Cloud Global Imagery
Cloud Global Imagery
Posted July 14, 2015Voyager’s “remote sensing” > “satellite data” category now provides global cloud imagery. Previously, Voyager’s cloud overlays pulled from NOAA nowCOAST, which did not extend west or south of Hawaiʻi. These have now been replaced by new map services from RealEarth™ of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW) Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), including hourly infrared (4-km) and visible (1-km) global composites. (Though poorer in resolution, infrared sensors measure thermal radiation as opposed to sunlight, enabling clouds to be “seen” even during the night.) This improved spatial coverage will allow Voyager’s users to track cloud patterns associated with tropical storm systems, hurricanes, and typhoons as they cross the Pacific Ocean.
Voyager screenshot of global infrared imagery showing Typhoons Chan-hom (west) and Nangka (east) surrounding Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) on their way to Japan July 8, 2015 9:00 AM ChST; EEZs outlined in blue:
The images are a collection of approximately 14 satellites—both geostationary (GEO) and low earth-orbiting (LEO)—over the course of 1-hour intervals. Every hour, at 30 minutes past, new imagery is uploaded to SSEC’s RealEarth™ map server. Over the course of the hour the most recent satellite imagery is remapped into the composite. At any one point in each image, the source of the measurement may come from any of the satellites in the collection. A rolling archive of the most recent 7 days of hourly images are provided.
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