Interpreting Meteorological Satellite Images Using a Color-Composite Technique

Abstract

An image-display technique is described that simultaneously combines three meteorological satellite images into a color-image product. The technique reveals many features of meteorological interest. It is frequently noted that interpretations of black-and-white “infrared” nighttime imagery are difficult to make when attempting to distinguish low clouds and fog from cloudfree land and ocean, thin from thick cirrus, and thick nonprecipitating clouds from nimbo-stratus clouds. It is found that a more-confident discrimination can be obtained between such features when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) or Nimbus Scanning Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data are combined into color-image products. Abstract An image-display technique is described that simultaneously combines three meteorological satellite images into a color-image product. The technique reveals many features of meteorological interest. It is frequently noted that interpretations of black-and-white “infrared” nighttime imagery are difficult to make when attempting to distinguish low clouds and fog from cloudfree land and ocean, thin from thick cirrus, and thick nonprecipitating clouds from nimbo-stratus clouds. It is found that a more-confident discrimination can be obtained between such features when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) or Nimbus Scanning Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) data are combined into color-image products.