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Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Direct Access to Global Weather Images

This isn't exactly news, as most of the the links I mention in this message have existed for years (the water vapour image links are new, however), but previously I've only furnished this information on demand to those who write to request it. This posting not only makes the information generally available, but can be cited in response to future queries, avoiding the need to dig up the information from scratch each time.

Earth and Moon Viewer provides access to current weather satellite imagery made available by the Space Science and Engineering Center of the University of Wisconsin. These images are transformed from the Mollweide projection in which they are published into a cylindrical projection suitable for mapping onto a sphere. In addition to the change in projection, the images are contrast stretched and composited with a cartoon background of sea and land.

Programs and Web resources which require current weather data may obtain these raw images from the following links. These images are updated no more than four times a day--downloading them more frequently is counterproductive and, in case of egregious abuse, may result in denial of access to Fourmilab.

The following list provides direct links to the current weather imagery, with each URL linked to a pop-up window which will display it.

Posted at 20:38 Permalink