Part 3—Animate Web-Based GOES Images

Step 1 –
Animate a Default GOES Image

A new GOES image of the eastern or western United States is generated approximately every 15 minutes. If you view an animation of 8 frames, you'll see the movement of clouds and water vapor across 2 hours of real time.

To animate one of the default GOES images...visible light, infrared, or water vapor...without zooming in or changing the image in any way, select the Animation radio button and click the button labeled Animate image above.

This image shows the controls for a animating a series of GOES images.


The only variable you change when you animate a GOES image this way is the number of images that will appear in the animation. Note the image loop pop-up menu in the image below. The animation of 20 images will show 5 hours of cloud motion.

This image shows the controls for a animating a series of GOES images.


Some browsers are not JAVA enabled. If you get an error message to this effect, try using a different internet browser for this step. For example, Mac users may need to switch from Firefox to Safari.

Step 2 –
Animate a Customized GOES Image

To create a customized animation of a GOES image, change one or more of the following variables and then click on the GOES image to zoom in and launch the animation:

  • Select the number of images in the animation using the pop-up menu
  • Select the Zoom Factor
  • Select the Map type

The location that appears in the animation will depend on both the Zoom Factor you select and the area on the GOES image where you click to launch the animation.

Web-based animations of GOES images are easy to create, but you are limited to working with the 30 most recent GOES images which is a time span of 7.5 hours. Part 4 of this Chapter shows you how to download and animate GOES images without such constraints.