Interpreting Satellite Infrared and Visible Images.

How does the thickness of a cloud change the way it looks from the satellite?

The image to the left is an example of an infrared (IR) image made from a radiometer flown on the GOES-8 satellite. This is very typical of the images you see on TV weather shows. A piece of this image has been extracted and appears as a square below the larger satellite image. This portion of the image contains a cloud and some clear sky areas. You can change the appearance of this extracted image by changing the cloud thickness, and thus the amount of water particles in the cloud, ( or the surface temperature. You do this by moving the sliding scales (scroll bars) accompanying the picture on the right.

You can modify the surface temperature with the horizontal sliding scale.

Questions

• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thinner?
• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thicker?
• What happens to the brightness of the cloud when you change the ground temperature? Why?

Questions

• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thinner?
• What happens to the image when you make the cloud thicker?
• What happens to the image when you decrease the ground temperature?
• What happens to the brightness of the cloud when you change the ground temperature? Why?