Raytheon

VIIRS Provides State-of-the-art Weather Monitoring While Capturing Vivid Earth Imagery

Improved weather forecasting is critical in providing clear and ample warning to residents in potentially impacted areas of weather disasters. By being able to more accurately determine where weather disasters might occur, and provide early warning to impacted communities and government agencies, space sensors, such as Raytheon’s VIIRS, are helping to save lives and reduce disaster relief costs.

VIIRS, which was launched into orbit on the Suomi NPP satellite last October, delivers high-definition imagery from space that can help weather forecasters and government agencies better understand weather patterns, obtain enhanced spectral coverage and employ advanced calibration for improved nighttime cloud characterization.

The VIIRS’ Blue Marble 2012 image, captured on January 12, 2012, instantly became an iconic image from Space, replacing an earlier version captured 30 years ago by the Apollo 17 astronauts who used a 70-millimeter Hasselblad camera with an 80-millimetre lens. The Blue Marble 2012 is a composite image made up of separate data sets taken during the course of several orbits.

Old Blue Marble

New Blue Marble

VIIRS continues to capture vivid Earth imagery and provides broader spectral coverage and improved spatial resolution, which means it can take a wide variety of images to help weather forecasters gain a better understanding of weather patterns to make more accurate weather predictions. This photo gallery showcases several images captured by VIIRS since its launch on Suomi NPP on Oct. 28, 2011.

Image Gallery
A 'Blue Marble' image of the Earth taken from the Suomi NPP. This composite image uses a number of swaths of the Earth's surface. Courtesy of NASA/NOAA/GSFC/Suomi NPP/VIIRS/Norman Kuring. Chesapeake Bay. Courtesy of NASA/Suomi NPP/Atmosphere PEATE/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/Liam Gumley. Cuba. Courtesy of the Space Science and Engineering Center (SSEC), University of Wisconsin-Madison by the NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE Team. Denham, Australia. Courtesy of NASA/NOAA. Florida. Courtesy of NASA/Suomi NPP/Atmosphere PEATE/Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison/Liam Gumley. Hurricane Funso. Courtesy of NOAA/NESDIS/STAR/RAMMB and the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. Hurricane Kenneth. Courtesy of Steven Miller Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University and Steve Mills, Northrop Grumman Space Corporation. La Paz, Mexico. Courtesy of NASA/NOAA. New Orleans. Courtesy of NASA/NOAA. New York City. Courtesy of Steven Miller Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University and Steve Mills, Northrop Grumman Space Corporation. Puyehue-Cordon. Courtesy of Steven Miller Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University and Steve Mills, Northrop Grumman Space Corporation. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Courtesy of NASA/NOAA. South Korea. Courtesy of Steven Miller Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University and Steve Mills, Northrop Grumman Space Corporation. Vancouver, BC, Canada. Courtesy of Liam Gumley, CIMSS. The first complete view of Planet Earth captured by VIIRS on Nov. 24, 2011 onboard the Suomi NPP satellite. Courtesy of NASA’s NPP Land Product Evaluation and Testing Element. VIIRS Earth image showing eastern Africa. Courtesy of NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. VIIRS Earth image showing Australia. Courtesy of NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. VIIRS Earth image showing India. Courtesy of NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison. VIIRS Earth image showing the eastern United States. Courtesy of NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison VIIRS Earth image showing the West Coast of the United States. Courtesy of NASA NPP Atmosphere PEATE, Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.