William Joseph Campbell

William Joseph Campbell (May 1, 1930 – November 20, 1992) was a ranking meteorologist for the United States Geological Survey. He was a pioneer of the remote sensing of the polar regions and an expert on polar ice.

William devoted his career to investigating and developing the use of aircraft and satellite remote sensing methods to study the interrelationships of polar ice caps, glaciers, sea ice, ice sheets, and snow packs to climate and the hydrological cycle.

Early life and education William Joseph and his twin brother Richard Arthur were born to Dorothy Regan T. Campbell and William J. Campbell on May 1, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York. William and his twin brother grew up in a rough neighborhood during the Great Depression and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School.

William earned a B.S. at the University of Alaska and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the atmospheric department at the University of Washington. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to University of Cambridge in England from 1960 to 1961.

Career and research In 1964, William J. Campbell joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a branch of the Department of the Interior, as a member of a team studying sea-ice and glacier dynamics. The idea of towing large tabular Antarctic icebergs thousands of miles to arid coasts became immediately popular. The Saudis funded French engineers at the CICERO company to study the feasibility of bringing Antarctic tabular icebergs to Saudi Arabia.

William J. Campbell authored and co-authored more than 130 research papers and was widely sought as an expert on sea-ice dynamics and polar remote sensing. he was a member of the first research team to dive under the arctic ice pack Knowing firsthand the difficulties of doing physical work and research in the remote, vast, and hazardous environment of the polar regions, William pioneered the use of remote sensing techniques to observe the cryosphere. Since the polar regions are dark six months of the year and largely cloud covered, using the visible light was not suitable for monitoring the polar regions. He demonstrated and promoted the use of satellite microwave instruments to acquire global coverage of the Polar Regions during all weather conditions and periods of darkness. The goal of establishing how to measure and record the changing extent of sea ice in both Polar Regions was largely accomplished by the end of the 1980s.

International cooperation

William J. Campbell was instrumental in the development of interagency and international remote-sensing experiments of the polar ice regions and was a member and director of several international large-scale projects in that field.

William J. Campbell played a major role in coordinating remote sensing and surface measurements for several major international sea ice experiments. These experiments involved the use of drifting stations, ships and remote sensing aircraft and satellites. the joint U.S./U.S.S.R. Bering Sea Ice Experiment (BESEX) the Polar Experiment (POLEX) the SKYLAB Snow and Ice Experiment the Norwegian Remote Sensing Experiment (NORSEX) the international Marginal Ice Zone Experiments (MIZEX) the international Seasonal Ice Zone Experiments (SIZEX)

In 1970, after participating in the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) in Moscow, USSR, he hitchhiked by himself into the villages and collective farms around Moscow and found the USSR an "intensely friendly country". "The more the Russians and the Americans can visit, the better off the world will be. People, who eat, drink and love together, don't make war".

Awards