The Water Vapor Channel
Explanation:
What alien planet's bizarre landscape
lurks below these fiery-looking clouds?
It's only
Planet Earth,
of course ... as seen on the Water Vapor Channel.
Hourly, images like
this one (an infrared image shown in false color)
are brought to you by the orbiting
Geostationary Operational
Environmental Satellites' (GOES)
multi-channel imagers.
These instruments can produce images at the
infrared wavelength of 6.7 microns or about 10 times the
wavelength of visible light, recording radiation emitted by water vapor in
the upper troposphere.
Bright regions correspond to high concentrations
of water vapor while dark spots are relatively dry areas.
Atmospheric water vapor is invisible to the eye
and produced by evaporation from the oceans.
Convected upward in the tropical zones it
affects the climate by contributing
substantially to the greenhouse effect.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
