We've been testing the new channel since March 10. Fennimore, George Stephens, and their colleagues have developed an image- processing technique that uses the new 1.6 micron channel, the 0.63 micron visible channel, and the 11.0 micron thermal channel to differentiate snow and ice from clouds and fog. The process renders the snow and ice white and most other surface features in natural colors. The new methods have resulted in the production of some dynamic satellite images of the Great Lakes, Rockies, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Western Canada, and the Bering Sea. With the five images, we have spanned the test period for the 1.6 micron channel quite nicely.
All scenes contain snow.
The image of Western Canada shows mountains, forest, and tundra. The imagery will be used to generate snowcover maps for the National Weather Service's forecasting applications. The imagery will also be used to create special images covering significant snow and ice events. These images will be similar to the example images presented here.