Category: Satellite

Vitality GOES: A Web Interface for Displaying Weather Images from SatDump and/or goestools

Thank you to Carl Reinemann (aka usradioguy) for submitting his article about Vitality GOES. Vitality GOES is an open source tool that displays the weather satellite images received by SatDump and/or goestools in a user friendly web interface that is accessible over a network connection.

SatDump and goestools are decoders that can be used to decode images from GOES and other satellites, when combined with a PC or single board computer, satellite antenna and RTL-SDR or similar SDR dongle. What they lack however is an easy way to display the received images, as the images are simply dumped to folders. If you're interested in getting started with GOES reception, we have a tutorial here.

Carl's article explains the purpose of Vitality GOES in detail and shows a few example screenshots. He notes how it can be used to display full disk images, composite together Meteor M2 images, present EMWIN data such as forecasts and warnings, and more.

Carl also notes that Vitality GOES was recently updated to V1.2 with the main update being added support for SatDump. SatDump can decode dozens of different weather satellites, not only GOES, so this opens up a wide range of possibilities.

Vitality GOES - Feature Overview

Vitality GOES: Example screenshots from Carl Reinemann (usaradioguy)

Raspberry NOAA V2 Edition 2023 Image Released

Thank you to Manuel Lausmann for submitting news about the release of the "Raspberry NOAA V2 Edition 2023" image for Raspberry Pi's. This image has been created by Jochen Köster (DC9DD), and contains a few enhancements over the previous image, mainly by including a program that allows users to create composite images of images from the Meteor weather satellites. Manuel writes:

This is based on the well-known Raspberry Noaa V2. In this image, however, the latest MeteorDemod has been added, which makes it possible to generate composite images, which was previously only possible under Windows with Meteorgis.

Furthermore, the image has an additional FTP uploader. The image was created by Jochen Köster DC9DD. It's available from today. This image is also part of my off-grid station in Northern Norway.

Download link for the image: https://www.qsl.net/do3mla/raspberry-pi-images.html

Here is a link to the Facebook group for the image: https://www.facebook.com/groups/raspberrynoaav2edition

Here is a link to ranged from my off-grid station where this image is running: https://usradioguy.com/science/off-grid-apt-lrpt-satellite-ground-station

An example of a composite image from multiple Meteor satellite images.

More Information about the NOAA-15 AVHRR Failure

Thank you to Carl Reinmann (aka usradioguy) for submitting his blog post which goes into deeper detail about the NOAA-15 weather satellite imaging failure that we posted about last week. 

In his post Carl discusses in detail the technical aspects of the AVHRR Scan Motor failure, shows plots of the AVHRR motor current increasing, provides multiple examples of corrupt images being recently received and notes the history of previous failures which were eventually resolved.

He also notes that even with the AVHRR failure the other sensors on the satellite will remain functional, however a failure of this instrument would mean the end of the easy to receive APT images at 137 MHz from NOAA-15. We note that there is still the opportunity to receive NOAA-18 and NOAA-19 which are the remaining operational satellites that transmit APT at 137 MHz.

NOAA have now also released an official notice about the failure which reads:

Product Outage/Anomaly: NOAA-15 AVHRR degraded image data issued by NESDIS NSOF
Date/Time Issued: Oct 22, 2022 1947Z

The NOAA-15 AVHRR Scan Motor current began showing signs of instability on Oct 18 at approximately 1800Z, when the current began to gradually rise from about 205 mA to about 250 mA, where it remained until Oct 24. At about 0000Z on Oct 24, the current began rising again throughout the day, peaking at about 302mA on Oct 25. Scan motor temperature began rising about the same time and is currently steady at ~29°C. The instrument is still producing data, but it is highly degraded. This behavior may be a sign of an impending scan motor stall but requires further investigation. Options for recovery are limited.

NOAA-15 Scan Motor Failure

The NOAA-15 Weather Satellite may be Failing (Again)

The NOAA APT weather satellites are popular because they fly over most places on earth frequently, and they are easy to receive images directly from with modest hardware such as an RTL-SDR and v-dipole antenna.

Three NOAA APT satellites currently operational include NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19. The satellites are however long past their rated mission age, with NOAA-15 being almost 25 years old now.

Unfortunately NOAA-15 appears to be having trouble with it's image scanning motor at the moment, and it is producing corrupted images. This problem has occurred in the past in 2018 and 2019, before fixing itself, so the hope is that it will fix itself again this time.

NOAA does not appear to have released any information about the outage yet on their General Satellite Messages page.

We also wanted to note the recent news that NOAA will be transitioning NOAA-15, 18 and 19 to a private company for on-orbit operations.

Detecting Starlink Satellites with a Portable Raspberry Pi + RTL-SDR

Over on his YouTube channel "saveitforparts" has in the past created a portable homemade 'tricorder' which was a boxed up Raspberry Pi with multiple sensors including an RTL-SDR. One new application he's found for the tricorder is the ability to detect the beacons from Starlink satellites using the RTL-SDR and an LNB.

Starlink beacons typically transmit at around 11.325 GHz, so to receive them with an RTL-SDR a downconverter and antenna such as an LNB is required.

In the video he demonstrates the hardware in use, and shows some of the beacons being received on the spectrum, via the tricorders built in LCD screen.

Detecting Starlink Satellites With DIY Tricorder

SatDump ReWork Release with Significant Feature and GUI Updates

SatDump is a popular piece of software that can be used with RTL-SDRs and other software defined radios for decoding images from a wide array of weather imaging satellites including GOES, GK-2A, NOAA HRPT, FengYun, Electro-L and Meteor M2 LRPT + HRPT, and many others (note: there is no APT support at the moment, but it is planned for the future). It is compatible with Windows, Linux and even has an Android APK available.

Recently author @aang23 has updated the software, noting that he's done an almost full rewrite, including major updates to the GUI. The SatDump blog post goes into greater detail about he updates, but as a summary some of the biggest updates include:

  • A reworking and tidy up of the GUI with improved FFT view
  • A viewer which allows you to view output image products, and create RGB composites
  • A projection tool on the viewer, allowing you to project images onto OpenStreetMap.
  • Upgrades to the plugins system, allowing developers to more easily add support for new satellites / missions and SDRs.
  • The addition of 'products' metadata, allowing users to separate raw channel data
  • The addition of demodulators like DVB-S2, GOES-R GRB, HimawariCast, DVB-S
  • Support for additional SDRs like BladeRF, SDRplay RSP Duo, PlutoSDR and MiriSDRs.
  • Updates to the CLI interface
  • Updated less buggy Android App
SatDump new Live Decoding / Recorder Interface

SATRAN MK3 Antenna Rotator Hardware Kit Released

Back in January 2021 we posted about the release of the SATRAN product, which is a low cost automatic motorized satellite antenna rotator kit. The rotator is deigned to be used for pointing high gain directional antennas such as a Yagi or satellite dish at low earth orbit satellites which can move across the sky quickly. They also supply an Android App for easily controlling the rotator.

Recently SATRAN MK3 (version 3) has been released a few days ago and costs € 175,00 for the kit, but does not include the plastic parts which need to be 3D printed. Unfortunately the kit appears to already be sold out, but we suspect they are working on getting more kits soon. Also of note is that they are based in Sweden and cannot ship to the US or Canada.

The email announcement reads:

"There's a new Satran in town!"

I'm glad to announce the newest Satran MK3 Rotator which is now available in the shop. The former cast aluminum version has been abandoned since the production was way too time-consuming and expensive.

The new MK3 has taken all the advantages of both older versions and returned to a more open source and 3D-printable design. This cuts the price by two thirds, while still getting a really user-friendly, compact and able device.

...and there's a new app!

Some users have reported issues with their Android app crashing, so today a new version of the app (2.3) has been finished and will be available in a day or two. If you don't get an update notification automatically in your app, visit Google Play to check for the latest version. 

The app also have a more extensive list of satellites and the possibility to search for a satellite by its Norad ID. 

SATRAN MK3 Antenna Rotator
SATRAN MK3 plastic parts that need to be 3D printed.

Tracking and Decoding Guide for NOAA Weather Satellites

Thank you to Samual Yanz (N7FNV) for submitting a guide that he's created about tracking and decoding NOAA weather satellites. The guide can be downloaded from this link as a PDF. 

Currently there are three operational polar orbiting NOAA weather satellites that transmit image data in the APT format at 137 MHz. When one of these satellites pass overhead, it is possible to use an RTL-SDR with appropriate satellite antenna and software to receive the satellite weather images they transmit.

Samual's guide focuses on the software and shows how to setup Virtual Audio Cable for piping audio between programs, SDR# for receiving the signal, Orbitron for tracking the satellite and WXtoIMG for decoding the image.

SDR#, Orbitron and WXtoIMG