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Meteorological research, which deals with various phenomena occurring in the Earth’s atmosphere, has made it possible for mankind to know the weather tomorrow or the day after tomorrow even at home. The major advances in meteorology were a computer built 70 years ago and a small satellite launched 60 years ago.
On April 1, 1960, TIROS-1, a small 122.5 kg satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base, Florida, into orbit 650 km from the ground. Tyros 1 is an infrared observation satellite designed by RCA, an American consumer electronics company, and the world’s first meteorological satellite.
Tyros 1 is a cylindrical satellite with a diameter of 1.1m and a height of about 0.5m, equipped with a 104° wide-angle camera and a 12° telephoto camera. It has succeeded in monitoring Earth’s clouds and weather patterns from space while powering it with solar power from more than 9,000 solar panels. It ran for 78 days and took 23,000 photos.
The method of observing the weather with weather satellites was established by Tyros 1, but it was not possible to predict future weather, which was calculated based on the data sent by the satellite. The amount of calculation is too much for humans to do with paper and pencil.
Coincidentally, the development of computers required to perform massive calculations had already begun in the 1930s. The world’s first general-purpose electronic computer is known as ENIAC, which was developed by mathematician von Neumann. Neumann started a meteorological research project with numerical analysis tests using Aniac. By the mid-1950s, Aniac was able to make regular numerical predictions.
In the 1980s, more research was carried out on weather satellite observations and numerical models processing data. As the weather satellite data can be observed 24 hours a day, the level of prediction has dramatically improved. In modern times, smartphone apps have evolved enough to predict the weather five days later with the same precision as the weather forecast for the next day in 1980.
Now, many things in our daily life are maintained by modern weather forecasting accuracy. Decision-making based on weather data as well as typhoon and tsunami warnings are made everywhere. Modern meteorology is contributing a lot to our daily lives. Related information can be found here.
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