NASA's Global Imagery Browse Services: ready-made satellite map tiles (sea temperature, rain, clouds, smoke...) that the Live map draws, one layer at a time.
Map layers
GIBS is NASA's free tile service for satellite imagery. It serves hundreds of products (MODIS, VIIRS, GPM IMERG, Himawari, SMAP, GHRSST...) as map tiles, one image per day (or per 10 minutes for geostationary satellites). The Live map asks GIBS directly for the tiles of the chosen layer and date; the server only checks the layer list and the newest date GIBS really has.
It is the same imagery you see in NASA Worldview.
How to read it
Each layer has its own colour scale: read the legend under the layer picker.
Date: most layers are daily and lag 1-3 days (the satellite must pass, then NASA processes the data). "latest" layers (Himawari infrared) are near real time.
Grey or empty areas mean no data for that day (clouds for surface products, gaps between satellite passes, night for true colour).
Why it matters for Koh Samui
The map layers show the whole picture around Koh Samui (warm sea, rain bands, fire smoke from Sumatra or Borneo) that no single number captures.