Lesson 3: Visible Imagery

A visible satellite image represents sunlight scattered by objects on Earth. Differences in the albedo of clouds, water, land, and vegetation allow us to distinguish these features in the imagery. Dark areas in a visible satellite image represent geographic regions where only small amounts of visible light from the Sun are reflected back to space. The oceans are usually dark while snow and thick clouds are bright.

The brightness of a cloud in the visible image is primarily determined by the number of water drops or ice crystals in a cloud . Stratus have lots of particles, thus scatter lots of solar radiation, and appear white in a visible image. Fog is also very easy to see on visible satellite images. On the other hand, thin cirrus are difficult to see because there are fewer ice particles available to scatter solar radiation.

Back

Return to Lesson3

Return to Satellite Meteorology Main Page