Did you know that the vast majority of weather data that goes into weather forecast models comes not from ground measurements, but from satellite observations? This increase in global data, plus the increased power of computers, has improved weather forecasting dramatically over time. It’s hard to believe that satellite meteorology only started in the 1960’s, not that long ago for many of us.
This week marks the 50th anniversary of CIMSS, the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I got my MS in meteorology using satellites to study cloud features. The founder of CIMSS, Dr. Vernor Suomi, was my MS advisor. A new satellite named for him has been providing spectacular images of many atmospheric features for the past few months. One of them, showing a satellite-view of the aurora borealis, is shown below.
You can read more about the CIMSS anniversary from Tom Skilling, TV meteorologist for WGN in Chicago here.
