nowfound

Life & fun · November 16, 2023

Near-realtime cloud maps for weather visualisation, 3D models and more

This is a service I've built to provide equirectangular cloud maps of the whole Earth, updated every 3 hours, for free. It's based on infrared and visible light data from EUMETSAT, processed to enhance the clouds and try to reduce the impact of surface temperatures on the final image. I built it because it's surprisingly hard to find these kinds of images in a format that's useful to developers and hobbyists. I was building a 3D ISS tracker and wanted to include live clouds but couldn't find anything good, so I got sidetracked, and here we are.

Near-realtime cloud maps for weather visualisation, 3D models and more launched on November 16, 2023 with 68 votes, #1,122 of 4,333 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 2 years on.

Visit github.com ↗Alternatives

In plain words

This service provides free equirectangular cloud maps of the entire Earth, updated every three hours using infrared and visible light data from EUMETSAT. The maps are processed to enhance cloud details and minimize surface temperature interference. Designed for developers and hobbyists, it offers cloud imagery in formats useful for projects like 3D visualizations and weather applications. The creator built it after struggling to find accessible cloud maps while developing an ISS tracker.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Near real-time cloud maps. Contribute to matteason/live-cloud-maps development by creating an account on GitHub.

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