Search Farmonline Weather Help

search for in

Satellite and Radar

Why is the satellite image partly or all black?

If you are looking at a visible image, chances are it is at night or during the twilight hours. Because visible imagery works by measuring the amount of visible light reflected back to the satellite sensors, overnight when there is no visible light, the images appear black. Around sunrise and sunset, when the light is very dim, the satellite imagery will appear very faint and will be hard to resolve detail on.

If the image that you are looking at is infrared, there is probably a problem with the satellite. Due to technical malfunctions or routine maintenance, sometimes infrared images are sent from the satellite that have large areas of no data on them. These will show up as partly black images.

Related Articles

Site search


Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Australia's tropical cyclone season in satellite images

14:34 AEST Images captured by the Himawari-9 satellite over the past six months show the entire 2023-24 Australian tropical cyclone season in all its glory from start to finish.

Help with Farmonline Weather