How are the satellites that detect water vapor made?

[RayFox30]

How are the satellites that detect water vapor made? What goes into them that allow companies such as NOAA to create those water vapor images?

 

[SteamKing]

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to give it its proper name), is an agency of the US government, not a private company.

Satellites are just the vehicles which carry the sensors into orbit. Microwave radiation from the atmosphere is used to estimate the amount of water vapor.

 

[JesseC]

The satellites have instruments to detect many different portions of the EM spectrum. Water vapour is often detected in the 5 - 8μm range.

If you create a free account on this website:
http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/
you can retrieve satellite images from many different platforms in near real time and also browse the archive.