True Color Reproduction (TCR) imagery from the Himawari series of geostationary meteorological satellites is provided every hour. The regions of Japan (20 - 50° N, 110 - 150° E) and Asia (20 - 50° N. 80 - 150° E) can be displayed.
TCR imagery is replaced by infrared imagery at nighttime.
TCR imagery shows the Earth in colors similar to those seen with human eye.
Aeolian dust in the atmosphere appears brownish during the day.
All usage of satellite imagery provided here is subject to the Terms of Use for the JMA website and True Color Reproduction imagery.
True Color Reproduction (TCR) technology enables the display of earth images taken from space in a way that is familiar to the human eye.
The imagery consists of data from three visible bands (Band 1, 2 and 3), one near-infrared band (Band 4) and one infrared band (Band 13).
To reproduce colors as seen by the human eye, RGB signals observed by AHI are converted into CIE XYZ values and reconverted into RGB signals for output devices compliant with sRGB (an international standard for RGB color space)(Murata et al., 2018).
In this process, as an alternative to the bi-spectral hybrid green method outlined by Miller et al. (2016), the green band is optimally adjusted using Band 2, 3 and 4.
To make the imagery more vivid, atmospheric correction (Rayleigh correction, Miller et al., 2016) is also applied to AHI Bands 1-4.
Software for this purpose was provided by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) established by NOAA/NESDIS and Colorado State University in the United States of America.
The imagery was developed on the basis of collaboration between the JMA Meteorological Satellite Center and the NOAA/NESDIS/STAR GOES-R Algorithm Working Group imagery team. We would like to acknowledge them for the collaboration and their permission to use the software.
Miller, S., T. Schmit, C. Seaman, D. Lindsey, M. Gunshor, R. Kohrs, Y. Sumida, and D. Hillger, 2016: A Sight for Sore Eyes - The Return of True Color to Geostationary Satellites. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc. doi: 10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00154.1
Murata, H., K. Saitoh, Y. Sumida, 2018: True color imagery rendering for Himawari-8 with a color reproduction approach based on the CIE XYZ color system. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan. doi: 10.2151/jmsj. 2018-049
Aeolian Dust Observation from the Surface