Satellite Meteorology

For Grade 7-12

7

Weather Forecasting

Overview

Every satellite image tells a story. And satellite images are everywhere, on the Internet, the evening news, and even in some newspapers. The ability to interpret weather information from satellite images enables people to make informed decisions about their day. By learning a few basic weather rules, anyone can use satellite images to predict the weather for their location for the upcoming afternoon or the next day.

A meteorologist can take one look at a satellite image and tell where the mild air is, where the cold fronts and warm fronts are, and even identify stormy weather. By looking at a series of images and some additional information such as wind speeds and directions or pressure patterns, meteorologists can quickly develop a general forecast for what direction the storm is heading and whether it might grow stronger or dissipate. After working through this module, you will too.

In this module, you will learn (with lots of fun hands-on applets) how to:

1. interpret weather patterns from satellite images
2. predict storm paths
3. forecast the weather for your area

This Satellite Meteorology Course was developed at the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) located within the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC) at the UW-Madison. Funding was provided by the Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium (WSGC) and NOAA/NESDIS.