1. A brief history of international collaboration on the use of space technologies in EWS

On 4 October 1957, the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite SPUTNIK-1, followed later in the same year by SPUTNIK-2. On 2 January 1958 the EXPLORER-1 was satellite launched by the United States of America (USA). The world’s first dedicated weather satellite, the Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS-1), was launched by the United States on 1 April 1960. These launches effectively marked the beginning of a new era of observational data coverage for the whole globe.