First weather satellite launched this day in 1960

The nation’s first weather satellite was launched on this day in 1960, ushering in a new era in meteorology.

The Television InfraRed Observational Satellite (TIROS-1) was designed by RCA to study the feasibility of monitoring weather patterns from space. It provided forecasters their first-ever view of clouds as they formed around the globe.

The first image, showing the coast of Maine and Canada's Maritime Provinces, was rushed from the New Jersey receiving station to President Eisenhower, who called it a "marvelous development." A few days later, TIROS-1 sent back an image of a typhoon about 1,000 miles east of Australia. A few weeks later, a wide-angle image centered on Wichita Falls, Texas captured an "unusual cloud mass" that resulted in a heavy thunderstorm which spawned tornados in central Oklahoma.

The drum-shaped satellite was about the size of a small patio table, 42 inches across and 19 inches high, covered by 9,260 solar cells which charged 21 NiCad batteries and weighed in at 270 pounds at launch. Today's GOES series weather satellites are 20 feet high and weigh over 11,000 pounds at launch.

Images from a pair of television cameras, one low-resolution, which could see an area about 800 miles wide and narrow-angle camera with a view about 80 miles wide, were stored on magnetic tape until the satellite was in range of ground stations at the U.S. Army's Camp Evans at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and the U.S. Air Force's facility at Kaena Point on Oahu, Hawaii. After transmission, tapes aboard the spacecraft were erased and reused.

22,952 images were returned during its 78 days of operation. Meteorologists found 19,389 of them usable. Though fuzzy by today's standards, they still revealed a much higher degree of organization in lows, fronts, waves and squall lines than expected. We knew of large-scale hurricanes and typhoons reaching over 1,000 miles in diameter, but researchers were surprised by the frequency and extent cyclonic storms exposed by TIROS-1 observations.

TIROS-1 wasn’t just a testbed for satellite weather observation. Sun angle and horizon sensor systems onboard to help orient the spacecraft paved the way for higher precision Earth-observing satellites. Lessons learned through TIROS-1 were also valuable to the manned spaceflight program, including Gemini and beyond.

TIROS-1's mission ended on orbit 1,302 on June 29, 1960. Low-power prevented the shutter on the critical wide-angle camera from closing as the Sun came into view, destroying the camera. Work within the weather bureau shifted to analysis of the data on hand. While the narrow-angle camera remained functional, the fuzzy, 80-mile wide images it returned were nearly impossible to identify without the context provided by the wide-angle camera.

NASA, the U.S. Weather Bureau (predecessor to the National Weather Service and NOAA) continued research on space-based weather observations in partnership with the Army and Navy with nine additional satellites in the TIROS series, each with increasingly advanced technology.

Like many early satellites, TIROS-1 is still up there. Passing over our area three or four times a day, its small size puts it just beyond visibility with the naked eye, even under very dark skies. But with a moderate sized telescope and some good luck, the best upcoming opportunity to catch a glimpse is on April 5 at 4:47 a.m. rising from the south-southeastern horizon.