Apr 25, 2020 22:00:00

Modern weather forecast began with one satellite launched 60 years ago

By conducting research on '

meteorology ' that learns various phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of the earth, humankind can now know the weather of tomorrow and tomorrow while staying at home. Ars Technica, an IT news media, explains that the major advances in meteorology were triggered by computers built over 70 years ago and a small satellite launched 60 years ago.

Modern meteorology was born 60 years ago today | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/04/modern-meterology-was-born-60-years-ago-today/

On April 1, 1960, a small satellite ' tyros 1 ' weighing 122.5 kg was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida into an orbit about 650 km from the ground. Tyros 1 is a TV infrared observation satellite designed by RCA , an American consumer electronics company, and the world's first meteorological satellite.

by

NASA on The Commons

Tyros 1 is a cylindrical satellite with a diameter of 1.1 meters and a height of 0.5 meters, and is equipped with a 104-degree wide-angle camera and a 12-degree telephoto camera. Succeeded in monitoring the pattern of the earth's clouds and weather from space while supplying power with solar power generated by more than 9,000 solar panels. It has been in operation for 78 days and has taken about 23,000 photos.

The following is the first image taken by Tyros 1 in space. You can see how the white clouds cover the round earth.

And the image of tropical cyclone taken by Tyros 1 from space is below.

The method of “observing the weather from space with a meteorological satellite” was established in Tyros 1, but it is impossible to predict future weather without calculating it based on the data sent from the satellite. However, the amount of calculation is too large for humans to use paper and pencils.

Coincidentally, the computers needed to do the enormous calculations were already under development in the 1930s. The world's first general-purpose electronic computer is said to be

ENIAC that was developed by mathematician John von Neumann , and Neumann launched a weather forecast research project as a numerical analysis test using ENIAC. It was. In the mid-1950s, ENIAC seems to be able to make regular numerical forecasts.

by Dennis Sylvester Hurd

In the 1980s, observations by meteorological satellites and research on numerical models for processing the data advanced further. The level of prediction is dramatically improved by enabling observation of meteorological satellite data 24 hours a day. In modern times, it has evolved to the point where it is possible to predict the weather after 5 days with a smartphone application with the same accuracy as the 'next day's weather forecast' of 1980.

“Many of our everyday lives are quietly underpinned by the predictive accuracy of modern weather forecasts. Not just hurricanes and high-wave alerts. Decisions based on meteorological data are everywhere. And congratulates the birth of modern meteorology.