Water clouds, such as those that develop when fog and low stratus form, have different emissivity properties at short IR wavelengths (around 3.9 µm) compared to longer IR wavelengths (around 11 µm). At shorter IR wavelengths, water cloud do not emit as blackbodies, meaning less radiation is emitted than is... Read More
The Visible-Infraread Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on Suomi/NPP samples longwave radiation emitted at 11.45 µm and shortwave radiation emitted at 3.74 µm. Because liquid water clouds have different emissivity properties at those two wavelengths, the difference in brightness temperature can be used to determine the presence of clouds (such... Read More
The New Moon on 18 July means that no visible light reflected from the Moon can illuminate clouds, and the day/night band on the Suomi-NPP satellite can therefore view any clouds only with difficulty. However, it still views city lights, and illuminated roads, or gas field flares, among other things.... Read More
Parts of the north-central US (namely, western and central North Dakota and South Dakota, and far eastern Montana and Wyoming) received upwards of 0.5 to 1.0 inch of rainfall (Radar estimated precipitation | Regional temperature/precipitation data) in association with a... Read More
