Henry Charnock

Henry Charnock CBE FRS^[1] (25 December 1920 – 28 November 1997) was a British meteorologist.^[2] He is well known for his work on surface roughness and wind stress over water surfaces. The now named "Charnock's relationship" describes the aerodynamic roughness length, ${\displaystyle z_{0}}$, over a water surface by:^[3]

${\displaystyle z_{0}=Cu_{*}^{2}/g}$

where ${\displaystyle u_{*}}$ is the friction velocity and ${\displaystyle g}$ is the acceleration due to gravity (typically the Standard gravity). ${\displaystyle C}$ is Charnock's proportionality constant.

Charnock was President of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) from 1971 to 1975.