Tides. A Scientific History

Biographie de David-Edgar Cartwright

After graduating in Natural Sciences at Cambridge University and in Mathematics at London University, David Cartwright worked from 1954 to 1973 as a researcher in Marine Physics at the then UK National Institute of Oceanography. His subjects were initially sea waves and the motion of ships, but later developed into tides, surges and variations in sea level. During a year at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at La Jolla, California, he and Walter Munk revolutionized the whole concept of tidal spectroscopy and prediction, which later extended to the analysis of storm surges in sea level. He was appointed Assistant Director of the UK Institute of Oceanographic Sciences soon after its formation in 1973. Here, his team developed a pioneering programme of tide measurements in the Atlantic Ocean, from pressure variations on the ocean floor to topography of the ocean surface measured from satellites. On retirement from IOS in 1987, he accepted a Senior Research Associateship at the NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center in USA, where lie pursued his interest in satellite altimetry and where, with Richard Ray, he made the first near-complete mapping of the tides in the global ocean from the US Navy's Geosat spacecraft. He was also a leading figure over several years in the international scientific planning team for the highly successful Topex/Poseidon satellite, launched by the USA and France in 1992. While working at the leading edge of modern oceanic tide research, David Cartwright became increasingly aware of and interested in the long and neglected history of the science. On his retirement from NASA, he was in a unique position to write such a history: this book is the result.