Part 1—Explore GOES Images
In any step, click the Show me link to reveal extra information. If you prefer a printout of the full set of instructions for this part, choose Print from the File menu.
Step 1-Navigate to the GOES Images
Navigate to the Marshall Space Flight Center's Earth Science Office Web site.
This site has current images from GOES East and West satellites as well as full disk images of both the eastern and western hemispheres. This is a good site to first view GOES images because it offers straightforward ways to interact with a wide variety of images.
Step 2-Open the GOES East Visible Light Image
Click on the GOES East visible light image (top row, left) to open it in a new window. When the new window opens, you'll see a set of controls that allows you to manipulate the image.
Near the top of the screen, notice the UTC time and Local Time. UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time, the time at zero degrees longitude, which is used by scientists and others as a single global time. Other names for the time at zero degrees longitude are Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and Zulu (Z) Time. You will often see a Z in the upper left corner of GOES images, indicating Zulu or UTC time. Once you calculate the time difference between UTC and your local time, you'll be able to determine the local time for GOES image.
Step 3-Select Modifications to the Image
Keep the Single Image option selected. (The Animation option will be explored later in this chapter.) Modify one or more of the default settings, and then click on the image to implement the changes and zoom in at that location.
- Width and Height (to change the size and shape of the Output image)
- Quality, in percent (to vary the resolution of the Output image)
- Zoom Factor (to control the amount of zoom)
- Map (to change from State lines to County, Lat/Lon or None)
- Map Color (to control the color of the map lines)
- Previous image (to view any one of the 15 previous images)
- Enter X location or Y location to identify the pixel (location) on which the zoomed image will center, regardless of where one clicks on the image. The upper left corner of a GOES image is at pixel 0,0.)
- Extract Sub-image (An alternative way to zoom into the GOES image when X and Y coordinates have been selected.
Step 4-Click on a Location to Zoom In
Choose a location on the image and click it to zoom in on that place.
The settings you select are implemented when you click on the image. In order to zoom in to another location or change other options, click your browser's Back button to go back to the original image and controls.
