You will learn more about how to interpret specific features on images in this section. Orienting yourself to labels that appear on VIS imagery helps you read the images correctly.

In this module, the left or bottom edge of the imagery displays a brightness or gray scale. The gray scale is used to identify specific ground features and clouds. For example, bodies of water are generally darker than land surfaces and clouds and snow are generally closer to white than is bare ground. Notice that the western U.S. is dark because sunrise has only reached as far as the central states.

At the top edge, the date and time the satellite collected the data is displayed. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), not local time, is shown. Learn about UTC-local time conversion on the next page.