RGB Color Guide

This guide will come in handy for matching colours in RGB images with cloud type or surface feature. It also works the other way round: you can select a meteorological phenomenon and ask for the colour that shows the phenomenon in a given RGB combination.

The collection contains the standard RGBs created from the MSG/SEVIRI imager and also some RGBs from the VIIRS and AVHRR imagers.

To analyse the colours of an RGB image, an interactive tool can be downloaded from the "All Resources" pull-down menu (RGB Colour Tool).

The descriptions of the recipes of used RGBs can be found under the "User Manual" menu (RGB Recipes).

Large ice particles

In the Day Microphysics RGB, large ice particles depicts in red colours.

Mid-level water clouds

In the HRV Cloud RGB, mid-level clouds depict in white.

Limb cooling effect

In the Airmass RGB, the limb cooling effect depicts in blue colour.

Land

Snow free, non deserted, vegetated land usually appears greenish or slightly brownish in the Snow RGB. Bare soil may appear bluish.

Thick ice clouds

Thick ice clouds appear brown in the Ash RGB images.

Sandy deserts

Sandy desert appears cyan in the Ash RGB images: aqua-cyan when the surface is hot, or greenish cyan (aquamarine) when the surface…

Pure volcanic sulphur dioxide gas plume

Pure volcanic sulphur dioxide gas plume appears typically (light) green in the Ash RGB images.

Thin, pure volcanic ash cloud

Thin, pure volcanic ash cloud appears typically red or magenta in the Ash RGB images.

Mixed volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide gas plume

Mixed volcanic ash and sulphur dioxide gas plumes appear yellow in the Ash RGB images.

Land

Non-desert, snow free land usually appears reddish brown in the HRV Fog RGB images.

Semitransparent ice clouds

Semitransparent ice clouds appear greyish in the HRV Fog RGB images (with cyan tones).

Thick ice clouds

Thick ice clouds usually appear cyan in the HRV Fog RGB images.

Fog and water clouds

Fog and water clouds appear light pink in the HRV Fog RGB images.

Snow covered land

Snow appears cyan in the HRV Fog RGB images.

Oceans and lakes

Sea, lakes and rivers (open water surfaces) appears black in the HRV Fog RGB images.