Weather Satellite Imagery (Simplified)
Notes:
- The above satellite images are true colour images of southern China and its vicinities taken from satellites at intervals of about once every half hours.
- True colour images are composite of red, green and blue visible satellite channels, showing reflected sunlight from ground and cloud top surfaces, just like taking colour pictures of the Earth from Space.
- True colour images are available only during daytime when there is sunlight. These images have a higher picture resolution and can display finer details of cloud structures which are useful to weather analysis.
Remarks:
- 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- Since December 2022, the operational work of Himawari-8 has been replaced by Himawari-9.
- The above images may be replaced by single channel visible images with adjusted update frequency due to maintenance of satellite systems.
- Abbreviation:
- H9: Himawari-9
- FY-2G: Fengyun-2G
- CMA: China Meteorological Administration
- JMA: Japan Meteorological Agency