2012 AMS Annual Meeting

The 2012 Annual Meeting is being organized around the broad theme of “Technology in Research and Operations—How We Got Here and Where We’re Going.” With the 1951 delivery of the Universal Automatic Computer I (UNIVAC I), arguably the first government “supercomputer,” and the 1960 launch of Television Infrared Observation Satellite-1 (TIROS-1), the first weather satellite, the stage was set for a revolution in meteorology—later in oceanography, geography, space weather, land observing, and climate. This technology-driven revolution now encompasses the full spectrum of our professional society’s physical and social sciences, including climate modeling and prediction, atmospheric chemistry, carbon, water, biogeosciences, and even energy management. As a direct consequence of this revolution, the era of extremely limited observational capabilities ended and hand-drawn and analyzed weather charts were replaced by objective numerical analyses and forecasts. We have seen evermore sophisticated numerical modeling and assimilation, and exponentially increasing computing capacity that can never satisfy an insatiable demand. Increasingly interoperable data and information systems are facilitating national and international collaboration toward a system of systems. And we are using charge-coupled devices to catch photons and acoustic devices to sense sound waves to turn observations into environmental data products to initialize these models. These and countless other technological advances have provided, and continue to provide, powerful tools to geophysical and heliophysical research scientists and operational forecasters. And the pace of this revolution is increasing exponentially.