UW-Madison meteorologist Verner Suomi, who died in 1995, invented the spin-scan camera and is considered the founding father of modern satellite systems. Image credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Communications

Bob Parent (left) and Vern Suomi (right) looking at satellite data. SSEC was founded in 1965 by Suomi, a world-renowned meteorologist, and Parent, a professor in the College of Engineering. Together, they developed instruments to measure Earth's heat budget from the first weather satellites. Image credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Communications

	ATS-1, the first geostationary satellite to look at the Earth, carried the spin-scan camera, which allowed the first pictures of Earth's weather from space and provided the first full-disk images of our planet from a satellite. It was launched into a 23,000-mile-high orbit 40 years ago this month. Image credit: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Communications
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