The new Japanese weather satellite Himawari 8 is getting rave reviews from meteorologists.

Japan’s new weather satellite is getting a real workout as Typhoon Chan-Hom threatens Shanghai, and the New York Times published a really nice visual piece today showing some of its imagery. This satellite is capable of detecting light in the 3 visible channels of red,green, and blue and therefore we can see a color image of the Earth every few minutes. Check out the NYT piece HERE.

GOES R will launch next year and we will catch up to Japan and Europe, although Europe has an even more advanced meteosat under early construction. In some ways GOES R will be even better than Himawari, but we will not get true color images, although it will be possible to make an image that is close by using a combination of channels.