True Colour RGB

Quick Guide
The True Colour RGB will be a standard RGB, which will be created from the imagers (FCI) on the future Meteosat Third
Generation satellites. In addition to the 0.6 µm channel it also uses the 0.4 and 0.5 m channels which will be new on FCI. In
this Quick Guide VIIRS and MODIS images are used as proxy data for the future FCI.

Aim: Monitoring: aerosols; suspended particles and algae bloom

in sea water; surface features and providing true colour images.
Area and time period of its application: Full disk, daytime.
Applications and guidelines: Colours are close to those naturally
observed. Surface features can be identified: green/dry vegetated
areas, deserts, oceans, snow/ice covered areas. It does not
differentiate between cloud types, only the optical thickness.
Clouds and snow/ice have similar colours (bright white). Their
different structures (and movement) may help to distinguish them.
Aerosols can be identified and differentiated from clouds
(different structure, slightly different colour shades). Sometimes
the aerosol types (dust, volcanic ash, fire, smoke) can also be
recognised.
Deep, clean water bodies can be well distinguished against water
that is rich in suspended matter or that is shallow, with sediments
on the water floor (dark blue against greenish or bluish cyan, or
brown). Algae blooms are also seen, in greenish and bluish cyan. VIIRS True Colour RGB, 4 October 2018, 12:17 UTC

Background
The True Colour RGB was designed to provide natural colours. The channels sensitive to the red, green and blue visible light
are visualised in the respective colour beams. This results in realistic colours that imitate how the human eye might see the
scene. Before creating the RGB the effect of the Rayleigh scattering has to be removed from each band, otherwise the RGB
would be blurry. Aerosols are better seen in this RGB than in the other shortwave standard RGBs as the scattering effect is
stronger at shorter wavelengths. The table below shows which VIIRS channels are used in creating the True Colour RGB.
GOES/ABI does not measure in green spectrum region, it must be simulated. For Himawari/AHI the green channel (VIS0.51)
is slightly shifted compared to the Chlorophyll-A visible reflectance peak, so it is combined with the NIR0.86 channel to gain
enough green shades for vegetation imaging. The NIR0.86 combination will also be needed for FCI.
Smaller contribution to Larger contribution to
Colour Channel [µm] Physically relates to
the signal the signal
Cloud optical thickness,
Red VIS0.67 Thin clouds Thick clouds
vegetation, aerosols
Cloud optical thickness, Thin clouds Thick clouds
Green VIS0.56
vegetation, aerosols Dry vegetation Green vegetation
Cloud optical thickness,
Blue VIS0.49 Thin clouds Thick clouds
vegetation, aerosols
Notation: VIS: visible, number: central wavelength of the channel in µm (for VIIRS).

Benefits Limitations
• Similar to colour photography. Easy to interpret. Understandable by all. • Works only during the day.
• Useful for: geological and land-use analysis; green vegetation monitoring. • No separation between clouds and snow.
• Aerosols are easily seen. Aerosols and water/ice clouds are usually • No separation of cloud types.
distinguishable due to their different structures and colours. • No temperature information.
• Ash, smoke and dust may have different colour shades. • No cloud height information.
• Helps fire detection and monitoring as smoke is visible in the RGB. It • No microphysical information for clouds.
should be used together with other information, for example with the Fire • Strong sunglint.
Temperature RGB, Day/Night Microphysical RGBs and/or the IR3.8
channel.
• Sediment or algae blooms are sometimes seen in water bodies. Remark
• Provides information on cloud optical thickness. Thin cirrus clouds are less visible, as the
• Thin low level clouds are well seen over seas. True Colour RGB lacks infrared channels.
 True Colour RGB
Quick Guide

Interpretation
1 Thick clouds

2 Thin clouds over ground/sea

3 Snow on ground or sea ice 1

Deep water not rich in suspended 3
4
matter (dark blue, almost black)
2
5 Water rich in suspended matter 7
(greenish or bluish cyan)

6 Land with lots of green vegetation

6
7 Land with little green vegetation
5
8 Desert
4
9 Volcanic ash (brown or brownish grey)

10 Smog, pollution, or haze (grey) VIIRS True Colour RGB, 25 October 2018, 12:24 UTC

11 Smoke (grey with some bluish tone) Remark: Colours depend on solar and satellite viewing angles. The colours of the aerosol
clouds depend on several factors, for example on the composition, e.g. oil smoke is black
Dust (grey with some brownish tone) due to more soot particles. The structure of a well spread aerosol layer (like haze) has a
12 washed-out appearance. A new smoke or volcanic ash cloud has a plume shape.

10

11
9

Comparison to Dust RGB

The image pair on left shows water, ice and dust
clouds. Dust is seen in the holes between the
clouds over the Tyrrhenian Sea and in mid-Italy
(see the pink colour in Dust RGB). The features
have higher colour contrast in the Dust RGB, but
the colours are more natural in the True Colour
RGB. The structure of lofted dust and water/ice
2 clouds are different: dust is much more smooth
and homogeneous. Colour contrast is low in the
True Colour RGB: water and ice opaque clouds
are white, thin clouds are grey. Lofted dust
12 appears grey with some brownish shade.

More about RGBs on [Link]

VIIRS True Colour RGB (left) and Dust RGB (right), 29 October 2018, 11:08 UTC Contact: info@[Link]