Day Land Cloud RGB (Legacy)
Alternative name: Natural Colour RGB
MSG SEVIRI Day Land Cloud RGB -- 15 February 2025, 11:30 UTC
Main applications (Daytime)
- Vegetation monitoring
- Cloud phase detection
- Aerosol detection
- Fires (only very intense)
- Flood detection
- This RGB is still outperforms Ture Colour RGB spectrally when it comes to vegetation signal, due to use of very effective VIS0.8 'vegetation channel'.
- Despite the fact that True Colour RGB has a better sensitivity to aerosols, this RGB still outperforms in terms of aerosol classification (in terms of aerosol particle size).
RGB Recipes by Satellite Instrument
SEVIRI Day Land Cloud RGB
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
NIR1.6 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
VIS0.8 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Blue |
VIS0.6 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
MTG FCI Day Land Cloud RGB
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
NIR1.6 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
VIS0.8 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Blue |
VIS0.6 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
GOES ABI Day Land Cloud RGB
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
NIR1.6 |
0 |
97.5 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
NIR0.86 |
0 |
108.6 |
% |
1.0 |
| Blue |
VIS0.64 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
Himawari AHI Day Land Cloud RGB
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
NIR1.6 |
0 |
99 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
NIR0.86 |
0 |
102 |
% |
0.95 |
| Blue |
VIS0.64 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
FY-4 AGRI Day Land Cloud RGB
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
NIR1.61 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
VIS0.825 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Blue |
VIS0.65 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
Day Microphysics RGB (with NIR1.6) (Legacy)
Main applications (Daytime)
- General cloud analyses
- Monitoring convection
- Monitoring cloud top phase
- This RGB does not require calculation of IR 3.8 µm reflectance (IR3.8refl).
- It performs well overall and behaves similarly to the standard Day Microphysics RGB, but lacks particle size sensitivity inherited from reflective component of IR3.8 channel (included in Day Microphysics RGB).
- Differentiation between small and large cloud-top droplets (particularly for water clouds) is less effective. Sensitivity to cloud top particle size exists, but within a narrower range than the standard Day Microphysics RGB.
- Commonly used with data from Metop AVHRR, VIIRS, and SEVIRI.
Note: On some satellites, AVHRR switches between 1.6 µm (day) and 3.7 µm (night). As a result, the standard Day Microphysics RGB (which uses IR3.8) cannot be generated during the day on those platforms (hence the need for this RGB).
VIIRS Day Microphysics RGB (with NIR1.6)
| Colour beam |
Channel (difference) |
Range min |
Range max |
Unit |
Gamma |
| Red |
VIS0.8 |
0 |
100 |
% |
1.0 |
| Green |
NIR1.6 |
0 |
70 |
% |
1.0 |
| Blue |
IR10.5 |
203 |
323 |
K |
1.0 |