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Global Hydrology and Climate Center

GOES-9 Interactive Water Vapor Satellite Data Selector

[Interactive geostationary satellite data viewer]
The image below is a picture of upper level water vapor in the atmosphere as seen from a water vapor channel aboard the GOES-9 Geostationary weather satellite. The very bright regions represent clouds, the dark regions represent drier regions of the atmosphere, and the grey colors represent water vapor variations. When a sequence of these images in time is animated it depicts the movement of water vapor, clouds, and weather systems over the globe. Thus, you can see the circulation of moisture around high and low pressure systems and how the circulation patterns are opposite in the northern and southern hemispheres. NOTE: Black areas are regions where data is not available for this time.
This page automatically refreshes after 30 minutes.

Current Available Image on 22 Jul 1998 20:00 UTC [32 km resolution]

Usage Tips
frame sequence
Click anywhere in the image to ZOOM in on features.
Single Image Animation

Previous 32 km resolution images.
22 Jul 1998 19:30 UTC || 22 Jul 1998 19:00 UTC || 22 Jul 1998 18:30 UTC
22 Jul 1998 16:00 UTC || 22 Jul 1998 15:30 UTC ||

Raw data courtesy of NASA Ames Research Center with reprocessing performed at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville Alabama.

Obtain GOES-8, GOES-9, GMS-5 and FY-2 data by anonymous ftp


Click on a point in the image above to view a subsection of this image at higher resolution. For a historical subsection, choose a time from the buttons below (the image above will not change) then click on the image above, or fill in the X, Y form below.

22 Jul 1998 20:00 UTC 22 Jul 1998 19:30 UTC 22 Jul 1998 19:00 UTC
22 Jul 1998 18:30 UTC 22 Jul 1998 16:00 UTC 22 Jul 1998 15:30 UTC

Alternatively: If you would like to consistently receive the same area, enter a center X, Y coordinate, and choose a time from the buttons. The origin (0,0) is in the upper left hand corner of the image. Clear form if you wish to click on the current image.

Enter X location (0-397): Enter Y location (0-339):


Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)


GOES data selector page
Global Hydrology and Climate Center


Responsible Official: Dr. Timothy L. Miller (tim.miller@msfc.nasa.gov)
Page Curator: Paul J. Meyer (paul.meyer@msfc.nasa.gov)


Last Updated: Wed Jul 22 17:07:21 CDT 1998