Meteorological Satellites

These achievements were a logical development from the technological advances made in the development of rocket vehicles during the latter years of the 1939–45 world war, but the success in placing artificial satellites into Earth orbit as early as 1957 was unexpected by many people and was a sign of the exponential growth of technology.

The more technologically advanced nations had given high priority to the development of powerful rockets for military purposes in the 1950s. In addition to testing nuclear weapons in Australia, the British defence authorities had obtained Australia's cooperation in developing a rocket launching site at Woomera with plans for a firing range extending to the north-west coast of the continent. The Bureau had established a meteorological station at Woomera in 1948, with George Trefry in charge, which provided the meteorological support for the high-altitude experimental rocket launchings. My special friend and wartime colleague Bryan Rofe, who left the Bureau after the war to take up an appointment with LRWE, was directly involved as the LRWE controller of operations.

It is interesting to recall that the establishment of the WMO World Weather Watch in the late 1960s was facilitated by the efforts of President Kennedy in the United Nations in the early 1960s to seek agreement for developments in outer space to be directed towards peaceful purposes.

One of the earliest involvements of WMO in high altitude research was in the International Geophysical Year (IGY) which operated from 1 July 1957 to 31 December 1958 and which will be discussed later in this chapter. It is interesting to recall the close relationship between military preparedness, national territorial boundaries and the development of science and technology.

Bureau of Meteorology