Breathtaking new photos of Earth captured by NASA and NOAA's weather satellite

Jan 24 2017, 1:19 am

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released the first images taken by Harris Corporation’s Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) onboard their next-generation weather satellite.

The image above was taken from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16 (GOES-16) of Earth’s full western hemisphere with detailed cloud and water features.

The high-resolution digital camera has image resolution of one-tenth of a square mile, or four times better than current imagers. The advanced imagery will detect more information about volcanic ash, dust, clouds, winds, fires, rainfall rate, and hurricane intensity than previous weather satellites.

Critical information about severe weather events can come as fast as 30 seconds, five times faster than previous technology.

“These images come from the most sophisticated technology ever flown in space to predict severe weather on Earth,” said Dr. Stephen Volz, the director of NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service in a statement on Monday. “The fantastically rich images provide us with our first glimpse of the impact GOES-16 will have on developing life-saving forecasts.”

See also
Daily Hive StaffDaily Hive Staff

+ News
+ Photos
ADVERTISEMENT