Japan has an advanced weather satellite that creates some of the most amazingly detailed images of Earth and its weather systems you could imagine. The Himawari-8 satellite, launched last October, just went into full operation this week, and its cameras, twice as powerful as those of a predecessor, are already being credited with alerting scientists to a possible massive El Niño event (which usually means an unusually warm, dry winter in the Northwest with little snow). Check out a New York Times report for both still and video images. NASA and NOAA plan to launch a similar satellite next March.
