1. Atmospheric Sciences 101 Weather Satellite 2017

2. Weather Satellites Provides a total view of the earth’s atmosphere
Have radically improved weather prediction
Have greatly improved our understanding of weather systems
You will learn the basics of interpreting satellite imagery in this class

3. You Will Know More Than Some of These Folks

4. Before Weather Satellites
Storms could sneak up on our coastal locations
1938 Hurricane

5. TIROS-1: The First Weather Satellite
1960

7. Two Major Types of Weather Satellites (Different Orbits)
Geostationary
Polar-Orbiting

8. Geostationary Orbit

9. GOES Weather Satellite

10. GOES Weather Satellite

11. Geostationary About 35,000- 36,000 km above the equator
Revolves with earth
Thus, sees the same location throughout the day.
Doesn’t see the polar regions well.
What you generally see in the media.

12. 5 Operational GOES satellites

14. Polar Orbit Orbits about 800-900 km above the earth
Earth rotates underneath
Only views a swath of earth’s surface
Constantly changing view
Includes polar coverage

15. NOAA Polar Orbiter

17. To understand weather satellites need to know about the electromagnetic spectrum

19. Solar radiation peaks in visible

20. Several types of satellite imagery
Visible
Infrared
Water Vapor
And others
They vary by the wavelength of radiation they are viewing.

21. Visible: what YOU would see from space.
Visible light from sun reflected off clouds and surface
Visible light (.4-.7 microns, millionths of a meter)

22. Problems: Night, How High Are the Clouds?

24. One solution: infrared satellite imagery
Uses infrared radiation emitted mainly by clouds and the surface
Wavelengths typically 8-12 microns
Warmer objects emit more infrared radiation
Can thus tell temperature of clouds or surface by emitted infrared radiation
Good during both night and day!

25. Infrared
Gives insights into height of clouds, since cold clouds are generally higher
Often shown in gray scale with white being cold, dark being warm.

30. Siren, WI Tornado

31. Significant Weather
Hurricane Isabel

33. Satellite Interpretation

34. Fronts

35. L

38. Swirl of Clouds with Low