Auroras
Taken by Paul J. McCrone on December 17, 2015 @ Monterey, CA, USA
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Satellite imagery processed at the Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC), Monterey CA
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Comments
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What are we seeng? Clearly this is an enhanced satellite shot with country outlines but what does the yellow represent? I originally thought it was auroral streamers given the high latitudes but there are yellow blobs in isolated areas that seem inconsistent with yellow == aurora. Can anyone provide a clear explanation for the false color mapping?
Posted by dk-skywatch 2015-12-18 16:56:51
Hmm... OK. So its clouds. That makes sense of the yellow blobs (and high latitude streamers) but doesnt explain why its classed as an aurora photo. Still want a better legend.
Posted by dk-skywatch 2015-12-18 23:28:19
The images appear to be showing visible light. During the day this allows for observation of cloud height and density. This image is taken in the evening (local time), so we are seeing city lights across western Europe and what appears to be light from auroras across the top of the images. In fact, this close to the solstice, there couldnt be that much light reflecting from high latitude clouds, so this mud be auroras.
Posted by Amdir 2015-12-20 20:01:28
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_Meteorological_Satellite_Program
Posted by Amdir 2015-12-21 07:32:06
 
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