astronomy

Verner E. Suomi

Verner E. Suomi is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Verner E. Suomi rather than just read about it. In short: Verner Edward Suomi (December 6, 1915 – 30 July 1995) was a Finnish-American educator, inventor, and scientist. He is considered the father of satellite meteorology.

Key takeaways

Verner E. Suomi belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Verner E. Suomi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Verner E. Suomi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Verner Edward Suomi (December 6, 1915 – 30 July 1995) was a Finnish-American educator, inventor, and scientist. He is considered the father of satellite meteorology. He invented the Spin Scan Radiometer, which for many years was the instrument on the GOES weather satellites that generated the time sequences of cloud images seen on television weather shows. The Suomi NPP polar orbiting satellite, launched in 2011, was named in his honor.

Early life Suomi was born in Eveleth, Minnesota, to Swedish-speaking Finns John and Anna Suomi. His parents arrived in the United States in 1902 from the Åland Islands from Finland. (The family surname, Suomi, is of Finnish origin and means Finland in Finnish.) He was the sixth of seven children; he outlived all but two sisters, Esther and Edith. He received his first degree from Winona Teachers College (now Winona State University). He taught high school science. Later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he received his PhD in 1953.

Career By 1948, Suomi was among the earliest faculty members of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Together with Robert Parent, in 1965, Suomi founded the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) there. From this, came the first weather satellite to provide imagery from a geostationary orbit and was named the Applications Technology Satellite (ATS-1), launched on 6 December 1966, that included a Spin Scan Radiometer. The subsequent ATS-3, launched in November 1967, using a spin scan camera, made what would be known as the first color images of the whole earth. Suomi led the development of McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System) in 1972, displaying the images produced by his satellites such as SMS-1 in 1974. A very popular professor, he formally retired from teaching in 1986. A list of his publications is being curated at the University of Wisconsin

Honors and awards Suomi was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1966, elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1976, awarded the National Medal of Science and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977, awarded the Franklin Medal in 1984, the Charles Franklin Brooks Award from the American Meteorological Society in 1980; a lifetime achievement award from the International Meteorological Organization, and numerous other awards and honors including the World Meteorological Organization's International Meteorological Organization Prize (the IMO Prize) and the first Walter Ahlstrom Prize. The American Meteorological Society established the Verner E. Suomi Technology Medal, in his honor. It is granted to individuals in recognition of highly significant technological achievement in the atmospheric or related oceanic and hydrologic sciences. The term "technological" is used here in the broadest sense; it encompasses the entire spectrum of instrumentation, as well as observational, measurement, data transmission, and data analysis and synthesis methodologies. On January 24, 2012, NASA renamed a recently launched NPP Earth monitoring satellite after Dr. Suomi. On that occasion, John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said that "Verner Suomi's many scientific and engineering contributions were fundamental to our current ability to learn about Earth's weather and climate from space." The Suomi NPP houses the VIIRS instrument that provided the images which were combined to make the 2012 The Blue Marble photo.

Personal life Suomi died in Madison, Wisconsin at age 79. He was survived by his wife Paula and his children Eric, Stephen, and Lois; two sisters, Edith and Esther; two granddaughters; and many nieces and nephews.

Notes

Further reading Katarina Koivisto (1990-11-22). "Väderprofessor fick miljöpris". Forum (in Swedish). No. 1990–18. p. 19. ISSN 0533-070X.

External links Suomi Virtual Museum (includes photo of Suomi) The Space Science and Engineering Center Suomi Website - The Father of Satellite Meteorology. Archived 2014-08-08 at the Wayback Machine NASA ATS-1 (1966) page - NSSDC ID: 1966-110A NASA SMS-1 (1974) page - NSSDC ID: 1974-033A-01 - explanation of Visible Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Verner E. Suomi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Verner E. Suomi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Verner E. Suomi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Verner E. Suomi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Verner E. Suomi

In research: Verner E. Suomi appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Verner E. Suomi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Verner E. Suomi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1915 births, 1995 deaths, American meteorologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Verner E. Suomi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Verner E. Suomi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Verner E. Suomi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Verner E. Suomi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Verner E. Suomi in simple terms?

Verner Edward Suomi (December 6, 1915 – 30 July 1995) was a Finnish-American educator, inventor, and scientist. He is considered the father of satellite meteorology.

Why does Verner E. Suomi matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Verner E. Suomi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Verner E. Suomi.