Franklin E. Roach

Rayleigh Unit The Rayleigh Unit is a unit of photon flux used to measure the radiance of air glow, atmospheric phenomena like auroras, and integrated starlight of various forms in space. The Rayleigh Unit was first proposed in 1956 by Donald M. Hunten, Franklin E. Roach, and Joseph W. Chamberlain and named by them for Robert John Strutt, 4th Baron Rayleigh (1875–1947) who first discovered the glow of the night sky. The symbol for the unit is R, also like the unrelated Roentgen unit.

Fulbright Scholar Franklin Roach spent a year in Paris in 1951-2 on a Fulbright Fellowship investigating night-sky research. Roach also worked with a European pioneer, Daniel Barbier, in this same field.

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Book Contributions Roach wrote most or contributed in part to several important books. Two elucidating on the subject of airglow would serve as foundation volumes in the field of upper atmosphere science: Aurora and Airglow edited by B. M. McCormac, and The Light of the Night Sky. Another one with a scientific approach to ufology in the early 1970s would serve as a foundation volume for that field of exploratory science: UFO's: A Scientific Debate edited by Carl Sagan and Thornton Page. On the general front, he would write the chapter "Aurora and Airglow" in the Scientific American book The Planet Earth for the popular audience.

The Light of the Night Sky While still associated with "Rutgers, The State University" in Newark, New Jersey and the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, Hawaii Roach served as the principal author, along with co-author Janet L. Gordon (then working for and associated with the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu), Franklin had been nominated for the award by Gordon Little. the 15th United States Secretary of Commerce who had just completed his second term as Governor of North Carolina.

Legacy Memorial Scholarship Franklin E. Roach Memorial Scholarship, University of Arizona. Archives Following Roach's passing his papers were archived in 1994 in Alaska upon the recommendation of Bob Eklund (Robert L. Eklund) (associated with Mount Wilson Observatory) to Donald Osterbrock who made arrangements: Franklin E. Roach Papers, Archives, Alaska and Polar Regions Department, Collections Section, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska.