The most common question we get is "How do you know that's what
the earth really looked like?". We'll explain how we make our
images, and show you a real image of the earth so you can see
for yourself. Geostationary satellites orbit the equator at
about 22,000 miles above the surface. At this altitude, they
orbit once per day, at the same rate that the earth turns. This
means that they always stay above the same spot on the equator.
This makes geostationary satellites great for things like
weather monitoring and communications, since they stay in a
fixed location relative to a point on the ground. If you have a
satellite dish at home, it's pointed towards a geostationary
satellite.We use cloud images from five geostationary weather
satellites: We download the latest images every three hours from
the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station and combine them to
create a cloud map covering the whole world. It's impossible to
make a global cloud map using visible light, since it's always
night over half of the world, s