High clouds, sea, mountains, forests

South-West of France on a hot day in June. On the infrared image, the hot ground (1) appears very dark whereas the sea (2), being colder, is brighter. At the bottom of the image, the Pyrénées (3) are also brighter than the plain because the ground is less hot. On the visible image, the sea (4) is darker than the land (5), because it absorbs more solar radiation. In the same way, the Landes forest (6) appears darker than the surrounding areas. Clouds over the sea (7) are white on the infrared image. That means they are cold, and thus they are high clouds. On the visible image, these clouds are not easy to see: they are thus thin clouds. They are probably cirrus clouds.

Visible image

Infrared image