SatMet - Weather Satellites and Winds

Satellite Winds

Practice using this applet using a simple series of images. The images are 30 minutes apart. You can switch between the images by using the step button below the images.

The cross and X are used to identify targets. You can move these markers by placing your cursor over them and holding down the left mouse button until you find a feature to track. You can tell which scene you are on by the color of the markers, yellow indicates which target indentifier (cross or X) will be moved when you click the step button.

So, to practice

Place your cursor at the front of the plane and click your left mouse button. A yellow X will appear there.

Now click on the "step" button to advance the image.

Now place your cursor on the front of the plane in this second image, and click your left mouse button. A yellow cross will appear where you clicked, and the distance the plane traveled calculated at the top of the image.

Compute the speed of the plane. Is this a reasonable speed?

At the top of the image are listed three variables:

Time: This gives the time of the image you are currently viewing.

Bearing: This gives the compass orientation between the cross and X, and thus will give your wind direction.

Distance: This gives you the distance between the cross and X, and can be used to calculate wind speed (if you chose your targets correctly).

You can compute the wind speed by dividing the distance between targets by the time between the images. Be sure to check your units! (Do you want your speed to be in miles per hour, kilometers per hour, or kilometers per minute?)

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