View the Visible Satellite Map
The Visible Satellite Map is essentially a snapshot of what the satellite sees, unlike Infrared (IR) satellite imagery, which depicts the temperature of the clouds. As the sun approaches midday over a given area, clouds will appear as bright white, as opposed to gray at sunrise and sunset.

View the Water Vapor Map
The Water Vapor map shows areas of moist and dry air at mid-levels of the atmosphere (about 12,000 feet). Water vapor or water vapour, also aqueous vapor, is the gas phase of water. Water vapor is one state of the water cycle within the hydrosphere. This map is available at the national and regional level.

A weather satellite is a type of satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and climate of the Earth. These meteorological satellites, however, see more than clouds and cloud systems. City lights, fires, effects of pollution, auroras, sand and dust storms, snow cover, ice mapping, boundaries of ocean currents, energy flows, etc., are other types of environmental information collected using weather satellites. Other environmental satellites can detect changes in the Earth's vegetation, sea state, ocean color, and ice fields. For example, the 2002 oil spill off the northwest coast of Spain was watched carefully by the European ENVISAT, which, though not a weather satellite, flies an instrument (ASAR) which can see changes in the sea surface. The Antarctic ozone hole is mapped from weather satellite data. Collectively, weather satellites flown by the U.S., Europe, India, China, Russia, and Japan provide nearly continuous observations.

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