Visible Day/Night Albedo Product -

Basic: This GOES Imager product consists of two parts. During daylight hours the images are derived from the visible channel of the GOES Imager to show clouds (mainly) and smoke (when dense/thick enough) from fires. Images near dawn and dusk are enhanced to better show clouds and smoke. At night an IR product is provided when no visible imagery is available from GOES. The nighttime product is derived from two of the infrared (IR) channels on the GOES Imager to show hot spots from fires as white pixels. (See the Shortwave Albedo Product for a further explanation.)

Advanced: The GOES visible albedo product effectively enhances visible (0.7 µm) channel images, creating a product that brightens up dark images due to low sun angle. The solar zenith angle at every image pixel is used to generate a normalized albedo, independent of sun angle, creating an image loop that compensates for low sun angles both morning and evening. At night, or for the night portion of images containing the day/night terminator, the shortwave IR albedo product (see this product for an explanation) is substituted in place of darkness. This creates a continuous display of cloud features and fires day and night. Low-level water clouds appear white both day and night. Higher-level ice clouds, such as cirrus, appear dark at night and white during the day. Smoke from burning fires may be seen in the visible/daytime images and hot spots can be seen as white spots in the IR/nighttime images.