Weather Satellite Imagery (Simplified)

Notes:

The above satellite images are infra-red images of southern China and its vicinities taken from satellites at intervals of about once every half hour.
Infra-red images show the amount of thermal radiation emitted by ground and cloud top surfaces which also represent the temperatures of these surfaces.
As temperature usually decreases with height in the troposphere, high clouds generally have a lower temperature.
The higher the top of the clouds, the brighter it will appear on infra-red images.

Time stamp on the above images is the completion time of the images taken by satellites. Usually, ground reception and processing systems will take half to one hour for data reception and processing, image generation and uploading to the website.
The images were originally captured by FY-2G satellite of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) or Himawari-9 (H9) of Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). Anyone who intends to further disseminate these satellite images should seek permission from CMA or JMA accordingly.
FY-2G and Himawari-9 (H9) are geostationary meteorological satellites located above the equator at longitudes 99.2°E and 140.7°E respectively, at a height of around 35,800 km above the ground and travels at the same speed of the Earth's rotation. The satellite will always stay above the same spot on the Earth (hence the name 'geostationary'). This enables it to view, and obtain images of, the same part of the Earth at all time. An animation of the image sequence helps bring out the movement and development of clouds.
Since December 2022, the operational work of Himawari-8 has been replaced by Himawari-9.
Update frequency of the above images may be adjusted due to maintenance of satellite systems.

Abbreviation:

H9: Himawari-9

FY-2G: Fengyun-2G

CMA: China Meteorological Administration

JMA: Japan Meteorological Agency