IR Cloud Top Temperature Example

What does the brightness of a cloud mean on the TV weather shows?

This is an example of an infrared (IR) image made from a radiometer flown on a GOES satellite. This is typical of the images you see on the TV weather. A piece of this image has been extracted and appears as a square below the larger satellite image. This portion of the image contains a cloud and some clear sky areas. You can change the appearance of this extracted image by changing the cloud altitude (and its associated ambient air temperature) or the surface temperature. You do this by moving the sliding scales (scroll bars) accompanying the picture on the right.

The vertical scale changes the cloud altitude (scale on the left) and the cloud top temperature (scale on the right).

You can modify the surface temperature using the horizontal sliding scale.

Questions to consider

What happens to the image when you change the altitiude of the cloud (higher & lower) Why?
What happens to the image when you decrease (or increase) the ground temperature?
What happens to the brightness of the cloud when you change the ground temperature? Why?

Go BACK to learn more about satellite imagery

This educational applet was developed by Tom Whittaker and Steve Ackerman of the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and the Space Science and Engineering Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.