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Images for Post 48 – “The Hemisphere That Caught Up” (Satellite Radiance Assimilation)

All candidate images verified against their Wikimedia Commons file pages on 2026-07-20. Direct CDN URLs confirmed on upload.wikimedia.org; all seven downloaded files verified with file. Licensing rule: CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, public domain, or Free Art License only. NO fair use.

HEADER IMAGE (downloaded)

Post48_TIROS-N_satellite.jpg – the header. Artist rendering / official illustration of the TIROS-N spacecraft, circa 1978 – the satellite (launched 13 October 1978) that carried the TOVS suite (HIRS/2, MSU, SSU) and opened the operational sounding era that this post is built around. Landscape 1764x1180, public domain (PD-USGov-NOAA), reliably reusable. This is the exact header filename downloaded.

DOWNLOADED IMAGE TABLE

filename source page URL direct URL license attribution dimensions placement
Post48_TIROS-N_satellite.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TIROS-N.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/TIROS-N.jpg PD (PD-USGov-NOAA) NOAA, NOAA In Space Collection (spac0173), c. 1978. Public domain. 1764x1180 HEADER
Post48_NOAA_satellite_lineage.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TIROS-N_through_NOAA-16.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/93/TIROS-N_through_NOAA-16.jpg PD (PD-USGov-NOAA) NOAA, NOAA In Space Collection (spac0557), 2002. Public domain. 1806x1354 Body: the TIROS-N -> NOAA-16 polar satellite lineage; instrument-chronology scaffold
Post48_AMSU_scan_tracks.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMSUB_scan_tracks.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/AMSUB_scan_tracks.png PD (author released into public domain) Peteymills (English Wikipedia). Public domain. 1808x2032 Body: microwave-sounder cross-track scan geometry / swath coverage (AMSU family)
Post48_Radio_occultation_schematic.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RO_schematic.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/RO_schematic.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 “Diagram: MPRennie / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.” 960x720 Body: GPS/GNSS radio-occultation limb geometry (the RO section)
Post48_COSMIC_radio_occultation.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SCHEMA-FORMOSAT-3.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/SCHEMA-FORMOSAT-3.png CC BY-SA 3.0 “Diagram: Pline / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.” 721x477 Body: FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC radio-occultation signal-delay sounding
Post48_Aqua_satellite.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Aqua_Satellite.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/The_Aqua_Satellite.jpg PD (PD-NASA) Reto Stoeckli, NASA Earth Observatory, 2009. Public domain. 1280x720 Body: Aqua (launched 2002) carrying hyperspectral AIRS – the hyperspectral-era satellite
Post48_MetOp_SG_satellite.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MetOp_Second_Generation_A-type_satellite_ESA511182.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/MetOp_Second_Generation_A-type_satellite_ESA511182.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO “Illustration: ESA / ATG medialab, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO.” downloaded original 7680x4320, downscaled in repo to 2400x1350 Body: European polar sounder (MetOp lineage; note the render is the Second Generation platform, so caption as illustrative of the European polar-sounding line rather than MetOp-A itself)

Notes on the MetOp image: the ESA render is of MetOp Second Generation (SG), which post-dates the 2006 MetOp-A/IASI events in the post’s spine. It is fully reusable (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO, attribution required), but if the post wants strict period accuracy it should either caption it as the European polar-sounding line generally, or omit it. Original 8K file was 9.4 MB; downscaled to 2400 px wide (1.4 MB) for web.

CANDIDATES / ABSENCES (not downloaded)

NH/SH forecast-skill convergence chart – NO FREELY LICENSED VERSION FOUND

The canonical convergence figure is in Simmons & Hollingsworth (2002, QJRMS) and in ECMWF “evolution of forecast skill” charts. Both QJRMS (Wiley) and ECMWF web/publication figures are copyrighted; no CC/PD reproduction was located on Wikimedia Commons or elsewhere. Recommendation: the post cannot embed the exact published chart under a free license. Options: (a) describe it in text and link to the ECMWF skill-score page / the QJRMS paper; (b) commission/redraw a schematic of the two converging anomaly-correlation curves as an original SVG for the blog (original work, freely licensable). This is the single most important missing image and should be flagged to the author.

Weighting-function plot (HIRS/MSU/AMSU channels vs. altitude) – NO FREE VERSION FOUND

All located versions are on ResearchGate / in journal PDFs (RSS, ECMWF, textbooks), none CC/PD. Educational pages (Edinburgh, UBC, Toronto) host figures but without free-license tags. Recommendation: redraw as an original schematic, or describe in text. A weighting-function figure is pedagogically valuable for the retrieval-vs-direct-radiance turn; worth an original SVG.

RTTOV radiative-transfer schematic – NO FREE VERSION FOUND

RTTOV documentation (NWP SAF / Met Office) figures are Crown/NWP-SAF copyright, not CC. No Commons file. Recommendation: describe RTTOV as the fast forward model in text; optionally redraw a simple “profile -> RT model -> brightness temperature” box schematic as original work.

AMSU-A / HIRS instrument photograph – NONE CONFIRMED on Commons

Category:Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit returned 404 (no such category). No confirmed free instrument-hardware photo located within budget. The Post48_AMSU_scan_tracks.png (PD) covers the scan-geometry angle instead. Candidate, license unconfirmed: vendor/NASA-GSFC instrument photos may exist and NASA/NOAA ones would be PD, but none was located and license-confirmed here.

PORTRAITS of key people – NONE FOUND FREE

No Wikimedia Commons portraits confirmed for the human centres: Larry McMillin (NOAA/NESDIS), John R. Eyre (Met Office/ECMWF), Erik Andersson, Tony McNally, Jean-Noel Thepaut, Graeme Kelly, Jean Pailleux, Roger Saunders, Sean Healy, Carla Cardinali, Rolf Langland, Nancy Baker, Sanghyun Joo, Dick (D. P.) Dee. Most are living scientists whose photos sit on ECMWF / Met Office / UCAR pages under restrictive or Crown/OGL-unclear licenses. Richard (Rick) Anthes has a Wikidata entry but no confirmed free Commons portrait. Recommendation: follow the series pattern (see IMAGES_OI.md) – name each person in full sentences, link to their institutional profile, and do not embed a portrait. Flag the absence rather than risk an unlicensed image.

VERIFICATION

All seven downloaded files verified with file on 2026-07-20:

  • Post48_TIROS-N_satellite.jpg – JPEG 1764x1180
  • Post48_NOAA_satellite_lineage.jpg – JPEG 1806x1354
  • Post48_AMSU_scan_tracks.png – PNG 1808x2032
  • Post48_Radio_occultation_schematic.jpg – JPEG 960x720
  • Post48_COSMIC_radio_occultation.png – PNG 721x477
  • Post48_Aqua_satellite.jpg – JPEG 1280x720
  • Post48_MetOp_SG_satellite.jpg – JPEG (downscaled) 2400x1350

EXACT HEADER FILENAME DOWNLOADED: Post48_TIROS-N_satellite.jpg (in /home/michal/repos/michalbrennek.github.io/assets/images/).