First Public Demo of McIDAS

First public demo of McIDAS. Credit: SSEC.

Four years after its debut in 1973, a revolutionary visualization software package known as the Man computer Interactive Data Access System (McIDAS) had its first public demonstration at the 57th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society held in Tucson, Arizona in January 1977. Developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), McIDAS offered a new way of displaying, analyzing, interpreting, acquiring and managing geophysical data. The video “Processing and Display of Satellite and Conventional Meteorological Datafor the Classroom,” presented by SSEC’s Tom Whittaker, introduced some of these capabilities to new and potential users. Now nearly forty years after this initial public display, McIDAS continues to be a leading visualization software package, evolving with the changes in satellite sensor technologies and the needs of its users. 

To read the article that corresponds to the video on the Library's YouTube channel, see:

Whittaker, Thomas M. Processing and display of satellite and conventional meteorological data for the classroom. In: Interactive Video Displays for Atmospheric Studies, Proceedings of a Workshop at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 14-16 June 1977, pp11-24: