NCAR Historical Visualizations

See samples from the first 30 years of numerical computation and visualization in atmospheric science.Lewis Fry Richardson published Weather Prediction by Numerical Process in 1922. He imagined a stadium filled with people, each equipped with a slide rule and tasked with calculating a small part of the overwhelmingly large problem. And this symphony of calculation would perhaps lead to an answer to the problem. With the arrival of early supercomputers, researchers found the answer and began formulating the first electonic computations of the global climate system, building largely upon the equations developed by Dr. Richardson. It wasn't long after when the pioneers in this endeavor wanted to visualize their results. Here are some samples of their early work, done on film, showcasing the first thirty years of numerical computation of our Earth System