Atmospheric Sciences: The GARP Years

Meteorology has a dual character as a public service and as a branch of the physical sciences which leads to its peculiar position as a part of both operational systems as well as basic research.

—1977 Report to House of Representatives33

The year 1968 brought big changes to the World Weather Program (WWP): Soviet and American satellites went operational that year and with that, member nations began to participate in the first of many regional observation experiments (the Global Atmospheric Research Program or the GARP). GARP experiments yielded basic data for atmospheric research, which was then applied to numerical models for computer forecasting. Morris Tepper, a key participant, claimed that “numerical prediction was made possible by the Global Atmospheric observa­tions that the NASA program developed.”34

In order to advance weather modeling, one must not only observe global phe­nomena on a daily basis, but also study with greater rigor seasonal occurrences or regional anomalies. Thus, WWP planners used the joint infrastructures of WWW and GARP to merge satellite data with conventional synoptic ground data. From the launch of the first experimental weather satellite in 1960 until both the United States and the USSR had operational systems up in 1967-1968, scientific understanding of meteorological phenomena became increasingly sophisticated, and models more detailed, due in part to data-sharing between the United States and the Soviet Union.35

Researchers took an increasingly systemic approach to meteorology and in so doing, plugged in an ever-growing number of variables that were lacking

in weather models. The atmospheric physics of the poles, ocean currents, and temperature ranges, as well as seasonal phenomena such as monsoons and hurricanes—each of these fields of knowledge demanded a more refined under­standing of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans (table 7.1).

GARP’s multilateral programs depended on an extensive mix of scientific instruments including sounding rockets, automatic weather stations, balloons, weather ships, and the newly developing weather satellites and computers. Such cooperation—often predicated on the agreement to merely observe the same phenomena from different vantage points and instruments—precipitated scien­tific advances that would otherwise have been impossible without a global assem­blage of tracking stations and Soviet-American willingness to share satellite data. Nevertheless, American researchers and technologies dominated GARP research and also took unquestionable initiative in the formation of other spin-off inter­national programs.36

By developing satellites and supporting networks, NASA officials bore con­siderable responsibilities to the NOAA and the WWP. As satellite systems engi­neer, NASA developed, procured, constructed, and insured Command and Data Acquisition stations. As government launcher, NASA selected and procured launch vehicles while maintaining launching sites. Even after launch, NASA tracked orbit through the entire useful life of satellites.

In times of malfunction, NASA staff monitored and commanded satellites, or simply made themselves available for consultation.37 Together these responsibili­ties made NASA fundamental to the development of several overlapping fields of global atmospheric sciences. These included, but were not limited to mete­orology, oceanography, and seasonal events such as hurricanes and monsoons. Working alongside NOAA, NASA helped construct the bureaucratic and techni­cal infrastructure necessary for the development of global participation in—and benefit from—the WWP.

NASA’s Morris Tepper, deputy director of Earth Observation Programs and director of Meteorology at NASA (Office of Space Science Applications), wrote to the executive director of the NOAA in 1972, enclosing a statement on NASA’s maritime and meteorological programs in the coming decade. Tepper framed their relationship as one governed by NOAA’s leadership. As “national meteo­rological representative” NOAA provided NASA with its specifications for all meteorological satellite observations. Embedded in this NASA-NOAA partner­ship lay numerous national and international demands, “requirements of a global nature.” In the WWP, NOAA and NASA partnered with assorted national and international scientific organizations to produce what he described as “require­ments on an international basis and areas of international cooperation.”38 Partnership with the Soviet State Committee on Hydrometeorology and Weather Control—in the form of satellite telemetry from their Meteor-1 and Meteor-2 satellite networks—remained the most important linkage to operation of this system.