Why is “Upper-level water vapor” band imagery important?

Meteorologists use color enhanced imagery as an aid in satellite interpretation. The colors enable them to easily and quickly see features which are of special interest. Usually they look for high clouds or, as in this case, areas with a large amount of water vapor.

The 6.2 µm “Upper-level water vapor” band is one of three water vapor bands on the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager), and is used for tracking upper-tropospheric winds, identifying jet streams, forecasting hurricane track and mid-latitude storm motion, monitoring severe weather potential, estimating upper/ mid-level moisture (for legacy vertical moisture profiles) and identifying regions where the potential for turbulence exists. Further, it can be used to validate numerical model initialization and warming/cooling with time can reveal vertical motions at mid- and upper levels. Read more at NOAA.