Verner Edward Suomi (December 6, 1915 – 30 July 1995[1]) 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.
By 1948, Suomi was among the earliest faculty members of the Department of Meteorology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.[3][4] Together with Robert Parent, in 1965, Suomi founded the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) there.[4] 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.[5]
Suomi led the development of McIDAS (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System) in 1972,[6] displaying the images produced by his satellites such as SMS-1 in 1974.
A very popular professor, he formally retired from teaching in 1986.[1]
On January 24, 2012, NASA renamed a recently launched NPP Earth monitoring satellite after Dr. Suomi.[10] 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."[11] The Suomi NPP houses the VIIRS instrument that provided the images which were combined to make the 2012 The Blue Marble photo.[12]
Personal life
Suomi died in Madison, Wisconsin at age 79.[1] 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.[1]
