FICKER

AUSTRIA (see also List of Individuals)

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22.11.1881 München/D - 29.4.1957 Wien/A

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Heinrich Ficker, originally a German, came to the Central Meteorological Institute in Vienna once having completed his studies in meteorology at the University of Innsbruck. He there met colleagues like Franz Exner (1876-1930). In 1911, he received a professorship at the University of Graz, occupied a chair at the Technical University of Berlin from 1923 to 1937 and in parallel directed the Prussian Meteorological Service. He then returned to Austria to take over as director the Austrian Meteorological Service and was professor at the University of Vienna until his retirement in 1953.

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Ficker was one of the great pioneers in meteorology who created the modern synoptic branch. Already during his PhD thesis he presented a thorough study on foehn winds over the Alps and was able to find theoretical explanations for the observations during its different stages. He also explained the pressure distribution required to set in foehn winds. In his 1911 paper Ausbreitung kalter Luft in Russland giving a complete description of the life history of cold-air outbreaks over Russia he introduced the idea of the "Polar-front" some years prior to the Norwegian theory. In the early 1920s, Ficker demonstrated that the development of depressions can only be understood as the interaction of lowand high-pressure waves proceeding in the same direction but usually with different speeds. The role of upper-air currents in the development of surface depressions is by now generally accepted. Ficker thus contributed significantly to practical weather forecast by introducing the steering principle into synoptic meteorology. His many studies on trade winds and thunderstorms are also mentioned. He was elected an Honorary member of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1950.

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_{Anonymous (1927). Die Studiengesellschaft zur Erforschung der Arktis mit dem Luftschiff am Begrüssungsabend der WGL. Zeitschrift für Flugtechnik und Motorluftschiffahrt 18(1): 2P}

_{Anonymous (1957). Heinrich Ficker. Quarterly Journal of Royal Meteorological Society 83: 565. Ficker, H. (1951). Die Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik 1851-1951. Denkschrift 109. Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Math.-Naturw. Klasse: Wien.}

_{Meister, R. (1947). Ficker. Geschichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 1847-1947: Tafel 48. Holzhausen: Wien. P}

_{Poggendorff, J.C. (1925). Heinrich von Ficker. Biographisch-Literarisches Handwörterbuch 5: 363-364; 6: 735; 7a: 33; 8: 1135. Verlag Chemie: Leipzig, Berlin, with bibliography.}

_{Smekal, C. (1999). Köpfe - Gelehrtenprofile an der Universität Innsbruck 1848-1918: 59-60.}

_{Universität: Innsbruck. P}