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Today's Satellite Images
Home
Today's Weather
Today's Satellite Images
Rainfall Records
Archives
Resources
About Us
|
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Latest Caribbean Synoptic Chart
Although this chart is not a satellite image, it belongs here because it covers the same area as the satellite views and shows weather data simultaneously gathered ("synoptic") from surface sources. If the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)* is visible, it suggests clouds or rain in that area. A good introduction to reading charts like these is found at the National Weather Service Jetstream Online School for Weather. *The ITCZ, also known as the Doldrums, is an area near the equator where air masses from the Northern and Southern Hemisphere meet. It moves around, depending on season and on global atmospheric conditions. Warm air rises at the ITCZ, taking moisture to higher altitudes where it condenses into clouds and rain. Total Precipitable Water During the extraordinarily wet rainy season of 2010, you may find the imagery of Total Precipitable Water of interest. It's an animation derived from satellite imagery and takes awhile to load.
Latest Visible Satellite Image
Visible satellite images are best used for monitoring of thunderstorms and tropical cyclones but can only be used in the daytime because the visible channel sensor detects reflected solar radiation. For more information and interesting examples of other uses, see the satellite-reading tutorial at Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch (RAMMB) of NOAA. Note: part-way into the tutorial some image loops of storms will start loading and may slow your browser to a crawl, depending on your bandwidth. Be patient. The loops are worth it.  Latest AVN Color Satellite Colorized satellite images are enhanced infrared data. The infrared channel of a satellite senses energy as heat and therefore the images from night-time data can be used as well as those from day-time data. Adding color gives detail to cloud features in the AVN image and gives a sense of where the sun is in the RGB image.  Latest RGB Color Satellite The RGB satellite provides a treat at the time around sunrise and sunset, when you see a sharp band of light showing where sunlight is hitting the earth. On the other side of that band the earth is in darkness. 
Winds
The symbols on a wind chart are in two parts: a long line indicating the direction the wind is coming FROM and short lines (called "barbs") indicating the velocity of the wind. (Think of the barbs as the feathers on an arrow - they are at the end of the arrow that is coming from the shooter.) Each long barb represents 10 knots (11.5 mph) and each short barb represents 5 knots (5.75 mph). Colors indicate barometric pressure as shown in the key at the upper right of the chart.
Wind Shear
For an understanding of the wind shear chart and how it helps predict hurricanes, see the excellent wind shear tutorial, from which this description of the chart is taken: Yellow contour lines mark wind shear values in knots. Pink lines with arrows show the direction of the shear (which is almost always the same as the direction of the upper level winds at 200 mb, since winds aloft are almost always stronger than winds near the surface). The contour lines are overlaid on a water vapor satellite image. Dark areas show where dry air is.
 More Western Atlantic satellite images. |
