Visible Satellite Imagery Vs Infrared

Visible imagery is produced by the sun s rays reflecting off of clouds.

Visible satellite imagery vs infrared.

Miniature visible satellite image 42k a visible images measure scattered light and the example here depicts a wide line of clouds stretching across the southeastern united states and then northward into ontario and quebec. While derived from operational satellites the data products and imagery available on this website are intended for informational purposes only. The temperature of the cloud will determine the wavelength of radiation emitted from the cloud. Since visible images record reflected light rather then emitted radiation they tell how reflective an object is but nothing about its temperature.

Visible satellite images record visible light from the sun that is reflected by clouds land oceans or snow and ice. Some satellites can capture images in both visible light and infrared weather satellites use the infrared images to show where the heat within storms are. The following links for imagery are to servers maintained by the center for satellite applications and research star a division of the national environmental satellite data and information service nesdis. This imagery combines the latest half hourly goes infrared and visible images with nasa s blue marble data set to create real time animations of weather systems over the continental united states during the past three days.

Latest big island of hawaii visible image important. This website is supported on a monday friday basis so outages may occur without notice and may not be immediately resolved. There are three main types of satellite images available. Infrared is produced by sensing the emitted radiation coming off of clouds.

When you look at different visible satellite images you will notice that they pretty much all look the same. On these images clouds show up as white the ground is normally grey and water is dark. Therefore the clouds over louisiana mississippi. There is an important difference between visible and infrared images.

Hurricanes are basically powered by warm ocean waters and the ability to track the ocean a. Visible vis satellite imagery and infrared ir imagery have different ways of detecting clouds. Not so with infrared imagery see the montage of images below. Miniature infrared satellite image 40k b in contrast infrared images are related to brightness.

You can advance the imagery by placing your cursor over the image and using your mouse s scroll wheel clicking the image and using the up and down.