Observing Weather from Space
Abstract
On 1 April 1960, the world's first weather satellite, the Television Infrared Observation Satellite 1 (TIROS 1), was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, into a 99-min orbit at an altitude of about 725 km. The cylindrical (1.1-m diameter, 0.48-m tall), 120-kg spacecraft was spin-stabilized, rotating between 8 and 12 times per min. It carried two television cameras that pointed parallel to the spin axis and could take 32 pictures per orbit (1). Although the results were modest by today's standards (see the figure), TIROS 1 revolutionized the field of meteorology.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Already a Subscriber?Sign In
References and Notes
1
Vaeth J. G., Weather Eyes in the Sky: America's Meteorological Satellites (Ronald Press, New York, 1965).
2
Wexler H., J. Br. Interplanet. Soc. 13, 269 (1954).
3
Rao P. K., Holmes S. J., Anderson R. K., Winston J. S., Lehr P. E., Weather Satellites: Systems, Data, and Environmental Applications (American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1990).
4
Bader M. J., et al., Images in Weather Fore casting: A Practical Guide for Interpreting Satellite and Radar Imagery (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK, 1995).
5
Sheets R. C., Weather Forecast. 5, 185 (1990).
6
Kidder S. Q., Vonder Haar T. H., Satellite Meteorology: An Introduction (Academic Press, San Diego, CA, 1995).
7
Monthly statistics on the data used in U.S. NWP models are at www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/sib/counts.
8
Simmons A. J., Hollingsworth A., Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc.128, 647 (2002).
9
National Research Council, Earth Observations from Space: The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2008).
10
National Research Council, Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2007).
11
National Research Council, Satellite Observations to Benefit Science and Society: Recommended Missions for the Next Decade (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2008).
12
World Meteorological Organization (WMO), www.wmo.int/pages/index_en.html.
13
Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), http://cosparhq.cnes.fr.
14
National Research Council, America's Future in Space: Aligning the Civil Space Program with National Needs (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2009).
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Science
Volume 327 | Issue 5969
26 February 2010
26 February 2010
Copyright
Copyright © 2010, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Submission history
Published in print: 26 February 2010
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Altmetrics
Citations
Export citation
Select the format you want to export the citation of this publication.
View Options
Get Access
Log in to view the full text
AAAS login provides access to Science for AAAS Members, and access to other journals in the Science family to users who have purchased individual subscriptions.
- Become a AAAS Member
- Activate your AAAS ID
- Purchase Access to Other Journals in the Science Family
- Account Help
Log in via OpenAthens.
Log in via Shibboleth.
More options
Purchase digital access to this article
Download and print this article for your personal scholarly, research, and educational use.
Buy a single issue of Science for just $15 USD.
View options
PDF format
Download this article as a PDF file
Download PDF