U.S. Cloud Images for flight display

Courtesy of Iowa Environmental Mesonet (Iowa State University -
Department of Agronomy):

Modify the links below to download the latest image of your specific
area of interest.

This 1km gray scale GOES data is not nearly as pretty as MODIS 250m
color data, but images every 30 minutes are potentially much more
interesting than images twice an afternoon.

Links below have height and width parameters reduced to avoid excessive
download size. As a courtesy to the host, you might limit your
download area before going to full resolution. The server limits
downloads to 4MB chunks.

East:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi...=640&width=480

West:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi...=640&width=480

Then there is US 1km Nexrad data updated every 5 minutes:

http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/cgi...640&height=480

Hints:
1) near real time 8 bit gray scale cloud images
2) updated half hourly during daylight hours
3) up to 100 pixels per degree of latitude or longitude (about 1km
resolution)
4) for eastern or western us and vicinity: southwest or lower left
corner is -126°(W) 24°(N); northeast or upper right corner is
-66°(W) 50°(N)
5) Site's unprojected lat/long format is suitable for use with flight
display software
6) Maximum image download is 2048 by 2048 (over 20 by 20 degrees at
full resolution)
7) Set latitude and longitude corners in BBOX parameters to cover your
flight/interest area
8) Set height and width parameters to 100 per degree for no loss of
resolution
9) For unstretched appearance of raw image file, reduce width parameter
by cos (latitude)

More info at host site:
http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/GIS/radview.phtml
http://mesonet.agron.iastate.edu/GIS/goes.phtml

Jonathan Gere
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