World Weather Watch and GARP
BAMOS
Special Issue
7
Figure 6 : US President John F Kennedy ( right ) and Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev agreed in March 1962 to the US- USSR cooperation in satellite data collection and exchange that led to establishment of the WMO World Weather Watch . © WMO .
All of the accumulated experience and wisdom of the founding fathers of WMO and the successful implementation of the IGY was built into the September 1961 proposal from US President Kennedy to the United Nations that meteorology should lead the way in international global cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space ; in the responding General Assembly Resolution of December 1961 ( Zillman , 2013 ); and especially in a remarkable March 1962 exchange of letters ( Edwards , 2010 ) between President Kennedy and Soviet Premier Krushchev ( Figure 6 ) through which the US and USSR agreed to joint establishment of an operational weather satellite observation system to support the provision of meteorological services for all nations :
• Kennedy to Krushchev ( 7 March 1962 ) Perhaps we could render no greater service to mankind through our space programs than by the joint establishment of an early operational weather satellite system . Such a system would be designed to provide global weather data for prompt use by any nation . To initiate this service , I propose that the United States and the Soviet Union each launch a satellite to photograph cloud cover and provide other agreed meteorological services for all nations .
• Krushchev to Kennedy ( 21 March 1962 ) It is difficult to overstate the benefit which could be brought to mankind by organising a world weather observation service with the aid of artificial earth satellites . Precise and timely weather forecasts will be another important step along the way to man ' s conquering of nature , will help him still more successfully cope with natural calamities and open up new prospects for improving the well-being of mankind . Let us cooperate in this field , too .
The Plan for the World Weather Watch ( WWW ), which was agreed in principle in 1963 and formally adopted in 1967 ( WMO , 1967 ), was thus based fundamentally on the concept of global cooperation in the collection and distribution of data as a public good . The early planning for WWW was supported by economic studies of the national benefits of the cooperative mode of data collection and service provision ( WMO , 1968 ). The WWW concept was eloquently summarised by Academician Federov of the USSR ( Federov , 1966 ) as :
• National Services will combine their efforts in four main fields , namely observations , the collection and dissemination of information , the processing and analysis of information and ... scientific research ;