Alva Review-Courier -

BERLIN (AP) — Whichever way the wind blows, a new satellite launched Wednesday will be watching it.

The Aeolus satellite will be the first to directly measure wind speeds and directions all over the globe, allowing scientists to improve worldwide weather forecasts.

"This has not been done before from space," said project scientist Anne Grete Straume of the European Space Agency.

Named after the keeper of the winds in Greek mythology, the probe lifted off late Wednesday. The original plan to launch it on Tuesday had to be postponed, ironically because of adverse winds.

Straume said that compute...