Adel, Arthur, 1908-1994

Died 1994.

Physicist, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Michigan in the 1940s, later at Arizona State College.

Arthur Adel was born in 1908. He attended a technical high school and later went on to earn a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics and a Ph. D. in physics from the University of Michigan. He worked for Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona between 1933-1935. He returned to Flagstaff in 1948, where he worked as a professor at Northern Arizona University until his retirement in 1976. Dr. Adel passed away in 1994.

Arthur Adel was born in 1908. He attended a technical high school and later went on to earn a bachelors degree in mathematics and physics and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan.

From 1933 to 1935, Adel's conducted research at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. The research was sponsored by the University of Michigan and the Observatory. Following a post-doctoral appointment at Johns Hopkins University in 1935-36, Adel returned to Lowell until the outbreak of World War II. Adel's important research during this time included: relating absorption bands in the giant planets spectra to the chemical composition of the Jovian planets' atmospheres; identifying, calculating and photographing absorption bands caused by the fundamental vibrations (harmonics) of methane and ammonia molecules; studying the absorption of solar radiation by the Earth's atmosphere; discovering atmospheric nitrous oxide and heavy water vapor; relating the transmission of solar radiation as a function of atmospheric water vapor; delineating the first grating map of the solar telluric spectrum and the first emission spectrum of the moon; and suggesting that the moon radiates as a black body.

During World War II, Adel conducted war-related research for the United States Navy and the Office of Scientific Research and Development while teaching at the University of Michigan. Adel's accomplishments during this time included applying infrared spectroscopy to solve problems with American radar technology and establishing an observatory at Hollomon Air Force Base in Alamogordo, New Mexico to better study and measure atmospheric ozone.

Adel joined the faculty of Northern Arizona University in 1948. He worked at NAU until his retirement in 1976.