Old Fart Boomers like me have been around way longer than most of your trendy catch phrases.

What the hell is an Atmospheric River?

A January 2019 article in Geophysical Research Letters described [atmospheric rivers] as “long, meandering plumes of water vapor often originating over the tropical oceans that bring sustained, heavy precipitation to the west coasts of North America and northern Europe” that cause rainfall throughout the winter months.”^[14]

Wikipedia

Okay. Who came up with this allegedly cool term?

The term was originally coined by researchers Reginald Newell and Yong Zhu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the early 1990s, to reflect the narrowness of the moisture plumes involved.^[3][5][9] Atmospheric rivers are typically several thousand kilometers long and only a few hundred kilometers wide, and a single one can carry a greater flux of water than Earth’s largest river, the Amazon River.^[4] There are typically 3–5 of these narrow plumes present within a hemisphere at any given time. These have been increasing^[10] in intensity slightly over the past century.

again Wikipedia

Okay, so Reginald and Yong cooked up the term Atmospheric River.

Reginald died in 2002. Yong Zhu if he’s still alive keeps a low profile. He co-wrote a shit load of scholarly papers with Reginald and other Eggheads while at M.I.T.. I don’t know. Maybe Yong’s still at M.I.T. I couldn’t find a picture of him. That’s odd, don’t you think? I mean, in the field of Meteorology, Yong is a Big Shot.

Odd.

As for Reginald, I didn’t find much on him either. At least I found his picture. Yong if he’s still alive is hiding out. There’s no Wikipedia profile on either of these dudes. Maybe it’s just because nobody but me is interested. That’s kind of the way Wikipedia works.

Yeah…but still.

Reginald Newell’s Obituary

MIT Professor Reginald E. Newell of Arlington, Mass., a meteorologist whose research concentrated on global air pollution and on the energy, momentum and mass balances of the climate system, died Sunday, Dec. 29, at Massachusetts General Hospital of a massive stroke. Professor Newell, 71, earned his B.Sc. in 1954 from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, where he was born and raised. Upon graduation, he came to MIT as a research assistant in meteorology and received the S.M. (1956) and Sc.D. (1960).He was an assistant professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) from 1961 to 1966 and an associate professor from 1966 to 1969, when he became a full professor. Professor Newell taught courses on the physics of the upper atmosphere, on past and present climate, and on global air pollution.In 1970, he turned his attention to climate problems and worked on factors controlling mass climatic fluctuations for the previous 40 years, as well as on the physics of the ice ages. He also began work on the effects of changing carbon dioxide concentrations on atmospheric heating rates and on the global circulation of carbon monoxide. When it became clear that climatic fluctuations were closely related to sea surface temperature (SST), he began studies of global SST patterns.In 1969, he warned a Massachusetts legislative committee that Boston would develop serious smog problems similar to Los Angeles if automobile traffic were not curtailed. Three years later, he suggested that a harbor tunnel be constructed for rail traffic from Logan Airport to New York on trains that traveled at 100-120 miles per hour.During the 1980s and 1990s, he participated in NASA Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange Program experiments over Australia, investigating how the circulation in that region interacts with the ocean and carries air from the troposphere to the stratosphere. Professor Newell acted as a mission meteorologist for the NASA DC-8 Pacific Exploratory Missions to the west Pacific in 1991 and 1994 and flew again with NASA to the tropical Pacific in 1996. He was involved in another joint international aircraft experiment in 1997.Professor Newell was a member of the Measure of Air Pollution by Satellites (MAPS) team that measured carbon monoxide from space. He also participated in two 1994 space shuttle experiments that showed the relationship between column carbon monoxide measured in the shuttle and surface layer convergence patterns.Professor Newell served as president of the International Association for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (IAMAP) International Commission on Climate from 1977 to 1983 and was a member of the IAMAP Commissions on Meteorology of the Upper Atmosphere and Atmospheric Chemistry and Global Pollution from 1971 to 1983. His honors include the 1985 Alexander Von Humboldt Award and the Japan International Science and Technology Agency Fellowship in 1990.He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Maureen W. (Lees); two daughters, Madeleine Newell of Arlington and Elizabeth Parker of Lexington; two sons, Oliver of Billerica and Nicholas of Reading; and two grandchildren.Visiting hours will be Sunday, Jan. 5, from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Saville and Grannan Funeral Home, 418 Massachusetts Ave., Arlington. The funeral will be on Monday, Jan. 6, at 1 p.m. in the Bigelow Chapel at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge.A memorial service is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 23, at 5:30 p.m. in the MIT Chapel. Following the service, EAPS will host a reception in the Ida M. Green Lounge, Room 54-923.

M.I.T. News

Okay, man. I don’t know about you. But I’d say this dude Reginald Newell is what I’d consider a HIGH ACHIEVER.

I mean, if nothing else, he made a big ass dent in his field.

Why is he not better known? LIke for instance his Obit. The M.I.T. News is the college newspaper, for christ sake. Journalism Students work on College papers.

But that’s all he got. He got a Obit in the college newspaper.

You’d think the New York Times would’ve profiled this guy.

MAN WHO COINED THE PHRASE ATMOSPHERIC RIVER PASSES AWAY AT 71. Reginald Newell, distinguished professor at M.I.T. and an early advocate of the study of climate change and the effects of carbon monoxide concentrations on atmospheric heating rates related to sea surface temperature, has passed away…etc., etc., etc….

The Gloomer, exclusive to the New York Times…ha, ha, right!

Nothing in the New York Times. Nothing in the Boston Globe. Nothing in any real newspaper of any size…of course I’ve only been looking for about an hour. But you know how Google works, the more you scroll the less you get. You start getting other people named Newell…

140 scholarly papers. I found those. That’s a shit load of papers. This guy was busy. Busy on a field he helped pioneer and one which is kind of topical in lue of current atmospheric conditions.

This is really starting to piss me off.

And what about Yong Zhu?

Where the fuck is Yong?

Nothing on Yong.

No picture.

No profile.

Nothing but the papers he worked on with Reginald.

Oh, and I found this:

Hokum I care about

You’ve heard me rail against Hokum. Hokum is the Shit scientists and other big wigs invent. Like the Big Bang Theory, for example. Not to mention most religions. But religion is not Science. Let’s focus on the Science Hokum. The Big Bang theory is a truly artful load of hokum, I’ll admit. But do I really care? I mean, is my life really affected by the Big Bang Hokum? Nobody is leaning on my ass over the Big Bang.

It’s too fucking imaginary.

But not the Atmospheric River. Now this is some truly impactful Hokum. I’m dealing with a leaky boat here. This weather system or pinaple express or whatever-you-want-to-call-it is putting a hurt on my ass. I’m running around with tarps and sticking pots under dribbles and rocking with the shit storm winds.

ATMOSPHERIC RIVER means something to me!

I’ll go so far as to say I believe in Atmospheric Rivers.

So will somebody tell me why Reginald and Yong are not as well known or at least as well documented as Hubble?

I’m waiting for a response.

Ask for Blue Boy I’ll be holding my breath.

Meanwhile, I got leaks to deal with.