From Earth’s Heat Budget to
Interferometric Analysis:
The Legacy of Verner Suomi
and Robert Parent
85th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting
Third Presidential History Symposium
Terri Gregory, Tom Achtor, Tom Haig (ret.), Jean Phillips, Hank Revercomb
Space Science and Engineering Center, UW–Madison
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Pioneers: Robert Parent, Verner Suomi
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Main Streams

Instruments
– Heat (Energy)
Budget
– Space Flight
Hardware
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Data
– Make Useful—
Develop
Algorithms
– Analyze
– Visualize
Time Frames

The beginning, from about 1959–1972
 From about 1972–1995
 What we’re working on now
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments, Beginning

Heat budget
– Radiation sensors
– Flatplate radiometer

Spin-scan camera
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments
 1959—Radiation
Sensors
 On Explorer VII
satellite
 Provided useful
new data on the
global radiation
budget
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments—Spin-scan Camera

Spin-scan camera
on ATS-I
 Begun in 1965,
launched 1966
 Enabled the first
geostationary
weather
observations
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1969
Satellite Meteorology Begins

Analysis of imagery
 Algorithm
development
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Numerical
model
development
Data—Late 1960s

Color negative
format
 Disseminated
world-wide
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—late 1960s
Planetary Meteorology
 Jet
Propulsion Laboratory
 Mariner images of Venus
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1971
First Analysis Software—WINDCO

Fast, useful,
inexpensive,
accurate

Atmospheric
motion
measurements
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The Middle Years, 1972~1992

Instrument
development
 Heat budget
 Altimeter
 BLIS
 GOES VAS
 Interferometry
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison

Software (data)
developments
McIDAS
Vis5D
Instruments
Middle Period, Beginning

1971—Inexpensive radio altimeter for
Tropical Wind Energy Conversion and
Reference Level Experiment
 1974—Boundary Layer Instrument for GARP
Atlantic Tropical Experiment
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments—Middle Period
Space Flight Hardware

1978—Pioneer

Venus,
Net Flux Radiometer
 1989—Galileo Net
Flux Radiometer

January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
1974—Orbiting Solar
Observatory-8
1990—Hubble Space
Telescope High Speed
Photometer
1993—Diffuse X-ray
Spectrometer
Instruments—1980
Visible and Infrared Spin-Scan
Radiometer Atmospheric Sounder

Sounder in geostationary orbit
 Launched on GOES-4
 Measured atmospheric moisture and
temperature
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments,1980s to present
Interferometers
 HIS, concept proven in 1985
 AERI
 Scanning HIS
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments—1990s
Calibrating NASA Instruments
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1970s and Forward
SSEC Data Center

1974, first
nongovernmental ground
station for geostationary
satellite data
 1977, World Weather
Experiment (FGGE),
archive satellite wind
vectors from cloud
heights
 1979, became national
archive for GOES data
 1990, Active Data
January
2005
Archive
in EOS Data and
Space Science and Engineering Center
Information
System
University
of Wisconsin–Madison
Data, 1980–2000+
Scientific Visualization

McIDAS—Man computer Interactive Data
Access System

Vis5D—Scientific Visualization in 5
Dimensions
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1980s
McIDAS

Videointeractive
 Data acquisition
 Data analysis
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1980s and 1990s
Vis5D

Space (three D)
 Time
 Atmospheric
parameter
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—from 1980s
Planetary Meteorology
 Analysis
of Voyager
images began in
1980
 Ground-based and
HST imagery
analysis began
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data—1980s
Planetary Meteorology

January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Cloud shadows on
Neptune
Data, 1990s
Data—Early 1990s
HIS Spectra
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Now
Data
 Instruments
 Also

– Thriving Polar Studies
– Antarctic
Meteorological
Research Center
– Ice Coring and Drilling
January 2005
Service
Space Science
and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Global Winds, 2000
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Vision of our Future

Advancing Earth Systems Science,
Weather, and Climate with New
Observing, Retrieval Science, Computing
& Modeling Techniques
–Sirice
–Data processing for High-latitude Winds from Molniya
Orbit

High spectral resolution and many
channel imagers are here to stay
–AIRS/ CrIS / IASI, GIFTS / ABS, & MODIS/VIRS
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
High Resolution Winds
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The Future, Continued
Visualization
–McIDAS V
Planetary
Meteorology and Space Flight
Hardware
–Venus mission with Aerostats
–Missing Baryon Explorer
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
GIFTS—Geosynchronous Imaging
Fourier Transform Spectrometer
Global sounding in <10 minutes
High-resolution sounding of 6000 x 6000 km
in < 30 min
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Data
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
Instruments
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
I want to thank …




Margaret Mooney, SSEC outreach specialist,
formerly with the National Weather Service, for
listening and guiding
Tim Schmit, NOAA/NESDIS at SSEC, for explaining
technical details
My coauthors who thought this topic was interesting
enough to pursue
Staff of the Space Science and Engineering Center
and Professor Verner E. Suomi, without whom I
wouldn’t have a story
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison
References





“The Man computer Interactive Data Access System,”
Lazzara et al., BAMS, February 1999
“SSEC and Satellites,” Gregory, Space Capsule,
Spring and Winter 1986, publ. SSEC
“SSEC Highlights,” Gregory et al.,1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003, publ. on line
“SSEC Milestones,” Fox and Gregory, unpublished
“Weather in the Solar System,” Limaye, 2002,
unpublished
January 2005
Space Science and Engineering Center
University of Wisconsin–Madison