Aerospace: Satellites map the oceans: High-flying sensors can measure currents, map the ocean floor, plot winds at sea, and identify prospective fishing grounds

Late on Sept. 8, 1978, the fishing trawler Captain Cosmo, working Georges Bank off the New England coast, reported 15-to-20-foot waves and high winds. A weather analyst at the National Meteorological Center in Suitland, Md., had only this single report indicating high winds at that place and time. With no corroborating evidence, he only used data available from surrounding points; the resulting forecast consequently misplaced the center of a developing storm and underestimated its intensity. On Sept. 9 the trawler disappeared.