Niels Johan Føyn, original surname Nielsen (February 23, 1860 – June 13, 1945) was a
Norwegian meteorologist.
Føyn was born in
Slagen in the municipality of
Tønsberg
Tønsberg (), historically Tunsberg, is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tønsberg Municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. It is located about south-southwest of the capital city of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
.
He was the son of the ship operator Peder Nielsen (1818–1904) and he later adopted the surname Føyn from the
oeconym of the farm where his family lived.
He received his ''
candidatus realium'' degree in 1886 and then worked as an assistant at the
Norwegian Meteorological Institute
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute (), also known internationally as MET Norway, is Norway's national meteorological institute. It provides weather forecasts for civilian and military uses and conducts research in meteorology, oceanography an ...
.
He received a state scholarship to study in
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
and
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
from 1893 to 1895.
From 1903 to 1915, Føyn was the supervisor of the Bergen Meteorological Observatory, and from 1915 to 1928 he was the deputy director of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute.
He was made a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters (, DNVA) is a learned society based in Oslo, Norway. Its purpose is to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway.
History
The Royal Frederick University in Christiania was establis ...
in 1904.
Legacy
In meteorology, a
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
-like formula known as Føyn's formula is used for calculating monthly mean temperatures:
:
where ''T''
m = monthly mean temperature, ''T''
g = monthly mean of ''T''
1 (morning temperature) and ''T''
3 (evening temperature), ''k'' = constant, and ''T''
2 = midday temperature.
Selected works
* "Meteorologi" (Meteorology; as N. J. Nielsen, in Henrik Jæger (ed.), ''Illustreret norsk literaturhistorie'', 1896)
* ''Wolken-Beobachtungen inn Norwegen 1896–97'' (Cloud Observations in Norway 1896–97; 1900)
* "Abhängigkeit des Barometerstandes von den Terrainverhältnissen" (Dependence of Barometer Readings on Terrain Conditions; in ''Meteorologische Zeitschrift'', 1910)
* "Das Klima von Bergen, I. Niederschläge" (The Climate Of Bergen. Part 1: Precipitation; in ''Bergens Museums aarbok'', 1910), "II. Lufttemperatur" (Part 2: Air Temperature; ibid., 1916)
* "Norges Klima" (Norway's Climate; in ''Norge 1814–1914'', 1915)
* "Klima von Nordwesteuropa und den Inseln von Island bis Franz-Josef-Land" (The Climate of Northwest Europe and the Islands from Iceland to Franz Josef Land; coauthored with Bernt Johannes Birkeland, in ''Handbuch der Klimatologie'', vol. 3, 1932)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foyn, Niels Johan
Norwegian meteorologists
Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
People from Tønsberg
1860 births
1945 deaths