NOAA satellite images decoded. Daily images.

[BurntFishTrousers]

Hi

Recently posted in the Hurricane Lorenzo thread some NOAA satellite images I was able to receive with a decent 137Mhz antenna and some decoding software. People were doing this sort of thing way back 15-20 years ago, but you don't see many images posted nowadays. It's still quite cool!  Indeed, forum team leader, Paul, mentioned it brought back memories for him. 

Caught at the right time some of the pictures are as live as you can get, especially if the satellite is passing over the UK. For example, this raw / untouched image was captured at 11:45 am today and probably isn't found anywhere else yet.  

So, I'm gauging by posting a few pictures if there's interest in me doing this everyday - maybe post one or two pictures at say 8am, 1pm, 8pm daily - showing current weather, clouds overhead etc. 

Sure, there's a whole plethora of online current weather sat images but I'm happy to upload here for others to glance at, or even to use for themselves. 

[fujita5]

I must say this is actually really cool.  Great work, keep the images coming if you don't mind!

[BurntFishTrousers]

Ok! 

I'm really surprised at how well the specially designed antenna can receive. I'm fortunate in that my location is unobstructed all paths so happy to post further afield sat pics like below taken over Greenland. Plenty of snow on land I see! 

(My receive limit is over Baffin and/or Ellesmere islands to the west, and over the Caspian Sea to east with elevation starting at just 1 degree above horizon). 

More pictures later.

[Paul]

Thanks for these @BurntFishTrousers, please keep posting them as long as you want. You could maybe make a gallery album of your best ones - could be a decent collection over time. 

They are a lot of fun to receive, there's something quite cool about watching them come in real time, and even though each pass is receivable by whoever wants it, the shots you grab are still unique. For me, there's a personal memory to them as well - my dad was quite into his radio stuff, and was going to set the satellite receiving up for himself before he died. Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance but I went through the magazines etc he had on the subject and got the kit to do it myself. It was not only a lot of fun, and useful too for netweather, it was obviously an emotional thing to be able to do. 

My receiver did unfortunately fry itself several years later though, but this seeing the images again has re-ignited the bug, so maybe I'll look to set it up again later this year when I have a bit of time  

[BurntFishTrousers]

Brilliant. Glad it's rekindled the idea of doing the decoding again. I've been meaning to do if for a while and read up quite a lot before committing to the expense of a SDR (Software Defined Radio) and custom built QFH antenna. Anyone can receive the images but there's also some really badly received ones out there too because the antenna is not good enough; that's key.

Now it's in action here I'm really pleased with how some of the pics look. Autumn and Winter approaching = some decent images of Atlantic lows.

As mentioned on another thread there's some seriously complicated software out there to receive and decode high resolution images from the new Meteor range of wx satellites, but it's difficult to set up thus far.

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 15 & 18 

[Dorsetbred]

Cor this takes me back years, when I'd planned to build the RIG receiver and download the images, but life's shortness had the better of me and it didn't progress far, and I sold everything. Really appreciate you sharing these with us, there's a certain something to the personal capture , that seems to set you free from the web.

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 15, 08:06 UTC today

[BurntFishTrousers]

Raw image @ 08:59, NOAA 15 satellite pass. 

[in the vale]

Brilliant! This takes me back 30 years to decoding weather faxes, pressure charts, sea ice obs, etc. from short wave transmissions using a hardware decoder and HFFAX software. Hours of fun!

[BurntFishTrousers]

I've stitched NOAA 15 & 18 passes together. 

It's really old skool but also a nice change from everyday digital 21st century stuff. Feels like you're actually doing something useful !

Edited October 10, 2019 by BurntFishTrousers

[BurntFishTrousers]

looks about right!

[johnholmes]

Great seeing these images. Way way back in the early 70's we got the basic black and white images in most Met Offices. That is if one of us had time to set up the machine as the signal started to come in. The clever bit came when trying to use the basic oversheets with one for most passes with any land mass one could see. Prior to that Central Forecasting at Bracknell sent out a composite drawing of the significant cloud masses on the faxsimile machine. Memories!

 

[BurntFishTrousers]

Greenland in her all glory! 

NOAA 18 (11:47 UTC)

[BurntFishTrousers]

Thermal imaging - Greenland and surrounds. 

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 18 @ 20:00 UTC

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 18 @ 09:54 utc. Raw image.

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 18 @ 1948 UTC

[BurntFishTrousers]

Same as above with thermal imaging

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 15 @ 18:19 UTC. This was an overhead pass. 

[BurntFishTrousers]

N0AA 15 @ 0806 UTC

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 19 @ 5PM 

137.100 Mhz

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 19 @ 8AM

[moorlander]

@BurntFishTrousers yes please keep these coming very retro cool

[BurntFishTrousers]

NOAA 18 @ 9pm this evening.