1. Observation of Cloud Motion Using the Animation of Meteorological Satellite Imagery

Full Disk Animation

Cloud Image Animations (Full Disk Images) offers the monthly animation of full disk images, which are equivalent to Infrared 512x512. For the observation of cloud motions, please be aware of the following points.

The meteorological satellite GMS-5 (aka. Himawari 5) was not in full operation between July 2001 through May 2003, and the observation of the southern hemisphere was often not performed. This leads to non-smooth animation of cloud motions, especially in the southern hemisphere.
Before 1989, the frequency of observations was three hours, longer than now, and a part of the earth was frequently not observed, so the movement of clouds is not smooth.

Hence it is recommended to use the animation of clouds except for the periods mentioned above.

Typhoon Animation

The cloud animations of each typhoon are available by searching the typhoon based on the date, name, and map from the Top Page. For example, you can see the list of typhoons by typhoon season. Then you can see animations of clouds and other AMeDAS animations for meteorological elements in terms of precipitation amount, wind direction and speed, and sunshine duration.

2. Other Animations

AMeDAS Animation

Archive of AMeDAS Animations offers monthly animations in terms of precipitation amount, wind direction and speed, and sunshine duration among the meteorological elements of AMeDAS.

Animation of Clouds from the Ground

Image Archive of the Sky by Fixed Point Observations offers daily animations of cloud motions captured by a fixed-point camera on the ground.

3. File Format of Animations

MPEG-1	MPEG-1 animations are created with the resolution of 320x240 in this site. The quality is low, but this is the file format with highest compatibility which can be played on most players. This is also a recommended file format for users with a narrow-band Internet access.
MPEG-2	MPEG-2 animations are created with the resolution of either 640x480 or 512x512 in this site. The quality is higher, but usually an MPEG-2 player is not included in the standard Microsoft Windows series, so you should later install an MPEG-2 player that comes with a DVD player, for example. This file format is recommended for a user with a broad-band Internet access.
WMV (Windows Media Video)	This is a Microsoft standard file format for multimedia, so this format is recommended for users of Microsoft Windows series. The animation with little movement can be compressed into a much smaller file size than MPEG-2 without losing the quality.
GIF Animation	GIF Animation is used on some pages, if not many. The GIF format can be displayed on virtually all browsers, but in some cases the image may not be displayed as an animation. In that case, please check options of the browser, such as "display animations of the web page."