Benefits and limitations

The benefits of the Night Microphysics RGB:

  • Provides full cloud analysis at night.
  • Detects fog and low-level water clouds (with good color contrast).

Limitations:

  • The IR3.74 brightness temperature values of high and very cold clouds are often noisy, resulting in green dots in the reddish-brown ice clouds. Therefore this RGB is not recommended for nighttime convection analysis. The IR10.8 single channel is more appropriate for this purpose.
  • Extremely thin water cloud or fog might not be detected by the Night Microphysics RGB.
  • Night Microphysics RGB might not detect all water clouds (or fog) at twilight, because then the IR3.74 channel also contains some solar radiation.