C What can satellite images tell us about the weather?

Answer 1

Satellites above the atmosphere can get a clear, big picture of Earth's cloud formations. By analysing these cloud patterns, meteorologists can forecast how these clouds will change and move, and predict the weather, be it rain or shine, for many areas. For example, hurricanes can be easily spotted from satellites but not easily spotted from ground due to its size, and thus satellites come in very helpful. Also, infra-red satellite forecasting can also determine the temperatures in different areas on Earth's surface, which aids meteorologists in finding out cloud heights, cloud types, water cycles and sea surface termperatures (an important factor in the formation of hurricanes).

Answer 2

Answer: It's not the satellites themselves that forecast the weather; but rather the instruments that are placed onto weather satellites. Weather satellites carry instruments that scan the Earth to form images. These instruments usually have a small telescope or antenna, a scanning mechanism, and one or more detectors that detect either visible, infrared, or microwave radiation. These measurements are in the form of electrical voltages that are digitized, and then transmitted to receiving stations on the ground.

Almost all weather satellites are put into one of two kinds of orbits around the Earth. One is called a "geostationary" orbit, with the satellite positioned at a very high altitude (about 22,500 miles) orbiting over the equator. This altitude is chosen so that it takes the satellite 24 hours to orbit the earth once, which is also the rotational rate of the earth itself. A geostationary orbit allows a satellite to appear to be fixed over a single and non-moveable position over the equator. This type of geostationary satellite is what produces the cloud animations that you see on TV, and can take images as frequently as every minute or so. It also provides Meteorologists with other data allowing them to predict short and long-term weather forecasts. The other orbit type is called "polar", where the satellite is put into a relatively low altitude orbit (around 500 miles) that carries the satellite near the North Pole and the South Pole. Unlike the geostationary orbit, the polar orbit allows complete Earth coverage as the Earth turns beneath it. These orbits are usually "sun-synchronous", allowing the satellite to measure the same location on the Earth twice each day, and at the same local solar time.

Answer 3

Radio waves prefer to travel straight ahead, which makes it difficult to get them across large distances because of the curvature of the Earth. With satellites you shoot the radio signal up in a straight line, but at an angle, and then have the satellite send it back down at another angle. That way you can get a radio signal to go beyond the horizon.

Weather forecast can also be helped by having a satellite looking down on the Earth, so you can see storms and clouds moving before they are overhead.

Answer 4

they can take highly accurate pictures and give us information that we might not be able to get while on earth

Answer 5

they tell the mapmakers where physical features are so they can make maps.

Answer 6

Satallite images tell you the temperature and the chance of rain ect...

Answer 7

Photographs of the earth and space and sky :)

Answer 8

weather satelite is used to monitor the weather