An important application of the 3.7-µm infrared channel occurs when it is used in combination with the 11-µm channel to help detect stratus clouds and fog at night. Differences in the radiative properties between ice and water clouds allows the product to distinguish cloud tops composed of liquid water from those containing primarily ice. Ground observations are used as a second step to infer the presence of fog.

An image product, commonly referred to as the "fog/stratus product," was initially developed using similar GOES infrared channels. It wasn't until GOES-8 that the product could be animated and its usefulness fully realized. The GOES fog/stratus product is used extensively in operational forecasting today thanks in large part to improvements made in communications and data processing.

Notice that for the POES product image, the higher spatial resolution and lower signal-to-noise ratio of the POES helps to more clearly display the fine-scale structure of the fog and stratus moving over the Chesapeake Bay region.