In 2002, we had an idea at AccuWeather to do something no one had done before. Save off every satellite image of every sector we had on AccuWeather.com for a year, loop them to music, and sell it on CD & DVD.
I recently found said DVD and now, 23 years later, uploaded it to YouTube for the first time.
The loops are a little blurry but we were limited to the 4.7GB on the DVD and these were 256-color flat 640×480 (480p) images. For the time, it was state-of-the-art. Here’s what the original promo page from 2003 (still available at the time of this writing) looked like.
This “popup” HTML page is something that I probably would have designed and put on the website with Marketing’s help.
The files were saved as frequently as every 15 minutes (for the U.S.) on our VMS system then later transferred to DVD. It was about 440 files (50 MB) per day, or around 160,600 1.8 TB per year — which was a lot of space back then.
We also saved them for a couple years after this, though I don’t think we did the DVD thing again. I have the data, at some point I’ll add them to YouTube.
How many CD-ROM/DVDs did we sell? I never heard, but I can’t imagine more than a few dozen.
Text from the promo above:
This first-time product features never-before-seen movie animations that show satellite and radar data recorded every half hour from November 2002 through October 2003! Watch an entire year go by in 8 minutes! Educational for those in the business. Inspirational for avid observers. Plain exhilarating for anyone interested in breathtaking visuals, the environment and the weather. Let the music, originally composed especially for these animations, set the mood as you watch the seamlessly-woven images of cloud formations and movement.
Major Weather Events of the Year:
- Tornado outbreak in Tennessee and Ohio valleys November 2002
- President’s Day Blizzard hits East Coast February 2003
- Hurricane Claudette slams Texas coast July 2003
- Hurricane Fabian devastates Bermuda September 2003
- Hurricane Isabel strikes East Coast September 2003
This CD-ROM includes a year’s worth of satellite and radar data for five different views (United States, Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and World) compressed into roughly eight minutes of movie animations. Purchase the DVD and enjoy six additional views (Northwest, North Central, Northeast, Southwest, South Central and Southeast) not available on the CD-ROM. That adds up to eleven spectacular movie animations presented in broadcast-quality DVD format! Don’t miss your opportunity to own this extraordinary product. Order your copy today at the AccuMall®!