G.M.B. Dobson
Encyclopedia
Gordon Miller Bourne Dobson FRS (25 February 1889 - 11 March 1976) was a British physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...

 and meteorologist who did important work on ozone
Ozone
Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...

.
He was educated at Sedbergh School
Sedbergh School
Sedbergh School is a boarding school in Sedbergh, Cumbria, for boys and girls aged 13 to 18. Nestled in the Howgill Fells, it is known for sporting sides, such as its Rugby Union 1st XV.-Background:...

 and Caius College, Cambridge where he graduated MA (Cantab and Oxon). He was later awarded DSc (Oxon).

He was appointed University Lecturer in Meteorology, Oxford. By studying meteorites he noticed that the temperature profile of the tropopause
Tropopause
The tropopause is the atmospheric boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere.-Definition:Going upward from the surface, it is the point where air ceases to cool with height, and becomes almost completely dry...

 was not constant, as had previously been believed (hence the name stratosphere
Stratosphere
The stratosphere is the second major layer of Earth's atmosphere, just above the troposphere, and below the mesosphere. It is stratified in temperature, with warmer layers higher up and cooler layers farther down. This is in contrast to the troposphere near the Earth's surface, which is cooler...

). In fact there was, he showed, a region where the temperature sharply rose. This, he proposed, was happening because UV radiation was heating ozone in what has become known as the ozone layer
Ozone layer
The ozone layer is a layer in Earth's atmosphere which contains relatively high concentrations of ozone . This layer absorbs 97–99% of the Sun's high frequency ultraviolet light, which is potentially damaging to the life forms on Earth...

.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in May, 1927, awarded their Rumford Medal
Rumford Medal
The Rumford Medal is awarded by the Royal Society every alternating year for "an outstandingly important recent discovery in the field of thermal or optical properties of matter made by a scientist working in Europe". First awarded in 1800, it was created after a 1796 donation of $5000 by the...

 in 1932 and delivered their Bakerian lecture
Bakerian Lecture
The Bakerian Lecture is a prize lecture of the Royal Society, a lecture on physical sciences.In 1775 Henry Baker left £100 for a spoken lecture by a Fellow on such part of natural history or experimental philosophy as the Society shall determine....

 in 1945.

He served as president of the Royal Meteorological Society
Royal Meteorological Society
The Royal Meteorological Society traces its origins back to 3 April 1850 when the British Meteorological Society was formed as a society the objects of which should be the advancement and extension of meteorological science by determining the laws of climate and of meteorological phenomena in general...

 from 1947 to 1949. He was made CBE
CBE
CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

 in 1951.

He built the first Dobson ozone spectrophotometer
Dobson ozone spectrophotometer
The Dobson spectrophotometer, also known as Dobsonmeter or Dobson spectrometer, is the earliest instrument used to measure atmospheric ozone. It was invented in 1926 by Gordon Dobson. A history of the development of the instrument is here...

s and studied the results over many years. The Dobson unit
Dobson unit
The Dobson unit is a unit of measurement of atmospheric ozone columnar density, which is dominated by ozone in the stratospheric ozone layer. One Dobson unit refers to a layer of ozone that would be 10 µm thick under standard temperature and pressure. For example, 300 DU of ozone brought...

, a unit of measurement of vertically integrated atmospheric ozone density, is named after him.

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