History
Early Years and Education
Suomi was born December 6, 1915, in Eveleth, Minnesota. He
received a B.E. in 1938 from Winona Teachers' College, Winona,
Minnesota. Suomi taught science in Minnesota high schools from
1938 through 1941. At the start of World War II, he enrolled in a
civil air patrol course and began studying meteorology. He was
so taken with the new science that he decided to study at the
University of Chicago and teach practical meteorology to pilots.
Suomi came to the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1948 as
one of the first faculty members in the Department of
Meteorology. In 1953, he received his Ph.D. at the University of
Chicago. He taught at UW-Madison for his entire career, except
for appointments as Associate Program Director for Atmospheric
Sciences in the National Science Foundation (1962) and Chief
Scientist of the U.S. Weather Bureau (1964). Suomi retired from
formal teaching in 1986 but continued teaching a weekly
undergraduate meteorology course as a professor emeritus.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Flat Plate Radiometer
Verner Suomi's major contributions to space engineering began in
the late 1950s when he and Robert Parent, a University of Wisconsin professor of electrical engineering, developed an
instrument designed to measure the Earth's heat balance from a
satellite. The flat plate radiometer is simple and essentially
error free; it can be calibrated by viewing the Sun, space, and
Earth in sequence from a spinning satellite. This radiometer flew on the U.S. TIROS, ITOS and DMSP series of satellites; an
earlier version was flown on Explorer VII. In addition to the
flat plate radiometer for satellite sensing, Suomi developed a
series of economical net flux radiometersondes to measure the
infrared cooling rates of the atmosphere and infer the radiation
balance of the earth-atmosphere system. Through analysis of
these satellite and balloon observations, Suomi and his students
established that radiative energy fluxes within the atmosphere
vary markedly due to the effect of clouds and other absorbing
constituents. They also showed that the Earth was darker than
originally believed because less solar energy was directly
reflected to space. These seminal investigations were among the
first to use a space platform to monitor the global energy
budget. They set a standard for studying how this budget is
being altered by both natural and human processes.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU Permission.
Spin-Scan Cloud Camera
The Spin-Scan Cloud Camera, introduced by Verner Suomi in 1963, represented a revolutionary milestone in satellite instrumentation. This brilliant technical idea formed the scientific foundation for geosynchronous satellite imaging for the world's operational weather services. The Spin-Scan Cloud Camera in geosynchronous orbit made it possible to observe weather systems at intervals as small as a few minutes and hence to measure the dynamics of many phenomena, for example, air motion, cloud height and growth rates, rainfall location and amounts, and the extent of atmospheric pollution. Other satellite systems produced interesting aperiodic pictures, but the geostationary Spin-Scan Cloud Camera data enabled evolutionary time sequence studies that described weather accurately and permitted the research necessary for operational applications. Satellite sensing thus moved from qualitative viewing to quantitative measurement, from a research curiosity to an operational necessity.
The idea for the camera was first conceived while Suomi was
serving as the first Chief Scientist for the National Weather
Service. He sought to develop a system that could take frequent
observations of a single weather phenomenon and provide
time-rate-of-change information about the weather. To achieve
the necessary geostationary orbit, 22,000 miles away from Earth,
profound design problems had to be overcome. Suomi and Robert
Parent solved these by using a spinning satellite to provide
inertial stability and a small scanning reflective telescope that
scanned swaths of the Earth progressively to create whole Earth
images. These cameras were first flown on the Applications
Technology Satellite series (ATS I and III) in the 1960s and they
provided eight years of high quality, accurate images of the
Earth's surface and atmosphere.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Beyond the Spin-Scan Camera
Two operational systems were based on the spin scan design:
NASA's Synchronous Meteorological Satellite and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geosynchronous
Operational Environmental Satellite. The spin-scan design has
also been adopted by the European Space Agency and the Japanese
Meteorological Agency for their operational meteorological
satellite programs. The development and application of a global
geostationary imaging capability has had many positive
consequences. It has saved thousands of lives and millions of
dollars from the ravages of storms; it has made meteorological
satellite data routinely available to many nations that otherwise
could not afford it; and, in conjunction with improvements in
numerical weather prediction, it has helped two and four day
forecasts to become as accurate as one and two day forecasts once
were.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
VISSR Atmospheric Sounder Experiment (VAS)
The VISSR Atmospheric Sounder Experiment (VAS), begun in 1971,
was proposed by Suomi to sound the atmosphere's temperature and
water vapor distribution from a geostationary satellite. The
instrument was designed to have high spatial resolution for
observing mesoscale features of the atmosphere, the scale at
which severe weather occurs and evolves. Sensing the spectral
distribution of radiation emitted by the atmosphere from
geostationary orbit at high resolution required considerable
technology due to the low levels of terrestrial energy received
at such high altitudes within the instrument's small field of
view. The VAS was a modification of Suomi's original spin-scan
system, with additional detectors added to cover the necessary
spectral bands. The successful performance of VAS was
demonstrated shortly after it was launched on GOES-4 in 1980.
Temporal and spatial variations of temperature and water vapor
associated with severe convection and weather were observed and
retrieved with the accuracy set forth in Suomi's 1971 proposal.
These observations of mesoscale weather are now being used by the
National Weather Service for warning purposes. The geostationary
sounder remains the only instrument with sufficient temporal and
spatial resolution to observe the evolution of severe storms over a
region of several hundred thousand square miles. Data from VAS
showed the potential to predict hurricane tracks much more
accurately, to aid in tornado forecasting, and to provide basic
input for numerical models. The operational need for
geostationary sounding, demonstrated with VAS, is now fulfilled
with the GOES-8/9 sounders.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Man Computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS)
Suomi also directed the development and evolution of the Man
Computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS), to achieve
rapid and versatile access to the spin-scan camera data. This
system analyzes and interprets millions of satellite and other
types of observations rapidly and enables the human eye to
interpret the results. McIDAS was initially conceived as a way
to produce accurate cloud motion measurements from ATS, SMS, and
GOES satellite data. Through efficient and rapid access to
satellite image data, meteorologists can view wind and other
information over land and ocean routinely. McIDAS evolved into a
powerful data management tool used in many national and
international weather centers for both meteorological research
and operational forecasting. It is also used as an educational
tool in atmospheric science programs throughout the United States
and in industrial operations where timely weather data is
essential.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Observing, Forecasting, the Planets and GARP Formation
Suomi contributed to the advance of observational and forecast capabilities through several other activities. The list includes: design of the balloon borne radioaltimeter to measure the height of meteorological balloons, pioneering work on microwave antennas for the next generation of atmospheric sounders, and leadership of the University of Wisconsin team that developed radiation experiments for EXPLORER VII and for the TIROS satellites. He was also a member of the Venus/Mercury 1973 Imaging Science Team, NASA's Mariner/Jupiter/Saturn Imaging Science Team, and the Pioneer Venus Science Steering Group. Suomi was actively involved in determining our nation's future course through his committee work on the NASA Advisory Committee on Scientific Uses of Space Stations. On the international front, Suomi was one of the driving forces of the Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP), which resulted in the first comprehensive, year-long observation of the world's weather. GARP's data would be used by researchers for the rest of the century.
Suomi continued to explore new ideas in his last days. In
particular, he was developing the sea surface sonde--a device for
measuring the total flow of heat from the ocean into the
atmosphere. Measurements from this instrument would not only
provide ground truth data for satellite-based remote sensing but
also directly contribute to the understanding of the climatology
of these parameters. Energy processes over the ocean are a prime focus of current meteorological research and are critical to understanding the atmosphere as a global system. Initial tests proved to be very promising. Suomi
was also exploring and advocating the use of commercial
satellites to geometrically infer vertical distributions of
temperature and moisture through their occultation events.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Honors and Awards
Suomi received many honors during his scientific career. He was
awarded the World Meteorological Organization's IMO [International
Meteorological Organization] Prize; the National Medal of Sciences;
Finland's first Walter Ahlstrom Prize; the Franklin Medal of the Franklin
Institute (Philadelphia); Meisinger, Rossby, Losey, and Brooks
awards from the American Meteorological Society (AMS); and awards
from NASA and NOAA. On these and many other occasions Suomi
humbly acknowledged the help of his colleagues and claimed that
others deserved the credit. He was a member of the U.S. Academy
of Engineering, the American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, the Finnish Academy of Sciences (Helsinki), the Deutsche Akademie der
Naturforscher, the International Academy of Astronautics (Paris),
the American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia), the Academy of
Arts and Sciences (Boston), Phi Kappa Phi, and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1968 he was
elected president of both the American Meteorological Society and
the American Geophysical Union's Atmospheric Science Section. He
also served on many influential committees, many of them as a
director.
Excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
Legacy
Suomi's accomplishments are significant for their breadth and
ingenuity alone, but what makes them truly outstanding is their
universal impact on our international society. Usually a
significant technical advance affects only a limited area of
human activity. Those described here have led to innovations
that have affected everyone on the planet. The protection
of lives and property has been one outcome. Another has been
the savings of energy achieved in the multitude of industries
whose operations can be efficiently planned only through
anticipation of the weather. Furthermore, in these
environmentally conscious times, it has become increasingly
important to have the continuous global record offered by the
Spin-Scan Cloud Camera to monitor natural and human variations in our
atmosphere. Verner Suomi has given us primary tools with which
these and many other problems can be understood and turned to
human advantage.
By W. Paul Menzel, excerpted from EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union, v. 76, no. 45, 1995. Posted with AGU permission.
He is remembered by his colleagues for his unmatchable energy and the power he unleashed through genuinely inspired interest in solving important problems for humanity.