<img alt=“first_tiros.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/first_tiros.jpg” width=“168” height=“180” hspace=10 border=0 align=right />

The National Academy of Sciences published a Plan for U.S. Participation in the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) in 1969. It grew from a plea by US President John F. Kennedy in 1961 for “further cooperative efforts between all nations in weather prediction and eventually weather control” in a speech to the United Nations in 1961. (From the Colby College Guide to Historical Resources in Atmospheric Sciences)

GARP called for a series of regional studies leading up a global weather observation test studying the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere in 1973. The observational network would need 2 satellites, almost 1,000 balloons, 135 buoys, and a dozen aircraft . It anticipated that computers would be 100 times faster by then. It also said that developments in computers and satellites had made it possible “to advance toward the goal of accurate two-week forecasts and, eventually, toward intelligent modification of the weather.”

Photo: The first image from a weather observation satellite, taken by TIROS-1 on 1 April 1960. / NASA

<img alt=“first_tiros.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/first_tiros.jpg” width=“168” height=“180” hspace=10 border=0 align=right />

The National Academy of Sciences published a Plan for U.S. Participation in the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) in 1969. It grew from a plea by US President John F. Kennedy in 1961 for “further cooperative efforts between all nations in weather prediction and eventually weather control” in a speech to the United Nations in 1961. (From the Colby College Guide to Historical Resources in Atmospheric Sciences)

GARP called for a series of regional studies leading up a global weather observation test studying the Pacific Ocean and atmosphere in 1973. The observational network would need 2 satellites, almost 1,000 balloons, 135 buoys, and a dozen aircraft . It anticipated that computers would be 100 times faster by then. It also said that developments in computers and satellites had made it possible “to advance toward the goal of accurate two-week forecasts and, eventually, toward intelligent modification of the weather.”

Photo: The first image from a weather observation satellite, taken by TIROS-1 on 1 April 1960. / NASA