Sudden Stratospheric Warming - History

History

The first continuous measurements of the stratosphere were taken by Richard Scherhag in 1951. He used radiosondes to take reliable temperature readings in the upper stratosphere (~40 km). It was his persistence which led him to witness the first ever observed stratospheric warming on 27 January 1952. After his discovery, Scherhag created a team of meteorologists specifically to study the stratosphere at his university - the Free University of Berlin. This group continued to map the northern-hemisphere stratospheric temperature and geopotential height for many years using radiosondes and rocketsondes. In 1979 when the satellite era began, meteorological measurements became far more frequent. Although satellites were primarily used for the troposphere they also recorded data for the stratosphere. Today both satellites and stratospheric radiosondes are used to take measurements of the stratosphere.

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