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Visible -vs- Infrared -vs- Water Vapor
reflectivity -vs- temperature -vs- moisture
Images (a), (b) and (c) are examples of visible
and infrared and water
vapor
satellite images
respectively (valid for the same time).
(a) |
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The visible
image depicts clouds stretching from the Gulf of
Mexico northeastward into Canada.
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(b) |
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The clouds over Louisiana, Mississippi, and western Tennessee
appear gray in the infrared
image because of their low and relatively warm cloud tops. The warmer the
cloud top temperature, the darker the color.
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(c) |
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These clouds are associated with
a large area of moist air covering most
of the eastern third of the United States visible
in the water vapor
image as the extensive area of white.
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The thunderstorms (areas of bright white)
that broke out from Mississippi to South Carolina stand out more
vividly in the infrared
and water vapor images than in the visible.
Drier air filtering in behind the thunderstorms across Illinois, Indiana and
Missouri stands out very well in the water vapor image (c), however is not
as noticeable in the infrared (b) and visible (a) images.
water vapor (wv)
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Reading Maps
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