How weather satellites work.

A Satellite is an artificial body placed in orbit around the earth or moon or another planet in order to collect information or for communication. Weather satellites observe many types of data sets such as: clouds and cloud systems,  City lights, fires, effects of pollution, auroras, sand and dust storms, snow cover, ice mapping, boundaries of ocean currents, energy flows, etc., and other types of environmental information. There are two main types of satellites: geostationary and polar orbiting. Polar orbiting satellites cover the whole earth by constantly circling the Earth in an almost north-south orbit, passing close to both poles. Geostationary, or GOES, satellites provide the kind of continuous monitoring necessary for intensive data analysis. They circle the Earth in a geosynchronous orbit, which means they orbit the equatorial plane of the Earth at a speed matching the Earth's rotation. This allows them to hover continuously over one position on the surface. Weather satellites carry instruments called radiometers (not cameras) that scan the Earth to form images. These instruments usually have some sort of small telescope or antenna, a scanning mechanism, and one or more detectors that detect either visible, infrared, or microwave radiation for the purpose of monitoring weather systems around the world. The measurements these instruments make are in the form of electrical voltages, which are digitized and then transmitted to receiving stations on the ground. The data are then relayed to various weather forecast centers around the world, and are made available over the internet in the form of images.