How to read infrared maps

Color enhanced infrared imagery is a method meteorologists use to aid them with satellite interpretation. The colors enable a meteorologist to easily and quickly see features which are of special interest to them. Usually they look for high clouds or areas with a large amount of water vapor.

In an infrared (IR) image cold clouds are high clouds, so the colors typically highlight the colder regions. In a water vapor image, white areas indicate moisture and dark areas indicate little or no moisture, so the colors typically highlight areas with large amounts of moisture.

For IR images, the bar on the right side of the image indicates the pixel brightness values for the corresponding color.