About Bay Area Fog
Real-time satellite visualization of fog, marine stratus, and low clouds over the San Francisco Bay Area.
Image Source
Imagery is sourced from NOAA GOES-West (currently GOES-18), a geostationary satellite operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. GOES-West provides continuous coverage of the Western United States and Eastern Pacific at 2 km nominal resolution. The data is publicly available through NOAA's cloud archive.
Day & Night Processing
During the day, we render a natural-color composite using GOES visible and near-infrared bands (C01, C02, C03) that highlights fog and low marine stratus against land and open ocean. At night, we switch to an infrared composite that reveals low-level clouds and fog through their thermal signatures, making marine layer activity visible even in darkness.
Update Frequency
Imagery refreshes approximately every 10 minutes, following NOAA's GOES-West scan schedule. There is typically a short processing and delivery delay between image capture and availability on this site.
Data Quality
NOAA GOES data is publicly available but may occasionally contain artifacts, missing scans, or brief outages due to satellite maneuvers, instrument calibration, or processing delays. Imagery should be used for general awareness only and not for safety-critical decisions.
Map & Design
Maps are rendered using MapLibre GL JS. Base map style is Dark Matter by CARTO.
Contact
Bay Area Fog is a personal side project. If you have issues, feedback, or feature requests, feel free to reach out directly: