ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-8-6739-2008 Clouds-Aerosols-Precipitation Satellite Analysis Tool (CAPSAT) Lensky I. M. 1 Rosenfeld D. 2 Department of Geography and Environment, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel 24 11 2008 8 22 6739 6753 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/6739/2008/acp-8-6739-2008.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/6739/2008/acp-8-6739-2008.pdf

A methodology for representing much of the physical information content of the METEOSAT Second Generation (MSG) geostationary satellite using red-green-blue (RGB) composites of the computed physical values of the picture elements is presented. The physical values are the solar reflectance in the solar channels and brightness temperature in the thermal channels. The main RGB compositions are (1) "Day Natural Colors", presenting vegetation in green, bare surface in brown, sea surface in black, water clouds as white, ice as magenta; (2) "Day Microphysical", presenting cloud microstructure using the solar reflectance component of the 3.9 μm, visible and thermal IR channels; (3) "Night Microphysical", also presenting clouds microstructure using the brightness temperature differences between 10.8 and 3.9 μm; (4) "Day and Night", using only thermal channels for presenting surface and cloud properties, desert dust and volcanic emissions; (5) "Air Mass", presenting mid and upper tropospheric features using thermal water vapor and ozone channels. The scientific basis for these rendering schemes is provided, with examples for the applications. The expanding use of these rendering schemes requires their proper documentation and setting as standards, which is the main objective of this publication.

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