Weather in motion and in color from the ATS-3 synchronous satellite

Creator

Suomi, Verner, 1915-1995

Date

• November 18, 1967

Summary

• The Applications Technology Satellite-III (ATS-III) was launched on November 5, 1967. UW-Madison Professor Verner Suomi’s Multicolor Spin-Scan Cloud Camera (MSSCC) was one of several experiments on board. The camera demonstrated color imaging of Earth from space as well as continuous viewing of weather from a satellite platform. Suomi understood the benefits that could be gained by observing a single weather phenomenon at frequent intervals, like improved forecasts – better lead times for severe weather. This type of observation was not possible using the early, low polar-orbiting satellites.
• The movie includes a brief background information on ATS-III satellite. Cyclone over E Coast of the United States and Canada on 18 November 1967. Coverage of Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, cyclone over NE Atlantic, intersection of cloud jets leaving N Africa. Equatorial Atlantic, stratus leaving the coast of Chile, and a cyclone approaching the tip of South America. See also: Weather in motion: A commentary on the series of pictures taken by the ATS-III satellite. Madison, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Space Science and Engineering Center, [1968]. Subject include: Applications Technology Satellite - ATS-III Environmental remote sensing Geostationary satellites Remote sensing Robert J. Parent Satellite meteorology Satellite remote sensing Spin Scan Cloud Camera - SSCC Spin Scan Camera Verner E. Suomi
• ATS-III images: Multi-panel showing images from morning to evening on November 18, 1967, the first full day of high-quality images from the Multi-color Spin Scan Cloud Camera.