View side-by-side maps of both today's satellite feed and the last 3 days combined
Chart of Earth's atmospheric layers
View Today's Data Granule Maps
AIRS data is sectioned into pieces called "granules".
View more maps on the
Daily Earth Maps from Space from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder
Global Daytime Air Temperature
Today's satellite feed in near-real-time
Temperature in degrees Fahrenheit at 700 millibar atmospheric pressure
(10,000 ft / 3,000 m / 1.6 miles altitude)
The temperature of the atmosphere changes as you go up from Earth's surface. At what altitude are these temperature maps associated with?
AIRS can retrieve temperature data from different levels in the atmosphere. The temperatures you see here are found at an atmospheric pressure level of 700 millibar. Atmospheric pressure is highest at Earth's surface and then decreases as you go up in altitude. 700 millibar pressure occurs at approximately 10,000 ft (3,000 m) altitude.
Roughly 1/3 of the atmosphere's mass is found in the layer below 10,000 ft. This level of the atmosphere is located in the upper reaches of the lower troposphere, and the display of warm air masses, cold air masses, and frontal boundaries are particularly vivid at this pressure level.
What are the colored stripes in map?
The AIRS instrument on the Aqua satellite orbits Earth from pole to pole. Imagine if you held a beach ball and tried wrapping a ribbon around the ball, going from top to bottom then bottom to top. Depending on the width of the ribbon, it can take many loops to cover the entire ball. The stripes in the map shows where AIRS collected data in it's orbital path. We call this stripe a "swath".
> View an Aqua satellite orbit animation
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Why are there black areas in the map?
The map above is created from today's data only. AIRS orbits Earth 15 times a day--not enough orbits for AIRS to completely cover the globe. The black areas between the colored swaths show where AIRS has not yet retrieved data. We call these areas "gores". In addition, this map displays daytime temperatures only, so data retrieved by AIRS during the night are not included (which explains the big empty area). Black areas can also show where the 700 millibar pressure surface intersects mountainous terrain, such as in the western part of North and South America. Finally, AIRS was designed to retrieve data in clear skies or skies with speckled or thin clouds, so black areas can also show where dense clouds have collected.
What do the colors mean?
The color bar is the key to reading the temperature map. The bar will tell you the darkest purple color in the map shows where temperatures are -30 degrees F. Sky blue is approximately 20 degrees, yellow shows temperatures of around 40 degrees, and deepest red tops out at 70 degrees.
AIRS, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, is an instrument on an Earth-orbiting NASA satellite called Aqua.
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Click to view a temperature map created by combining the last 3 days of data
Creating a map like this allows us a more seamless view of our global measurements.
DID YOU KNOW?
From Earth's surface to the top of the troposphere, the air gets colder the higher it gets. But in the stratosphere, the air actually warms with height.