Bruce Gary's Home Page

Bruce L. Gary was born in Ann Arbor, MI in 1939. He received a B. S. degree in Astronomy from the University of Michigan in 1961. He joined the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory's Radio Astronomy Branch and conducted studies of Jupiter. In 1963 he joined Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and for two years conducted microwave investigations of the moon. He worked briefly at Cornell University's Arecibo Ionospheric Observatory, in Puerto Rico. After returning to JPL's Space Sciences Division, he resumed planetary radio astronomy investigations of the moon and planets.

In 1975 he joined JPL's Observational Systems Division (where he is currently employed) and began applying radio astronomy remote sensing techniques to the study of atmospheric science problems. Since then he has provided principle investigator leadership for 41 field experiments, using ground-based and airborne microwave remote sensor systems. Ground-based instruments were used to study spatial and temporal properties of line-of-sight contents of atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid water. Ground-based passive microwave systems were developed for obtaining air temperature profiles. In 1978 an airborne microwave temperature profiler was flown, for the first time, and was used in a study of clear air turbulence, CAT. Additional CAT studies were conducted using an improved temperature profiler installed in NASA's C-141 aircraft. A successor instrument, the Microwave Temperature Profiler, was installed in NASA's ER-2 aircraft and used in the 1987 Stratospheric-Tropospheric Exchange Project, STEP. Mr. Gary was one of 25 principal investigators participating in the first international airborne investigation of stratospheric ozone depletion, the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment, AAOE (Punta Arenas, Chile, 1987). His MTP instrument on the ER-2 provided mesoscale meteorology context for in situ measurements during this mission; MTP discovered that Antarctic mountain waves extend above the tropopause and throughout the region of ozone destruction, and provide for mechanisms to enhance PSC formation. The same MTP was used during the 1989 Airborne Arctic Science Experiment, AASE I, based in Norway. During AASE II (Norway, Alaska, Maine 1991/92), MTP were flown aboard both participating NASA aircraft, the DC-8 and an ER-2. The MTP flew on 49 ER-2 flights during the Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft, ASHOE/MAESA, based in New Zealand and Hawaii, throughout 1994, which led to studies of tracer filament temperature signature anomalies. The MTP also flew during the ER-2 Stratospheric Tracers of Atmospheric Transport, STRAT flights of 1995 and 1996, which were based in California and Hawaii. The DC-8 MTP flew during the 1995 and 1996 Tropical Ozone Transport Experiment/Vortex Ozone Transport Experiment, TOTE/VOTE, based in Hawaii, Alaska, Iceland and California. These flights have provided intriguing new information on meridional circulation. An improved DC-8 MTP flew during the 1996 Subsonic Aircraft Contrail and Cloud Effects Study, SUCCESS, flights based in Kansas. These data were used to derive the 2-D isentrope topography for a mountain wave event over Colorado, allowing for quantification of cooling and heating histories of air parcels associated with lee wave clouds. During 1997 the ER-2 MTP participated in each of the 3 Photochemistry of Ozone Loss in the Arctic Region in Summer, POLARIS, campaigns, based in Fairbanks, AK. Isentrope surfaces were surprisingly smooth for this season and latitude. The DC-8 MTP is currently in use for the SASS Ozone and Nitrogen Oxides Experiment, SONEX, based in Ireland and Bangor, ME, which is a study of the atmospheric chemistry impacts of subsonic aircraft.

PATENTS
"Microwave Temperature Profiler for Clear Air Turbulence Prediction," Patent #5,117,689, June 2, 1992.
"System for Indicating Fuel-Efficient Aircraft Altitude," Patent #4,474,062, Oct. 2, 1984.
"CAT Altitude Avoidance System," Patent #4,346,595, Aug. 31, 1982.
APreventing SST Unstart Using a Microwave Radiometer," for submission November, 1997.