Australia: You're beautiful.
From today, Australians have access to detailed, colour images of the country from space thanks to Japan's Himawari 8 satellite. 
For the weather nerds, it provides higher-resolution images of developing storms and bushfires. For the rest of us, it provides an awe-inspiring look at our country.  
The photo above  shows what Australia looked like on Wednesday morning at 7.40am - as you move through the images online you can see the sunlight gradually spread across the country. 
The Himawari 8 satellite provides more than 50 times the volume of data as the previous satellite, and feeds it through every 10 minutes as opposed to every hour.
The new images are like moving from the "silent era of film to IMAX", and will improve the forecasting and monitoring of severe weather like cyclones, thunderstorms and bushfires, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
"It reveals so much more of the weather, in fact, more than we've ever seen before by any other prior weather satellite," said director of meteorology and bureau chief executive  Rob Vertessy.  "It's a huge leap forward from the current technology."
People can now "zoom in" on a two kilometre cell over their region - compared with the previous 13 kilometres - where they can see not only storm cells, but also fire fronts and smoke plumes.
By giving the public access to the data, Dr Vertessy said he hopes to see people better understand weather systems, and to factor the weather into their recreation and business activities.
The satellite allows meteorologists to earlier predict weather events like cyclones and locate them and judge their strength with better accuracy, Dr Vertessy said, adding that people can also expect the forecasting of both location and the amount of rainfall to improve over the next couple of years.
Pilots, especially in the country's far north, will appreciate the satellite's improved ability to detect volcanic ash, fog and low cloud.
The new satellite - posted more than 35,000 kilometres above the equator - belongs to Japan, which sent it into orbit at a cost of $1 billion.
"Japan have always made their satellite data available to us free of charge, and it's part of the tradition of meteorological agencies around the world sharing data freely and openly," Dr Vertessy said. "We're lucky to be in the footprint of the Japanese satellite and they have generously continued to share this data with us."
This article was originally published on Celsius.News
Celsius