Captions for A Satellite for All Seasons

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These unusual cloud streaks called shiptracks are believed to be caused by aerosols and other particles given off by the smoke stacks of large ships. (47k jpg)
NOAA Satellite Image

Cloud eddy off the coast of Morocco. This intriguing feature may be caused by the air flow around the coastline and nearby Atlas Mountains. (28k jpg)
NASA Photograph

Cloud patterns indicate vortices off Guadalupe Island west of Baja, California. Formation of such swirls is related to wind speed and differences in air temperature. (29k jpg)
NASA Photograph

The snow covered Andes Mountains of Chile poke through a solid cloud deck. (16k jpg)
NASA Photograph

Clouds completely obscure the view of the Earth in this scene taken by a camera mounted on the Shuttle Pallet Satellite (SPAS), a European Space Agency payload carried into orbit by the Space Shuttle (26k jpg)
NASA Photograph

The sun highlights thick clouds in this Apollo view. (18k jpg)
NASA Photograph

View of a thunderstorm over the Soviet Union photographed by U.S. astronauts on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975. The Soviet Soyuz spacecraft is in the upper left. (9k jpg)
NASA Photograph

GOES satellite view of Hurricane Allen in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 1980. (44k jpg)
Courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, NOAA

Perspective view of Hurricane Mitch on October 26, 1998. (31k jpg)
Courtesy of Laboratory of Atmospheres, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Two Pacific storms are visible on a GOES satellite image from July 1978. (52k jpg)
Courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, NOAA

GOES-8 infrared of Hurricanes Georges, Karl, Ivan and Jeanne on September 26, 1998. (57k jpg)
Courtesy of National Climatic Data Center, NOAA

Skylab view of tropical storm Ellen from September 1973. (15k jpg)
NASA Photograph

Apollo 9 view of the 1968 hurricane, Gladys, over Florida. (18k jpg)
NASA Photograph

The world's first weather satellite, TIROS-1, was launched on April 1, 1960. It provided more than 22,000 pictures of the Earth from orbit. (48k jpg)

In 1965, 450 TIROS images were put together to produce the first complete global view of the Earth's weather patterns. (32k jpg)
TIROS Data

ITOS (Improved TIROS Operational System) satellites were the second series of TIROS operational satellites. (16k jpg)

The seventh ITOS being readied for launch. (25k jpg)
NASA Photograph

Scene of Canada and the Great Lakes from the first ITOS satellite. (30k jpg)
NASA Photograph

Launched in 1978, TIROS-N was the first in the series of the third generation polar orbiting operational satellites. (52k jpg)
The Museum's 1/10 scale model is courtesy of RCA Astro Electronics

Launched in September 2000, NOAA 16 is the latest in the advanced TIROS-N (ATN) series of satellites. Like its predessors, this polar-orbiting spacecraft supports environmental monitoring instruments for the imaging and measurement of the Earth's atmosphere, surface, and cloud cover. (41k jpg)
NOAA drawing

GOES satellites are designed to constantly monitor the same region of the Earth. They are placed in a geostationary orbit 35,800 kilometers (about 22,200 miles) above the equator. (41k jpg)
Scale model by Space Systems/LORAL, Palo Alto, California

Technicians ready the GOES-K for launch. After it became operational, the satellite was called GOES-10. (61k jpg)
Courtesy of Space Systems/LORAL

This diagram shows the actual dimensions of GOES I-M series spacecraft. The solar sail boom on the museum's model is not to scale, due to its great length. At the model's scale, the boom would be 3.7 meters (12 feet) longer than the one displayed in the gallery. (26k gif)
Courtesy of Space Systems/LORAL

The Launch of the GOES-K satellite aboard an Atlas 1 rocket on April 25, 1997. (39k jpg)
NASA Photograph

An image of the Earth from the GOES-8 satellite. The GOES imaging sensor records data in five different wavelength bands (both visible and infrared) and can monitor cloud cover, atmospheric, water, and sea surface temperature. (55k jpg)
Courtesy of Space Systems/LORAL and NOAA

Hurricane Fran threatens the Florida coast in this GOES-8 image from September 1996. (71k jpg)
Courtesy of Space Systems/LORAL and Fritz Hasler/NASA Goddard Laboratory for Atmospheres

Ash plume from El Chichon volcano in visible light. (43k jpg)
Courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, NOAA

Ash plume from El Chichon volcano in thermal infrared. (58k jpg)
Courtesy of National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, NOAA

Ash cloud from Soufriere Hills volcano in visible light. (48k jpg)
Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Ash cloud from Soufriere Hills volcano with water vapor data removed. (30k jpg)
Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Dust depicted as light brown haze. (62k jpg)
Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Dust depicted in white areas. (50k jpg)
Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

NOAA-15 image of large fires in the Northwest Territories of Canada. Massive heat signatures (red) are revealed between Fort McPherson and Fort Good Hope. Very dense smoke (gray haze) drifts to the Northwest over Mackenzie Bay. (67k jpg)

Fires burn amid the bordering countries of Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. (70k jpg)

The unusually hot and dry summer of 1999 caused wildfire outbreaks near Saint Petersburg, around Moscow, and throughout eastern Russia. The red area surrounding Saint Petersburg is due to heat from the city. The real fires have telltale smoke plumes trailing to the south. (90k jpg)