Viewing clouds at higher latitudes (large distances away from the satellite subpoint) from a geostationary orbit introduces a significant parallax error. Unless directly above the satellite subpoint, higher clouds appear displaced from their true ground locations. The displacement is away from the satellite subpoint, and can be greater than the height of the cloud.

The parallax error for polar satellites becomes significant only at extreme viewing angles away from nadir (greater than 45 degrees or 1000 km from satellite subpoint).