{"id":15263,"date":"2023-08-17T18:55:51","date_gmt":"2023-08-17T18:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/?p=15263"},"modified":"2023-09-19T16:07:37","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T16:07:37","slug":"historys-extreme-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/15263","title":{"rendered":"Preserving satellite history"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>When NASA\u2019s Applications Technology Satellite 1 launched in 1966, it made history by sending back some of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/articles\/9433\">first geostationary images<\/a> of our planet. The premise was simple, \u201cthe weather moves, not the satellite.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was the vision of University of Wisconsin-Madison\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/library.ssec.wisc.edu\/digital-collections\/verner-e-suomi\/\">Dr. Verner Suomi<\/a> who helped usher in a new era of atmospheric and Earth science through his vision of studying Earth from space.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AATSimg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner-1026x390.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15264\" style=\"width:839px;height:319px\" width=\"839\" height=\"319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner-1026x390.jpg 1026w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner-325x124.jpg 325w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner-768x292.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner.jpg 1400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 839px) 100vw, 839px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Captured in 1966, the ATS-I geostationary satellite sent back thousands of images, including this one of Earth from morning to evening. Credit: SSEC and NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>An ongoing project to digitize those early images is happening at UW-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center and Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. The catalogue spans eight years from 1966 to 1974 when ATS-I and its successor ATS-III were operating. The collection totals more than 66,000 images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Highlights include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AL6LEXMGQLM5HM9C\">First satellite images of Earth from ATS-I, December 11, 1966<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/ACLF7ANJ3I4CE39D\">First color video of Earth from ATS-III<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AIJQKOASSHXVJ387\">First Earth Day captured by ATS-III April 22, 1970<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AYE66K5JPCRW2O8T\">Hurricane Camille August 17, 1969, the costliest hurricane to hit the U.S.<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AXXWSTDQSZ7QNI86\">Super tornado outbreak April 3-4, 1974 from ATS-III<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AB6CAUCQDDRTAO8P\">Hurricane Agnes June 14-24 from ATS-III<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AAD7CSO4KUL3CJ83\">Thanksgiving snowstorm, November 24, 1971<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/AJ77ALBCSKTCEC8T\">SSEC co-founder Dr. Verner Suomi explaining how geostationary satellites work<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to NOAA Scientist Tim Schmit, the digitalization of the ATS visible geostationary images is a critical first step toward tapping into the potential scientific uses of the data.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/digital\/ACLF7ANJ3I4CE39D\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-1026x692.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15270\" style=\"width:351px;height:237px\" width=\"351\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-1026x692.jpg 1026w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-325x219.jpg 325w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-768x518.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-1536x1035.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/AIEGMBGDT6OBNF8N-M-native-057ca-2048x1380.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 351px) 100vw, 351px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Earth in color captured by ATS-III in 1967. <br>Credit: SSEC and NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn addition to image and loop generation for these extreme weather events, these data can be used for generating re-analysis of past weather and can be used for investigating hurricanes pre-dating the modern satellite era,\u201d says Schmit. \u201cOther uses could be extending cloud climatology further into the past and possibly generating cloud-drift atmospheric vector winds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>SSEC\u2019s Satellite Data Services is currently working to correctly identify times and dates of the images, as well as adding geo-location, so they can be used to study historic weather and climate patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>This work is supported by SSEC<\/em> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.wisc.edu\/search\/digital\">University of Wisconsin Digital Collections<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When NASA\u2019s Applications Technology Satellite 1 launched in 1966, it made history by sending back some of the first geostationary images of our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":15264,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[14,23,31],"class_list":["post-15263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-stories","tag-cimss","tag-satellite-observations","tag-ssec"],"acf":{"guest_author":[{"first_name":"","last_name":"","link":""}],"ssec_home_page_carousel_image":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2023\/08\/ATS-1_multipanel_web_banner.jpg","include_for_media_link":"no","sub_title":"Digitized geostationary images from ATS-1 and ATS-3","short_title":"Preserving satellite history"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15263"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15316,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15263\/revisions\/15316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}