![]() Known as WINDCO, the system consisted of a video disk for storing imagery and a Raytheon 440 minicomputer controlling it. Based on this success, Suomi was able to gain additional funding from NASA and the NSF to develop a prototype all-computerized image processing system. The software solution, by Smith and Phillips, was able to demonstrate the ability to calculate wind speed and direction based solely on the images of the clouds. Two teams were set up, one developing an analog solution and another using software. In order to speed up the process of examining the data, Suomi started an internal competition to develop an automated solution. Although a number of advances were made while examining this data, the work was tedious and time consuming. Data from these instruments was captured on realtime printouts, and required manual work to cut and paste the successive strips into a single image, and then into multiple time-lapse images. On 5 November 1967 ATS-3 launched the Multicolor Spin Scan Cloudcover Camera, which provided the first color meteorological imaging. SSCC was launched on ATS-1 on 6 December 1966. Fixed to the body of a rotating satellite, the SSCC would build up a 2D image as the satellite spun and rotated in its orbit. The SSCC imaged a single strip of the Earth at a time, feeding out its information directly to a radio for broadcast to the ground. At the SSEC, Suomi and Parent developed the Spin Scan Cloudcover Camera (SSCC) to accurately measure and map cloud cover. To further develop the field of satellite-based meteorology, NASA and National Science Foundation (NSF) grants led to the creation of the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. This experiment demonstrated the impact of cloud cover on the heat balance of the Earth. A similar experiment flew on Explorer 7 in 1959. ![]() Their first attempt was fitted to Vanguard TV3, but this exploded on launch. ![]() They developed a remote sensing radiometer with the intent of flying it into space and measuring the heat budget of the Earth. For the rest of his professional career he worked in the field of remote measuring using radiometers, often working with Robert Parent. In 1953 Verner Suomi measured the heat budget of a corn field for his doctoral thesis at the University of Chicago. History Applications Technology Satellite (ATS)
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