Richard S. Scorer

Richard S. Scorer (1919-2011) was a British meteorologist. He was a contributor to the theory on mountain waves. Scorer also worked on the cloud physics and his exchanges with the American meteorologist Joanne Simpson helped to better understand the formation of cumulus clouds.

Richard Scorer was born in Lincoln, County of Lincolnshire in England, in 1919. From his youth, he showed great aptitude for mathematics and won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge where he did his undergraduate studies. In 1941, during World War II, he joined the UK Met Office as a junior forecaster, first for Bomber Command and the Supply Command then he was transferred to Gibraltar to do weather forecasting for North Africa.

Research

Scorer returned to Cambridge after the war to complete his Master and Doctoral studies with Sir Geoffrey Taylor and George Batchelor, two very renowned climate scientists. He then joined the meteorology department at the Imperial College London where he worked with his friend and colleague Frank Ludlam.

In 1949, he published an article titled Theory of Waves in the Lee of Mountains where he developed the mathematics of this air flow, in particular trapped waves that produce stable oscillations. From this paper was extracted the Scorer parameter for the atmospheric gravity waves over a mountain barrier:

${\displaystyle l^{2}(z)=N^{2}/U^{2}-(\partial ^{2}U/\partial z^{2})/U}$

where N = N(z) is the Brunt–Väisälä frequency and U = U(z) is the vertical profile of the horizontal wind, both quantities are determined from an atmospheric sounding upstream of the barrier. When l²(z) is nearly constant with height, conditions are favorable for vertically propagating mountain waves. When l²(z) decreases strongly with height, the waves are trapped in the layer around the mountain top and below.

Richard Scorer also wrote articles with Frank Ludlam on the cumulus lifecycle. Their views were in conflict with those of the American Joanne Simpson which led to an exchange of letters and a meeting in 1954 for a significant advancement of knowledge in this field.

Scorer went afterward to the Department of Mathematics where he became professor of theoretical mechanics in 1962, and played an important role in the growth of the group on applied mathematics.

Richard Scorer established the Research Group on the air pollution at Imperial College, the first in the UK to be devoted exclusively to this field of study. He was chosen on the National Council for the quality of the air and played an important role in the drafting of the British Clean Air Act. He was also an adviser to the environmental impact survey of the Concorde.

Politics

In the elections to the British Parliament of 1970 and 1979, Scorer was a candidate of the Labour Party for the constituency of Esher but was defeated each time. He was an alderman of the London Borough of Merton from 1970 to 1977 and was elected a Trustee of Wimbledon Common for four years. In addition to being the author of 16 books, he was a photographer, a cyclist, a marathon runner, a mountaineer, a bird watcher, a carpenter and talented luthier.

Private life

Richard Scorer married Joan, whom he had met in Cambridge and they had three daughters: Beatrice, Margaret and Valerie. Joan died of cancer in 1964 and he remarried later with Margaret, with whom he had two sons, Jason and Richard, and a daughter, Josephine. Scorer and his wife have also been foster parents for two children during the 1970s.

Richard Scorer was elected to the Royal Meteorological Society in December 1949 and was president from 1986 to 1988. He became Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1992, the highest form of recognition for an outstanding contribution to the Society and meteorology.