Visible Vs Infrared Satellite Images

Clouds usually appear white while land and water surfaces appear in shades of gray or black.

Visible vs infrared satellite images.

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. There is more texture on visible also. The visible channel senses reflected solar radiation. A visible satellite image is created by looking only at the visible portion of the light spectrum and is thus only really useful during daylight hours.

This website is supported on a monday friday basis so outages may occur without notice and may not be immediately resolved. 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 left and infrared right satellite images of a classic comma shaped pattern of clouds associated with a strong low pressure system centered over ohio at 18z on april 30 1996.

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. Visible satellite images which look like black and white photographs are derived from the satellite signals. Visible image of se usa infrared image of se usa notice the visible image has a higher resolution of the clouds. 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.

The infrared ir image comes from the satellite detecting heat energy in the infrared sepectrum and thus does not depend on visible light. 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. Since visible images record reflected light rather then emitted radiation they tell how reflective an object is but nothing about its temperature. Visible vs infrared vs water vapor reflectivity vs temperature vs moisture images a b and c are examples of visible and infrared and water vapor satellite images respectively valid for the same time.

Below the images i will discuss characteristics that can be determined from the images and satellite images in general. Note that while no temperature scale is shown for the infrared image brighter shades indicate lower temperatures. Visible satellite images record visible light from the sun that is reflected by clouds land oceans or snow and ice. Miniature infrared satellite image 40k b in contrast infrared images are related to brightness.

Clouds the earth s atmosphere and the earth s surface all absorb and. On visible it is easier to see the individual cloud elements.