Your Weather Questions Answered What is the significance of weather satellites? Print Story Published: 4/07/2008 2:22 pm Share Updated: 4/07/2008 2:24 pm When forecasting weather, satellites are one of the most important tools that meteorologists have at their disposal. There are three types of satellite imagery that we can utilize. The first is infrared imagery. This is important because it measures the temperature of the cloud tops. When we see very cold cloud top temperatures, especially in the summer, this can alert us to developing severe weather. The second kind is water vapor imagery. This affords us the opportunity to see circulations, such as a developing storm system, in the atmosphere. We look for a swirl, or comma shape to indicate them. These images, while very useful, offer less resolution. However, with visible satellite imagery, the resolution can be astounding. Such things as jet contrails and even cracks in Great Lakes ice cover are visible on a clear day. Print Story Share Categories Your Weather Questions Answered Snow Wind & Wind Chill Thunderstorms Optical Effects Weather Forecasting WHAM Weather Book Read It Online Download PDFs: Color | B&W