EYES IN OUTER SPACE

[Music] [Applause] [Music] the world of tomorrow and the instruments of science which are shaping it may seem remote and fantastic but yesterday's fantasies are becoming today's facts how will these great advances influence and benefit our personal lives here in this science factual film is an answer [Music] [Music] sweeping through an eternal vacuum through blazing heat and bitter cold exposed to mysterious radiation man-made satellites circle the earth [Music] traveling at fantastic speeds these eyes in outer space give us knowledge for future exploration and also vital information that will lead to a better understanding of one of nature's great forces the weather [Music] [Music] with awesome violence and destruction the weather is one of man's oldest and mightiest adversaries but in its ever-changing moods the weather brings us beauty the weather gives us our daily bread the weather makes possible all living things and the weather certainly influences our daily lives [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes we have always been at the mercy of weather when the weather is nice we are happy if the weather is hot and muggy we tend to be frustrated irritable and even criminal but if the fog rolls in we are apt to be depressed thunderstorms cause fear and apprehension icy winds and snow seem to slow us down in trying to predict these capricious changes in weather we sometimes resort to rather questionable weather forecasting devices such as an almond a a crystal ball a gall teal egg and the law of average [Music] april showers bring May flowers when mule ears shake in a certain way it means that rain will fall that day if a spider you should sleep rain will fall within the day it's a sign of rain of snow when the birds and bugs fly low as the weather is on new year's day for 30 days - will stay that way as the weather is on January to February of September the same holds true as the weather is On January 3 so the last three months of spring will be as the weather is of November 21 so the coming one is right is one one is one widows one one so as the coming winter has a New Year's Day and the fine weather holds its way the weather is about to stay that way forever ever and today well no matter how we try to predict the weather of this we can be certain it will always be with us to understand it let's look into any ocean lake pond or here in this watery world cool and calm as can be lives this damp little drip floating peacefully [Music] but when the Heat's on the Sun comes up the Rays they agitate him make him jump about well he gets all shook look out stand back he's going to blow his stack the drip evaporates and then he's joined by his friends they're together again they float up high on the moist warm air we can't see them but they're still there they fly way up where the coals intense and then back into droplets they condense and that's what makes a cloud but when too many droplets crowd a cloud that crowded cloud he cries out loud that's the way we get the rain well look who's here the little drip again [Music] back in the puddle hot skies drops rise vaporize liquefies and that's what makes a cloud sometimes these droplets blow up high higher and colder colder why they get so cold they crystallize and snowflakes form in those frigid skies then they fall into warm air melt into rain well look who's here yep the little trip again [Music] back in the puddle beep beep rise skies and that's what makes a cloud this time those drops are blasted high still higher still colder look at them fly one turns to ice another stick to it getting bigger and bigger look out I knew it it's way too heavy it's falling Wow the little drips a hailstone now [Music] [Applause] [Music] he's back just where he was before and the whole thing's ready to start once more this constantly repeating cycle of weather may seem capricious and without direction but throughout nature if there is ordered weather it's a constant blending of the basic elements air water and Sun it all starts with the Sun this tremendous white-hot ball of gas three-quarters of a million miles across supplies the power that drives our weather machine the Sun is a gigantic atomic furnace consuming itself at the rate of billions of pounds of matter per second across its boiling surface drift mysterious spots solar flares surge in flashes of raw energy writhing flaming clouds of incandescent hydrogen gas explode hundreds of thousands of miles into space the Sun is absolutely essential to life on our planet [Music] our earth is surrounded by an envelope of air radiant energy constantly pouring out from the Sun heat see earth and its atmosphere unevenly from pole to equator setting in motion broad flowing rivers of air wherever opposing currents of air develop giant Eddie's and whirlpools are for these are travelling areas of low pressure in the atmosphere the clash of these opposing air streams causes clouds to form and usually bring stormy weather between the areas of low pressure there are Eddie's rotating in the opposite direction here air pressure is high this usually brings clear skies and fair weather by charting their positions each day weather men can estimate the course they will take and the weather that will result keeping track of the steady parade of storms and fair weather requires the constant preparation of new maps this is a never-ending task weather men must construct these maps from a continuous flow of data that pours in from weather stations all over the world in remote isolated areas in crowded cities in high flying aircraft and in ships at sea modern weather men depend on a variety of specialized instruments to gather information they measured temperature moisture air pressure and wind speed balloons carry instruments along automatically radioing back information you raid our techniques locate and track stars [Music] and modern electronic computers now play an important part in weather forecasting by their ability to store and rapidly process vast amounts of data but today we are just beginning to understand something of the forces behind the weather scientists realize they must search in many directions and ask countless questions for instance can future weather be predicted by looking at the past does the slow advance and retreat of glaciers over periods of centuries indicate cycles in the Earth's climate past records of bird and animal migration or the migrations of man may furnish clues and even ancient tree rings give an indication of wet and dry periods [Music] the vast unexplored polar regions of the earth pose another kind of question what effect do these frigid areas covering millions of square miles have on the weather of the entire world aurorus the ghostly lights that flicker in polar skies tell something of what happens when energy from the Sun plunges into the sea of air that surrounds the earth adventurous scientists are probing the atmosphere itself climbing to incredible altitudes in their search for knowledge new scientific tools are being used rockets launched from balloons and rockets launched from the ground carry instruments higher and higher unfortunately these flood sliced but a short time and only a small amount of information can be obtained but now we have more advanced scientific devices for gathering data continuously over long periods of time not only from the atmosphere but from space beyond artificial satellites satellites reach into the unknown with instruments that you placate man's own senses the eye of the satellite is a photocell or a radiation counter its ear a tiny microphone it's memory a tape recorder and it's voice is a radio transmitter here these instruments are placed in an actual weather satellite designed to record the cloud formations covering the earth in this cross-section view we see how all the instruments have been reduced to an amazingly compact unit weighing but a few pounds here is one of the electronic eyes of the satellite this eye converts the light reflected from land ocean and cloud into electrical impulses these impulses from the eyes are changed into electronic signals that are recorded by this tiny tape machine recording continuously for periods of nearly an hour this incredibly small instrument remembers everything the weather satellite sees triggered by a radio signal from Earth the recorder plays back the stored information in only one minute these precious reports on the Earth's cloud patterns are received by specially designed stations on the ground the radio signals from the satellite are now converted back to a moving pattern of light on the oscilloscope and finally translated into a picture of the cloud formations the satellite has seen during one trip around the Earth today's weather satellites are small and are designed to do a limited job however they are the first step forward the larger and more versatile space explorers of tomorrow these future satellites will be the key to precise forecasting and control of weather let us project our present knowledge with imagination and speculate on how satellites might be used in future operations from a worldwide weather center this is the master controller electronic maps and view screens display up-to-the-minute fixtures of the weather around the earth every hour reports are automatically received from all points at sea on land and in the air 22,000 miles out in space three robot satellites train their sensitive television eyes on all parts of the earth these pictures are monitored on viewing screens in the weather center here in the computing room electronic machines digest the constant flood of information received from all stations this is then translated into an ever-changing diagram of the Earth's swelling forecasts for every sector of the globe are made months in advance prediction charts have indicated that a powerful hurricane will begin forming today in the Atlantic Ocean the electronic weather map shows an intense storm system building up about a thousand miles due east of Miami Florida the controller calls for a close-up satellite view of the troubled area coordinates KOCO five to six Yankee two point five okay controller Coco five to six Yankee two point five the characteristic swirling clouds of the hurricane are beginning to form at sea the waves anticipate the violence to come the controller calls for a last minute prediction of the Hurricanes path [Music] if control measures are not begun at once the hurricane will smash across densely populated areas within 48 hours a hurricane is forming 960 miles east of Miami Florida if control measures are ineffective it will pass inland at Cape Hatteras in 48 hours two operations will begin within two hours but safety precaution should be completed from Cape feare north no later than 6:00 p.m. tomorrow at weather central the control strategy is mapped out a ridge of high pressure slants across the eastern United States between two low pressure storm systems if these two storm centers are intensified the high will build up along the coast forming a barrier that will turn the hurricane out to sea stand by now pulling in satellite number one for visual check of low pressure systems L 20 in our 21 the operator brings the satellite into focus on the two storms one centered over Kansas the other over Labrador changing 21 [Music] with the touch of a button the battle begins underground chemical cloud cedars begin to work the two storm areas robot planes seat the clouds from above [Music] the storm centers over Kansas and over Labrador intensify as seating continues [Music] the fury of the hurricane mounts as hundred mile an hour wind has lashed the sea to a foaming frenzy all stations sector C activate phase two control plan Delta set paper rockets more 42,000 feet as an emergency measure the controller calls for a salvo of vapor rockets to be fired ahead of the path the hurricane is predicted to take [Music] these artificial clouds will block the Sun from evaporating more water to feed the hurricane the reports coming into the control centers indicate that the diversionary cloud seeding over Kansas is now creating a flood danger [Applause] [Music] especially with robot aircraft are dispatched immediately to release a high concentration of cloud seeding material into the fringes of the storm heavier seating from the ground also helps to subdue the rain by spreading it over a wider area the controller calls for another view of the hurricane which has now moved closer to the coast [Music] we'll make contact s1 s1 this is whether sending requests video signal at grid coordinates Coco an emergency situation has developed in an orbiting space station a thousand miles above the hurricane the crew man sends a temporary picture back to weather central [Music] okay s1 your video is r5 s5 thank you the hurricane has stopped moving toward the coast but is still intensifying it must be made to move northward and out to sea this is a crisis Aberdeen station activates multiple seating rockets on course 1 170 the controller decides to fire cloud seeding Rockets just ahead of the hurricane hoping to start it moving [Music] slowly the hurricane begins to ship [Music] all of they level forces have been brought into play now we can only watch and wait [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] after hours of tension the turning point is reached latest reports indicate the control strategy is successful at last the high pressure Ridge has settled along the coast forming an invisible wall of safety [Music] [Applause] [Music] the storm is over the danger has passed the hurricane has been defeated turned away from the land and left to spend itself harmlessly far out at sea in [Music] the world of tomorrow weather control will enrich and safeguard our daily lives in the foreseeable future we will conquer more than violent storms we will turn the destructive elements of today into new sources of power shaping the land on which we live all mankind will benefit arid waste lands will be made green and fertile and vast frozen areas will become productive to this end man-made satellites will probe the secrets of the skies they will be our eyes in outer space [Music]