<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">From the July 29 Economist:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">  </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><p class="gmail-css-1hno3qs e190yofl0" style="margin:0.875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(13,13,13)">There is also a growing demand for faster or more specific forecasts than can be provided by public institutions (which, being mostly funded by taxpayers, tend to produce what will be the most helpful to the most people). Private companies are filling the gaps.</p><p class="gmail-css-1hno3qs e190yofl0" style="margin:0.875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(13,13,13)">In 2016, for instance, <small style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:none;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline;text-transform:lowercase">ibm</small>, an American computing firm, bought the Weather Company, which specialised in combining different governmental models, for an estimated $2bn. (Sceptics joked that <small style="margin:0.875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:none;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline;text-transform:lowercase">ibm</small> had invested in the wrong type of cloud.) Within a year the firm began selling “hyper-local” forecasts to businesses, designed to predict the weather in a small area between two and 12 hours ahead. By 2020, according to Comscore, an American media-analytics firm, <small style="margin:0.875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:none;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline;text-transform:lowercase">ibm</small> was the biggest provider of weather forecasts in the world.</p><p class="gmail-css-1hno3qs e190yofl0" style="margin:2.1875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(13,13,13)">The firm’s success stems, in part, from its freedom to pick its own priorities. Predicting the weather only a few hours ahead drastically reduces the amount of number-crunching required. That, says Peter Neilley, the Weather Company’s chief meteorologist, allowed the firm to develop a global model with a 3km resolution that churns out a new forecast once an hour. (The <small style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-style:inherit;font-variant-ligatures:none;font-variant-caps:inherit;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;display:inline;text-transform:lowercase">ecmwf</small>’s high-resolution global model, by contrast, produces a new forecast every six hours.)</p><p class="gmail-css-1hno3qs e190yofl0" style="margin:2.1875rem 0px 0px;padding:0px;border:0px;font-variant-numeric:inherit;font-variant-east-asian:inherit;font-variant-alternates:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;font-family:MiloTE,MiloTESec,Charter,"Bitstream Charter","Iowan Old Style","Calisto MT",serif;font-kerning:inherit;font-feature-settings:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;color:rgb(13,13,13)"><br></p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><a href="https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/07/26/the-high-tech-race-to-improve-weather-forecasting">https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2023/07/26/the-high-tech-race-to-improve-weather-forecasting</a><br></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Stay sane</span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">,</span><font face="verdana, sans-serif"> </font></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Jonathan</span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div dir="ltr"><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Jonathan Coopersmith</span><br></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science</span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></span></div><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Professor Emeritus</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Department of History</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Texas A&M University</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">College Station, TX  77843-4236</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">979.739.4708 (cell)</font></div><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">John Mather </span><a href="https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/departments/instrument-maker-to-the-stars/" style="color:rgb(17,85,204);font-family:verdana,sans-serif" target="_blank">"Instrument Maker to the Stars,"</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif"> </span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif">Aerospace America</i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:verdana,sans-serif"> November 2023</span><br></div><div><div><font color="#222222" face="verdana, sans-serif">"<a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/news/2023/05/technological-obsolescence" target="_blank">Technological obsolescence,</a>" National Academy of Engineering <i>Perspectives</i> May 23, 2023</font></div></div></div><div dir="ltr"><div><font face="verdana, sans-serif">Preserving space archives:  <a href="https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/" target="_blank">https://www.toboldlypreserve.space/</a></font></div><div><br></div><div><br><br><br><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>