Materials are arranged in the order created during the interview process with the first file containing administrative materials created before, during, and after the interview.
Accession No. PA.2000.0034: Harold Leinbach, 2000 October
[identification of item], Harold Leinbach Oral History, SPEC.PA.56.0069, Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center Archival Program, Ohio State University
Contains audiocassettes.
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Processed by: Audrey Wimbiscus, 2020 March; Finding aid written by: Audrey Wimbiscus, Sam Devereaux, 2020 October
Frederick Harold Leinbach, Jr. graduated from South Dakota State College and in 1950, received his Master of Science from the California Institute of Technology. Later that year, he began working for the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska where he observed the aurora. From 1953-1956, Leinbach was drafted into the United States Army and was assigned to the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, Colorado where his group tested nerve gas. Upon Leinbach’s return to the Geophysical Institute in 1956, he helped develop the riometer, an instrument for measuring ionospheric opacity. The Geophysical Institute installed riometers at the Air Force bases in Thule and Cape Fairwell in Greenland, and Fort Yukon, Alaska and gave riometers to other colleges. During the International Geophysical Year from 1957-1958, Leinbach used the riometer to gather data in King Salmon, Alaska and Unalaska, Alaska; his team also installed auroral radar equipment at each place. Leinbach also studied polar cap absorption in Alaska during this time. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy in geophysics from the University of Alaska in 1962, and began working at the University of Iowa within that year. In 1966, Leinbach started working with the Space Environment Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colorado. He retired from NOAA in 1993.
The Harold Leinbach Oral History, dated 1999-2002, contains audio recordings, administrative information, and transcripts of the interview between Leinbach and Brian Shoemaker of the American Polar Society conducted on October 3, 2000. This interview was a part of a series of polar oral histories sponsored by the American Polar Society and Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center Archival Program, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Major topics discussed include Leinbach's work designing the first riometer in the world to measure radio waves in space, his time operating riometers in the Arctic regions during the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), and his experiences studying the aurora in the Arctic.
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