Roland (Rol) Madden, an American meteorologist who was a staff scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) from 1967 to 2002. His research centers on diagnostic studies of the atmosphere. 

Scope and Content Note

Roland (Rol) Madden highlights his educational background, military service, briefing astronauts, the Line Islands Experiment, and his significant contributions to the study of tropical wave motions and the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). Madden discusses how he graduated from high school in Chicago in 1956 and pursued his undergraduate studies at Loyola University until he received a draft notice during college and joined the Air Force. He talks about how he served as a meteorologist, briefing astronauts and forecasting missile launches. 

Madden notes that after leaving the Air Force, he continued his studies at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Ted Fujita, focusing on spherical geometry and fulfilling the German language requirement. He mentions that during this time, he developed a keen interest in spectrum analysis, a technique he would later employ in his research. He talks about how he analyzed rawinsonde data and collaborated with Julian Wang, an expert in interpreting spectra. Presenting his findings at a tropical meeting in Honolulu in 1970, Madden recounts how he discovered variations in the time variation of five-day waves, emphasizing the need for long-time series data to fully understand these phenomena. His use of spectrum analysis proved to be a powerful tool in extracting information from limited rawinsonde stations.

Madden also sheds light on his time at Colorado State University (CSU), where he pursued a Ph.D. and focused on Rossby waves under the guidance of Bernhard Haurwitz. Madden's research on intraseasonal variability and the 40 to 50-day wave further contributed to the understanding of tropical meteorology. Furthermore, Madden touches upon the increasing interest in the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO), with mentions of Bill Lau's paper featuring MJO-associated clouds on the cover of the Bulletin. Madden acknowledges the significance of Klaus Weickmann's thesis and subsequent papers in 1987, which explicitly used the term "Madden-Julian Oscillation" to describe the phenomenon

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