2018, MIT held a “Chaos and Climate” symposium celebrating the centennial of both Charney’s and Lorenz’s births (both born in 1917).

Sources

  • Phillips, N. A. “Jule Gregory Charney.” Biographical Memoirs (National Academy of Sciences) 66 (1995): 80–113. https://www.nasonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/charney-jule-g.pdf – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • “Jule Gregory Charney.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jule_Gregory_Charney – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • “Charney, Jule Gregory.” Encyclopedia.com (Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography). https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/charney-jule-gregory – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • “Jule G. Charney.” Institute for Advanced Study. https://www.ias.edu/scholars/jule-g-charney – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • “Charney Report.” Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charney_Report – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • “Jule G. Charney.” Computer Pioneers. https://history.computer.org/pioneers/charney.html – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • Charney, J. (1975). “Drought in the Sahara: A Biogeophysical Feedback Mechanism.” Science 187: 434–435. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.187.4175.434 – Accessed: 2026-04-02
  • Platzman, G. W. Conversations with Jule Charney. NCAR/TN-298+Proc (1987).