Free Republic

<p>It wasn't a guess, exactly. But Ivory Small, a forecaster for the National Weather Service, was relying on experience as much as science recently when he called for sunny skies across Orange County.</p> <p>The key computer models that form the basis of forecasts disagreed. One said it would rain. The other said it wouldn't.</p>

<p>NASA's Aqua satellite is scheduled to soar into orbit early Saturday, carrying instruments designed to significantly improve short- and mid-term weather forecasts and expand science's understanding of climate systems, particularly Earth's water cycles.</p> <p>The $952 million spacecraft features a unique sounder that will take unprecedented temperature and humidity readings at various levels of the atmosphere.</p>