Visible Satellite Imagery Vs Infrared

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.

Visible satellite imagery vs infrared. Since visible images record reflected light rather then emitted radiation they tell how reflective an object is but nothing about its temperature. Visible imagery is produced by the sun s rays reflecting off of clouds. 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. Miniature infrared satellite image 40k b in contrast infrared images are related to brightness.

Some infrared images are colored to resemble visible images upper left while others include all the colors of the rainbow. 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. On these images clouds show up as white the ground is normally grey and water is dark. The temperature of the cloud will determine the wavelength of radiation emitted from the cloud.

When you look at different visible satellite images you will notice that they pretty much all look the same. Visible satellite pictures can only be viewed during the day since clouds reflect the light from the sun. 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. Not so with infrared imagery see the montage of images below.

This website is supported on a monday friday basis so outages may occur without notice and may not be immediately resolved. Therefore the clouds over louisiana mississippi. There are three main types of satellite images available. There is an important difference between visible and infrared images.

While derived from operational satellites the data products and imagery available on this website are intended for informational purposes only. 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. Infrared is produced by sensing the emitted radiation coming off of clouds. Visible satellite images record visible light from the sun that is reflected by clouds land oceans or snow and ice.

Visible vis satellite imagery and infrared ir imagery have different ways of detecting clouds.