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Short History of DoD Space-based Weather

Short History of DoD Space-based Weather. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War. It’s More Than the Satellite. Ground System Sensors Camera, Line Scanner, IR, Space Weather Math

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Short History of DoD Space-based Weather

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  1. Short History of DoD Space-based Weather Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total. - Sun Tzu, The Art of War

  2. It’s More Than the Satellite • Ground System • Sensors • Camera, Line Scanner, IR, Space Weather • Math • ENIAC was used to create the first forecasts via computer in 1950 • (MOS) were developed in the 1970s and 1980s for individual forecast points (locations). • Satellites/orbits • Weather Enterprise • Civil/Military/Academic/Hierarchical mix

  3. How Long Have We Asked About Weather? • Cavemen had their eyes and a wet finger • What did they talk about during awkward silences? • Around 650 B.C., Babylonians used clouds and optical phenomena such as haloes. • ~ 525 B.C. Sun Tzu • Around 340 B.C., Aristotle wrote Meteorologica, theories about the formation of rain, clouds, hail, wind, thunder, lightning, and hurricanes. • By 300 B.C., Chinese astronomers had a calendar that divided the year into 24 festivals, each festival associated with a different type of weather. The word “meteorology" is from the Greek: "lofty; high (in the sky)"

  4. First Image from Orbit • Explorer VI • Aug 1959 • Crossing Mexico • (That’s the Pacific. • Yes, really……) • - Later first ASAT target

  5. Timeline • 1920s - invention of the radiosonde. Small lightweight boxes equipped with weather instruments and a radio transmitter • <1950 – Talk of photo recon w/cloud info • 1951 RAND study on feasibility of weather recon • 1956 TIROS Program begins • 1960 – TIROS-1 NASA experimental TV weather

  6. Timeline • 4/1961 – NASA gets WX mission/NRO has doubts • 7/1961 – NRO gets military mission • 9/1962 – Pictures coming back • Support to Cuban Missile Crisis • Gen LeMay & SAC agreed to support & launch • Scouts (62-64), Thors (64-80s) • 1963 Infrared pictures • First discussion of Civil/Military weather split • 1964 Tactical and Strategic data • 1965 Program shift to Gen Schriever’s portfolio • 1972 Dual Redundancy

  7. Timeline • 1973 Program becomes unclassified • 1973 Second conversation Civil/Military mix • 1974 NUDET mission (now GPS, among others) • 1980-1983 No working DMSP – Greatly affects NOAA discussions • Mid-1980s Current 5D-3 Satellite • 1993 OMB looks again at Civil/Military mix • 1994 Pres Clinton creates NPOESS program • 2010 NPOESS ‘disaggregated’ • 2012 DWSS canceled • 2014 ‘Resistance is Futile’; move to SBIRS • What Now?

  8. Weather Modeling • 1955 -- Operational numerical weather prediction; statistics based (WDD 1954) • Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit (JNWPU) • Joint project by the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Weather Bureau • Modeled the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere • 1956 -- Monthly and seasonal patterns in the troposphere • First successful climate model • 1966-- Forecasts based on primitive-equation models • West Germany and the United States • United Kingdom 1972 and Australia1977 • Gravity waves, mid-1980s • 1986 -- Initialize and model soil and vegetation types • Led to more realistic forecasts • January 1994 -- Climate System Model (CSM) was developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research

  9. Notable Military Weather Pioneers MG (ret) Jack Kulpa, 2nd DMSP PM Group Captain James Martin Stagg 6 Jun 1944 Col Scott Larrimore, Last DMSP SPO Director Lt Col Tom Haig, 1st DMSP PM

  10. DMSP ‘Save’ AN/SMQ-10; USS America

  11. A Very Successful Mission by Most Measures

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