The Wall: The Earth in True Natural Color from Real-Time Geostationary Satellite Imagery

Abstract

We present “The Wall”, the first web-based platform that animates the Earth in true natural color and close to real-time. The living planet is displayed both during day and night with a pixel resolution of approximately 1 km and a time frequency of 10 min. The automatic processing chains use the synchronized measurements provided by three geostationary satellites: the METEOSAT Second Generation (MSG2), Himawari-8, and GOES-16. A Rayleigh scattering correction is applied, and a cloud of artificial neural networks, chosen to render “true natural color” RBG composites, is used to recreate the missing daytime bands in the visible spectrum. The reconstruction methodology is validated by means of the TERRA/AQUA “Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer” (MODIS) instrument reflectance values. “The Wall” is a dynamic broadcasting platform from which the scientific community and the public can trace local and Earth-wide phenomena and assess their impact on the globe.

Keywords

• geostationnary satellites
• MSG2 SEVIRI
• Himawari-8 AHI
• GOES-16
• MODIS Terra/Aqua
• true natural color imagery