The goal is to use the satellite measurements to help make more precise and reliable forecasts about climatic and environmental change.

The characteristics of disease outbreaks, particularly outbreaks of emerging diseases to which human populations are highly susceptible, prevent highly precise forecasts.

Astrologers, threatened with laws against fortunetelling, also substituted psychological tendencies for precise forecasts.

"Making precise forecasts, as opposed to providing full explanations" was the most challenging part of his job at Bear Stearns, Mr. Angell said.

In the company's heyday, Home Shopping Network executives made precise forecasts about sales and profits, but almost none of them came to pass.

An objective is a clear, precise forecast of what you want to achieve some time in the future.

Retailers would not even offer Thanksgiving weekend sales numbers or precise forecasts for the rest of the holiday season; perhaps they have learned a lesson from previous disappointments.

The pragmatic reason is the constraint on our ability to make a precise forecast of what will be required.

However, precise forecasts as a routine matter, year after year, are the open-ended payoff, especially for agriculture and transportation, and thus for mankind.

Regional modeling allow us to make more precise forecasts in both time and space for critical human activities and concerns such as travel, health, work, and safety.