Weather Insider: Types of satellites and how they work

There are countless types of satellites orbiting around the globe doing thousands upon thousands of different tasks. There are GPS satellites, space telescopes, military satellites, and, of course, weather satellites, just to name a few. Space telescopes, like the James Webb Space Telescope or Hubble work by looking deep into a specific part of the electromagnetic spectrum to uncover the secrets of the universe.

Many weather satellites also work by examining a very specific band of the EM spectrum, typically the infrared portion. Below is a picture of water vapor in the middle part of the atmosphere with warmer colors representing dry air and cooler/white colors representing moist air. We use satellite data every day to help us make our forecasts.