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UW/Madison CIMSS at 40

By Tim Schmit •

CIMSS (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies) is now 40 years old, as it was established in 1980. From “about CIMSS: “… is a Cooperative Institute formed through a Memorandum of Understanding between the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1980. CIMSS operates as an institute within the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC)”.

A GOES-3 visible loop from July 14, 1980. Displayed with McIDAS-X software. [Click image to play animation]

The CIMSS mission includes three goals:

  • Foster collaborative research among NOAA, NASA, and the University in those aspects of atmospheric and earth system sciences that exploit the use of satellite technology;
  • Serve as a center at which scientists and engineers working on problems of mutual interest can focus on satellite-related research in atmospheric and earth system science;
  • Stimulate the training of scientists and engineers in the disciplines involved in atmospheric and earth science.
A visible loop from July 14, 1980 from NASA’s SMS geostationary satellite. [Click image to play animation]
An infrared loop from July 14, 1980 from NASA’s SMS geostationary satellite. [Click image to play animation]
A visible full disk image from July 14, 1980 at 1730 UTC from NASA’s SMS geostationary satellite.

The same image, but full resolution (11 MB).

Then and Now

Two full disk images, separated by 40 years.

The above image pair compare a NASA SMS from 1980 to an GOES-16 ABI true color composite from 2020. Both images are from July 14th. The GOES-16 data was generated using Geo2Grid software.

The data are via SSEC Data Services.

Categories: General interpretation, Historical, SMS-2