Short Course on Satellite Meteorology
AMS 78th Annual Meeting
11 January 1998   Phoenix, Arizona
Examples of GOES Longwave Sounder Channels 1-8
 
Each sounder channel is sensitive to different atmospheric layers.  The 'window' channels, such as longwave channel 8, primarily measure the temperature of a radiating surface, such as clouds, land and ocean.  As the central wavelengths become longer, (channels 7 through 1), the sensitivity corresponds to higher atmospheric layers, with Channel 1 measuring IR radiation emitted near the tropopause and lower stratosphere.  The first image is a standard gray scale depiction of longwave channel 8, with white representing cold surfaces (clouds, snow), and black warm surfaces (land and ocean). The following images are enhanced in false color, and show the correlation between channel and the atmospheric height.
Channel:   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  8 (B&W)
Channel 8 (Window Channel) - Standard Black & White Display
 
 
Channel 8 (Window Channel) - Color Enhanced
 
GOES-8/9 Sounder Channel 8
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
 
Channel 7 - Color Enhanced
 
GOES-8/9 Sounder Channel 7
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
Channel 6 - Color Enhanced
 
 
GOES-8/9 Sounder Channel 6
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
Channel 5 - Color Enhanced
GOES-8/9 Sounder Channel 5
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
Channel 4 - Color Enhanced
 Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
 Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
Labels on color bar correspond to Brightness Temperature (Celsius)
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