Early observations of rotor clouds by Andrija Mohorovičić

Abstract

This article delivers a short history of the early quantitative documentation of a rotor-type circulation in the bora-type flow on the northern Adriatic by Andrija Mohorovičić, an all-around geophysicist and the father of Croatian geophysical research who is widely known as the discoverer of discontinuity between the Earth's crust and mantle. This historical work presents an overview of Mohorovičć's research technique and rotor-related contributions, together with a short account of other observations of rotors contemporary to Mohorovičić as well as those from the 1920s and 1930s, considered to be seminal work on the subject on atmospheric rotors to date. In the year that marks the 150th anniversary of Mohorovičić's birth, his early meteorological observations remain germane for atmospheric rotor research, which is currently experiencing a renaissance with the Terrain-Induced Rotor Experiment (T-REX), a recently completed international field campaign and an ongoing research effort focused on atmospheric terrain-induced rotors. © 2007 American Meteorological Society.