|
Titel |
Erich Regener and the ionisation maximum of the atmosphere |
VerfasserIn |
P. Carlson, A. A. Watson |
Medientyp |
Artikel
|
Sprache |
Englisch
|
ISSN |
2190-5010
|
Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: History of Geo- and Space Sciences ; 5, no. 2 ; Nr. 5, no. 2 (2014-12-18), S.175-182 |
Datensatznummer |
250115382
|
Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/hgss-5-175-2014.pdf |
|
|
|
Zusammenfassung |
In the 1930s the German physicist Erich Regener (1881–1955) did important
work on the measurement of the rate of production of ionisation deep
under water and in the atmosphere. Along with one of his
students, Georg Pfotzer, he discovered the altitude at which the production of ionisation
in the atmosphere reaches a maximum, often, but misleadingly, called the
Pfotzer maximum. Regener was one of the first to estimate the energy density
of cosmic rays, an estimate that was used by Baade and Zwicky to bolster
their postulate that supernovae might be their source. Yet Regener's name is
less recognised by present-day cosmic ray physicists than it should be,
largely because in 1937 he was forced to take early retirement by the
National Socialists as his wife had Jewish ancestors. In this paper we
briefly review his work on cosmic rays and recommend an alternative naming of
the ionisation maximum. The influence that Regener had on the field through
his son, his son-in-law, his grandsons and his students, and through his links
with Rutherford's group in Cambridge, is discussed in an appendix. Regener was
nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics by Schrödinger in 1938. He died
in 1955 at the age of 73. |
|
|
Teil von |
|
|
|
|
|
|