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A Quick Guide on True Colour RGB was recently published on the EUMeTrain website.
The True Colour RGB will be a standard RGB, which will be created from the imagers (FCI) on the future Meteosat Third Generation satellites. In addition to the 0.6 μm channel, it also uses the 0.4 and 0.5 μm channels which will be new on FCI. In this Quick Guide VIIRS and MODIS images are used as proxy data for the future FCI.
The aim of this RGB type is monitoring aerosols; suspended particles and algae bloom in sea water; surface features, and providing true colour images.
The colours are close to those naturally observed. Different surface features can be identified: green/dry vegetated areas, deserts, oceans, snow/ice covered areas. Clouds and snow/ice have similar colours (bright white). Aerosols can be identified and differentiated from clouds. Sometimes the aerosol types (dust, volcanic ash, fire, smoke) can also be recognised. Deep, clean water bodies can be well distinguished against water that is rich in suspended matter or that is shallow, with sediments on the water floor. Algae blooms are also seen.
The new guide contains examples of colour interpretation, guidelines, physical background, benefits and limitations.