In addition, through inversion techiniques in the various absorption bands of CO2 and H2O , useful temperature and humidity profiles in the atmosphere are now obtained to supplement the rawinsonde network observations over the oceans. So far only mean temperatures for relatively thick layers and winds at two cloud levels have been inferred from satellite information. Therefore, the vertical recolution is limited, and the data are, in many cases, not compatible with the observations obtained from rawinsondes at the different levels. The weather satellites provide a continuous picture of the state of the atmosphere. The networks of surface and upper-air observation stations detect weather conditions at discrete points only, some of which may be hundreds of thousands of kilometers apart.
Satellite imagery fills in the gaps.
Satellites also enable forecasters to locate and track tropical storms over oceans where weather observations are few and far between. As a result, a satellite in polar orbit can eventually scan the entire surface. It's like pealing and orange in on a piece. For this reason, satellites that monitor the global environment, like remote sensing satellites and certian weather satellites, are almost always in polat orbit. No other orbit gives such through coverage pf Earth.