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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.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Earth - water - infrared
Publications with words: Earth - water - infrared
See also:
- APOD: 2025 December 8 B Flying Over the Earth at Night
- APOD: 2025 September 7 B All the Water on Planet Earth
- APOD: 2025 June 15 B Two Worlds One Sun
- APOD: 2025 February 23 B Saturn in Infrared from Cassini
- APOD: 2024 December 29 B Methane Bubbles Frozen in Lake Baikal
- Interplanetary Earth
- Earthset from Orion