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The Coast Star
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By
Fred Carl
Over the last few days, one
could tune into a television news broadcast or visit the NOAA web site
to watch the hurricane named Katrina form in the Atlantic, get
stronger, rip across southern Florida, build more strength in the Gulf
of Mexico, then slam into the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and
Alabama. This terrible storm which has caused vast devastation would have claimed tens of thousands of lives but, thanks to the warnings from the weather service, people were provided with the choice and time to flee. In the past, before dedicated engineers and scientists began work to better forecast hurricanes, ten of thousands of people were killed every year by these massive storms. On April 10, 1960, the first weather satellite named TIROS was in orbit just 10 days after a perfect launch by NASA from Cape Canaveral. TIROS was built by RCA in Princeton and was designed and tested at Camp Evans in Wall. It was sending hundreds of cloud formation photos to Camp Evans to astounded weather scientists when the meteorologists saw an unknown cloud formation in a photo. The giant swirl of clouds over the Pacific Ocean north of New Zealand had a hole in the center. A weather plane was sent to the area to investigate. The plane reported they had found a typhoon. Hurricane tracking was born that day on Marconi Road in building 9162. Meteorologists no longer had to forecast if a tropical depression out in the Atlantic Ocean would turn into a hurricane. They could watch it happen and track the storm with satellites to give warning to coastal populations in grave danger. The quest to develop a weather satellite began in 1954 when a camera on a rocket launched by the U.S. Navy showed clouds could be photographed from space. The rocket was a V-2 captured from Germany after World War II. Meteorologists believed if a television camera was placed on a satellite to take a series of photos, the analysis of cloud movements would help improve weather prediction.  Engineers at Camp Evans began the design and subcontracted to the television camera experts at RCA in nearby Princeton. According to author John Jakes in his 1966 book, "TIROS —Weather Eye in the Sky," the TIROS flight model named D-1 was subjected to the stresses of the environment in which it would be operated. "Thrust into a vacuum chamber to duplicate the heat and airlessness of space, the D-1 malfunctioned. Back it went to RCA at Princeton for more work," the author wrote. The thermal-vacuum chamber was located in a Quonset, building 9088, that still remains along Monmouth Boulevard. Once returned to Camp Evans for "more performance tests. More checking and re-checking of the TV cameras, the recording gear, the receiver and transmitters. Then more tests in the thermal-vacuum chamber. Again, components failed," it was noted. Finally after a series of successful tests, D-1 went into a specially-built, pressurized shipping container and was dispatched to Cape Canaveral on March 7. Models D-2 and D-3 were also tested at Camp Evans, then shipped to Cape Canaveral. D-3 was selected for the April 1 launch. Today, NOAA has a network of advanced weather satellites that monitor the earth's weather. The 60-foot antenna that received the first weather satellite photo, the first photo of a hurricane and a typhoon and 23,000 other photos, is being stabilized by the community volunteers of the not-for-profit InfoAge. A generous gift from Harris Corporation, which manufactured the historic antenna, has enabled the work. Building 9162 was once full of the most advanced satellite tracking and imaging equipment 1960s technology had to offer. Volunteers are transforming it into a space science and meteorology education center. Already, hundreds of students have visited the building. A vision formed by weather scientists in the early 1950s, made possible by the space technology of the 1960s, continues to pay dividends to mankind. Possibly some of the students who visit building 9162 will select a career in science and technology and will benefit mankind by applying their talents to the many challenges of today. |
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