The first weather satellite, launched by the United States in 1960, was TIROS-1.
TIROS-1, whose name stood for Television Infrared Observation Satellite, launched from Cape Canaveral on April 1, 1960. It was designed to test whether television cameras aboard an orbiting spacecraft could observe cloud cover and support weather forecasting. The satellite transmitted thousands of useful images during its short operational life.
TIROS-1 did not provide the continuous global coverage associated with modern meteorological satellites. Its cameras viewed Earth as the spacecraft passed overhead, and its systems were experimental. Even so, the mission demonstrated that satellites could reveal large-scale cloud patterns over oceans and remote regions that ground-based observers could not easily monitor.
The success of TIROS-1 led to a continuing series of TIROS missions and later satellite programs, including geostationary systems. Weather satellites now support forecasting, cyclone tracking, climate research, and measurements of clouds, temperature, moisture, and Earth’s radiation balance. TIROS-1 is therefore remembered as a technological turning point in operational meteorology.