Application of light scattering in weather forecast

The following knowledge will help you understand why we need to care about light scattering.

Sunlight carries energy that warms the Earth and supports all life on Earth. Our climate is affected by how the sun is diffused, reflected back into space or absorbed by forests, deserts, snowy surfaces, different types of clouds, smoke due to forest fires and other air pollutants.

The Earth's atmosphere will impact light reflected above the surface back into space, just as it broke and scattered light through it from the sky to the surface of the earth. As a result, satellites can remotely detect in space and reveal information about the surface and atmosphere, helping us to forecast the weather, understand and care about greener planets.

Specifically, the instruments on satellites such as GOES can measure the strength in light of different wavelengths, helping to determine parameters such as atmospheric temperature and surface, level of CO2, Steam, pollutants, ozone and other gases.

The atmosphere causes light scattering in both directions: when the sun shines from the sun to the earth and when light bounces off the surface back to space.

Photo: Satellite GOES weather forecast.The latest generation of GOES satellites, the GOES-R series, are being developed jointly by two US agencies, NASA and NOAA, capable of taking better photos than previous generations.