Watching satellite loops of hurricanes, dust storms, and other atmospheric events has become routine and I see daily examples on social media plus on broadcast television and online. But it was just 65 years ago that the first weather satellite was launched, just a couple of years after the USSR launched Sputnik in 1957. One of the scientists who was instrumental in getting the satellite built and launched was Dr. Vernor Suomi, my MS advisor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Here is an interesting story of how the satellite was conceptualized and built and how weather satellites have evolved since then.
