Molchanov, Pavel

Molchanov, Pavel Aleksandrovich 

Born Feb. 6 (18), 1893, in Volosovo, in present-day Leningrad Oblast; died October 1941 in Leningrad. Soviet meteorologist.

Molchanov graduated from the University of St. Petersburg in 1914. From 1917 to 1939 he worked at the Main Physical (later, Geophysical) Observatory; subsequently he worked at the Institute of the Civil Aviation Fleet in Leningrad. Molchanov investigated the possibility of using aerological data for weather forecasting. He designed sounding and aircraft meteorographs, improved the pilot-balloon method of observation, and proposed the first design of the radiosonde to be put into practice (1930). Molchanov took part in the first aerological observations in the arctic (1931) and the first ascents of stratospheric balloons in the USSR (1933–34).

WORKS

Melody issledovaniia svobodnoi atmosfery. Leningrad, 1926.
Aerologiia. Moscow, 1931.
Aerologiia v primenenii k sinopticheskoi meteorologii. Moscow-Leningrad, 1938.

REFERENCE

Selezneva, E. S., and E. A. Tudorovskaia. P. A. Molchanov—vydaiushchiisia sovetskii aerolog. Leningrad, 1958.