{{Short description|American astronomer and astrophysicist (1908–1994)}} {{Infobox person | name = Arthur Adel | image = | alt = | caption = | other_names = | occupation = Astronomer, astrophysicist | birth_date = {{birth date|1908|11|22|mf=yes}} | death_date = {{death date and age|1994|09|13|1908|11|22|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | death_place = Flagstaff, Arizona, U.S. }}
'''Arthur Adel''' (November 22, 1908 – September 13, 1994) was an American astronomer and astrophysicist. His research focused on atmospheric Spectrography. He worked at Lowell Observatory from 1936 until 1942<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital/collection/loaselect/id/66/|title=Arthur Adel|website=azmemory.azlibrary.gov|language=en|access-date=2020-03-11}}</ref> and was for many years a professor at what is now Northern Arizona University, both in Flagstaff, Arizona.
== Early life and education == Adel was born in Brooklyn, New York.<ref name="aas">{{cite journal |author=Richard L. Walker |author-link=Richard Walker (astronomer) |url=https://aas.org/obituaries/arthur-adel-1908-1994 |title=Arthur Adel (1908 - 1994) |journal=Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=1600–01 |date=September 1994 |access-date=2014-05-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117025802/https://aas.org/obituaries/arthur-adel-1908-1994 |archive-date=2015-11-17 |url-status=dead }}</ref> His parents were Orthodox Jews who had immigrated from Russia and Poland.<ref name="aip">{{cite web|url=https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/5000|title=Oral Histories: Arthur Adel interviewed by Robert Smith |publisher=American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library |type=Transcript|accessdate=2017-01-13}}</ref><ref name=biodic>{{cite book |author=Roy H. Garstang |editor1=Thomas Hockey |editor2=Virginia Trimble |editor3=Thomas R. Williams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t-BF1CHkc50C&q=Arthur+Adel+astronomer&pg=PA15 |contribution=Adel, Arthur |title=Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers |location=New York |publisher=Springer |year=2007 |isbn=9780387310220 |volume=1 ''A–L'' |pages=15–16 }}</ref> The family later moved to Detroit, where he graduated from a technical high school. He worked as a machinist for a year before attending the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics in 1931 and in 1933 a PhD with a dissertation on "The Infrared Spectrum and the Structure of the Carbon Dioxide Molecule".<ref name="aas"/><ref name=biodic/>
== Career == Beginning in 1933, he did research at the Lowell Observatory, demonstrating that the harmonics of the vibration of methane and ammonia molecules gave rise to the absorption bands observed in planetary atmospheres, and later publishing extensively on the water-vapor-related parameters in Earth's atmosphere.<ref name="aas"/> In 1935–36 he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he worked for the US Navy in Washington, DC, de-gaussing submarines,<ref name=biodic/> and from 1942 to 1946 was a faculty member in physics at the University of Michigan. From 1946 to 1948 he was an assistant professor at the McMath-Hulbert Solar Observatory, then operated by the university, while also studying the effective radiation temperature of the ozone layer for the US Air Force at a base in New Mexico.<ref name=biodic/><ref>{{cite journal |author=Spencer R. Weart |title=Global Warming, Cold War, and the Evolution of Research Plans |journal=Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences |volume=27 |issue=2 |year=1997 |doi=10.2307/27757782 |jstor=27757782 |pages=333–34 }}</ref> In 1948 he was appointed professor of mathematics at Arizona State College, now Northern Arizona University, where he founded the Atmospheric Research Observatory, which had the first specially designed infrared telescope.<ref name=biodic/> Among other achievements, he discovered the 20 micron window in the Earth's atmosphere and proved observationally that the Moon radiates as a black body.<ref name="aas"/><ref name=biodic/> He retired and was named professor emeritus in 1976.<ref name="aas"/> The university has named a mathematics building and the Arthur Adel Award, given annually since 1995 to a researcher who furthers the goals of science, in his honor;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://uanews.arizona.edu/story/nau-names-jonathan-lunine-winner-2000-arthur-adel-award |title=NAU Names Jonathan Lunine Winner of the 2000 Arthur Adel Award |website=UA News |publisher=University of Arizona |date=April 24, 2000 }}</ref> his papers are kept at the university.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/nau/adel_arthur.xml;query=;brand=default |title=Arthur Adel Collection, 1909–2000 |website=Arizona Archives Online |accessdate=2017-01-13 }}</ref>
==Personal life and death== Adel married Catherine Backus in 1935; they did not have children.<ref name=biodic/> He died of cancer on September 13, 1994, in Flagstaff, at the age of 85.<ref name="aas"/>
== References == {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == *{{cite archive |author=Monica A. Joseph |item=The Contribution of Arthur Adel To Astronomical Infrared Spectroscopy |oclc=960171394 |date=1973 |type=Biographical paper |institution=American Institute of Physics |repository=Niels Bohr Library & Archives |collection=Manuscript Biographies Collection}} *[https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/5000 Interview of Arthur Adel by Robert Smith on 1987 August 12], Niels Bohr Library & Archives, American Institute of Physics
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adel, Arthur}} Category:1908 births Category:1994 deaths Category:20th-century American astronomers Category:American Orthodox Jews Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent Category:Northern Arizona University faculty Category:Scientists from Brooklyn Category:University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Category:Jewish American scientists Category:20th-century American Jews