Digital Satellite Imagery in Industrial Meteorology

Abstract

Digital imagery is currently available from geostationary satellites and will be available from new polar orbiters in the near future. Stable, wide-range responses in two or more channels, all in digital form, present opportunity for the extraction of quantitative information in support of the operational industrial meteorologist. A relatively low-cost acquisition and manipulating facility is discussed by which the private user may promptly acquire and treat limited data arrays for times and locations of his own choosing. The proposed starting configuration has limited but powerful capabilities and is focused on geostationary satellite data acquisition. Realistic resource estimates are provided for both hardware and software so that a prospective user may judge the economic feasibility of such a system for his application.