Welcome to UpperWeather Satellite links

GOES WEST GOES EAST

Weather satellite is a huge topic

Satellite is one of the most useful tools to a weather forecaster, and I think it is one of the coolest things to look at. I never get enough watching satellite pictures of the world.

There are two types of weather satellites. Geostationary (above images), and polar orbiter. Geostationary satellites are about 35,000km (22,000 miles)above the earth and sit over a fixed point on the equator. This gives a broad picture of half the planet. Polar orbiting satellites go from pole to pole quickly (14.1 times per day) and are a lot closer to the earth giving high resolution pictures.

There are a lot of places to get satellite pictures and each place displays them in a different way. Personal preference, and your needs, plays a lot into which one you will like.
University of Wisconsin
The above images come from this site. This is an awesome place to get every kind of satellite product you could ever want. They have everything! Here is an easier way to get to their satellite derived winds. They also have sounders and as up to date polar orbiter images as you are going to find on the internet.
NRL Monterey
This is probobly the best satellite site I have found without needing security clearances. They have everything that the University of Wisconsin has plus more. I love watching the stitched images of the whole globe just for fun.
UCAR Satellite
Here is where I usually go for satellite images. Mostly just because I am already there looking at other products, but also because I like the color combinations they use. Most of the products are from adds but they have a few of their own products.
WeatherTap
Weathertap has a lot of cool satellite interpretation graphics, but again you have to pay for them.
QuickSCAT winds
Scaterometry winds are an awesome way to tell what is going in a storm.
From their own site:
QuikSCAT is a polar orbiting satellite with an 1800 km wide measurement swath on the earth's surface. Generally, this results in twice per day coverage over a given geographic region. Wind retrievals are done on a 25km x 25km spatial scale.