Richard W. Johnson (1929 in El Cajon, California – January 11, 2016 ) was an American

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology, sea science, ocean science, and marine science, is the scientific study of the ocean, including its physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of top ...

. He worked at

Scripps Institution of Oceanography Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) is the center for oceanography and Earth science at the University of California, San Diego. Its main campus is located in La Jolla, with additional facilities in Point Loma. Founded in 1903 and incorpo ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

for over 50 years, beginning in 1956. He was a Principal Development Engineer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography Visibility Lab and Marine Physical Lab. In this position, he was the head of MPL's Atmospheric Optics Group, as well as the PI for the group for many years. He was born in 1929 in

El Cajon El Cajon ( , ; Spanish: El Cajón, lit. 'the box') is a city in San Diego County, California, United States, east of downtown San Diego. The city takes its name from Rancho El Cajón, which was named for the box-like shape of the valley tha ...

, California. He served in the Army during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, from 1950 to 1954, working on an island in the

Aleutian Chain The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

to open up an airstrip. Soon after his release, he joined SIO's Visibility Lab in 1956 as a young engineer. He worked in the Atmospheric Optics Group (AOG), helping acquire airborne radiometric measurements in areas as far reached as

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

(in support of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

’s

Gemini program Project Gemini () was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and ...

) and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. He became head of the AOG in 1972, serving as PI on many projects, and was also named Asst. Director of the Visibility Lab. His favorite project involved an instrumented C-130 aircraft, on which our group mounted radiometric and meteorological instrumentation mostly developed at the Vis Lab. He managed and flew deployments all over the US and in several European countries. When the Visibility Lab closed in the mid-1980s, the AOG joined SIO’s Marine Physical Laboratory (MPL), where he continued leading the AOG. This was about the time that he developed the concept of the first digital Whole Sky Imager, which eventually was able to measure and detect cloud distributions day and night. He retired in 1991, but continued working part-time for several years and then volunteered with the group until 2012. During this time he developed a concept for a zooming fisheye capability, Shields, Janet E., et al. Continuing support of cloud free line of sight determination including whole sky imaging of clouds. No. MPL-TM-496. SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY LA JOLLA CA MARINE PHYSICAL LAB, 2007. which was patented by

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

Selected publications

* Johnson, Richard W. "Daytime visibility and nephelometer measurements related to its determination." Atmospheric Environment 15.10 (1981): 1835–1845. * Johnson, Richard W., Wayne S. Hering, and Janet E. Shields. Automated Visibility & Cloud Cover Measurements with a Solid State Imaging System. No. MPL-U-26/89. SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY SAN DIEGO CA MARINE PHYSICAL LAB, 1989. * Duntley, Seibert Q., Richard W. Johnson, and Jacqueline I. Gordon. "Airborne measurements of optical atmospheric properties, summary and review, 2." Final Report, 1 Sep. 1972-31 Jul. 1975 Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA. Visibility Lab. 1 (1975). * Duntley, Seibert Q., Richard W. Johnson, and Jacqueline I. Gordon. "Airborne measurements of atmospheric volume scattering coefficients in northern Europe, fall 1976." Interim Report Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, CA. Visibility Lab. 1 (1978).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnson, Richard W. American oceanographers Scripps Institution of Oceanography faculty 1929 births 2016 deaths