Visible (GeoColor)
True-color daytime imagery. Great for spotting cumulus fields, fog, and sunshine breaks. Goes dark at night.
Vol. 26 · No. —Orbital Desk · GOES-16
Eyes in geostationary orbit
Satellite imagery,
Mid-Atlantic zoom
NOAA's GOES-16 satellite parks over the equator at 22,236 miles up and sweeps the whole eastern half of North America every five minutes. Below are three bands of the most recent hour, centered on the Mid-Atlantic with Pennsylvania outlined.
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Reading the bands
How each channel works
Infrared (band 13)
Cloud-top temperature — colder and higher tops show whiter. Works around the clock and is the go-to for tracking storm intensity.
Water vapor (band 8)
Upper-level moisture. Reveals jet-stream patterns, dry slots, and large-scale circulation even in cloud-free air.
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