This site is under construction. In the end, it will form the basis of a Virtual museum dedicated to the life's work of Verner E. Suomi -- inventor, mentor, and tinkerer. We hope you will come back and visit us later!

Observations from instruments flown on satellites are used extensively in weather analysis.

Weather satellites fly around the Earth in two basic orbits: a Geostationary Earth Orbit (abbreviated as GEO) and a Low Earth Orbit (also called LEO). If you click here, you can watch and listen to Professor Suomi explaining this (MPEG file).

Flown on board satellites are instruments that measure electromagnetic energy that is either reflected or emitted by our planet. These instruments are called radiometers. Two common types of radiometers are used in satellite meteorology. One type measures the amount of visible light from the sun reflected back to space by the Earth's surface or by clouds. The second measures the amount of radiation emitted by these entities.

Interpreting these satellite images in important to understanding weather conditions and how they are changing.


The Verner E. Suomi Virtual Museum development funded in part by the National Science Foundation Grant #EAR9809458.  Material presented is Copyrighted (C) 1999 by Steve Ackerman and Tom Whittaker.  If you have questions or comments, please let us know!