SARSAT: The Technology Behind Saving Lives

COSPAS/SARSAT: The Technology Behind Saving Lives COSPAS/SARSAT is a technology that has been instrumental in saving countless lives over the years. It is a system that utilizes satellites and ground-based receivers to detect and locate emergency distress beacons, providing critical assistance to search and rescue operations around the world. COSPAS-SARSAT is an international satellite-based search […]

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The altered life of GOES-3

GOES-3 weather satellite did not go gently into that goodnight…. For over 20 years, the South Pole relied on the GOES-3 weather satellite for communication links with the outside world. However, this satellite was decommissioned in 2016 after 38 years in operation. GOES-3 was launched in 1978 aboard a Delta 2914 carrier rocket, the satellite […]

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Who are Satellite Data and Imaging Enthusiasts?

We’re like kids in a candy store, except the candy store is a never-ending galaxy of pixels and the candy is data and images of the Earth from space. They can tell you the exact location of any given spot on the planet just by looking at a grainy satellite image. They see patterns and […]

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Vitality GOES

Vitality GOES- A new tool to work with imagery and data created by goestools and/or Satdump Jamie Vital has built a Web App for showcasing Geostationary Weather Satellite Data. The software is designed to display text and images received from GOES satellites via goestools and satdump. UPDATE: 1/27/2023 The author of Vitality GOES just pushed […]

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The Demise of Meteor M2

It looks likely that Meteor M2 permanently failed on 24 December 2022. Meteor M2 has had difficulty in the past with orientation problems and has typically recovered with help from ground engineers. However, this time this does not look to be the case. The last LRPT transmission occurred on 24 December 2022, repeated attempts to […]

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Online Dish Pointer

NEW Dish Pointer for Geostationary Satellites. I created a Satellite Dish Pointer page over the weekend, added in all 539 current geostationary satellites, and added a map to find your location and then automatically calculate the Longitude, Azimuth,(true north), Azimuth (magnetic north), Elevation, and Skew angles for both 0° and 90° degree style dishes. Magnetic Declination tables […]

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NOAA’s GOES-18 is now GOES West

Earth from Orbit: NOAA’s GOES-18 is now GOES West January 4, 2023 NOAA Press Release: NOAA’s operational satellite fleet has a new member. GOES-18 entered service as GOES West on Jan. 4, 2023. The milestone comes after a Mar. 1, 2022, launch and post-launch testing of the satellite’s instruments, systems, and data. GOES-18 replaces GOES-17 as GOES […]

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Adios GOES-17

GOES-17, is soon to be headed off into the sunrise, that is, it will begin drifting to its new, on-orbit storage location east of its current 137.3°W to 104.7°W as GOES-18 Takes over on January 4th, 2023 On January 4th GOES-18 will step up and become the GOES-West geostationary satellite covering the Pacific and Western […]

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Satellite Orbiting Earth

Himawari-8 to Himawari-9 Transition

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) will switch operations from Himawari-8 to Himawari-9 on 13 December at 05:00 UTC Himawari 9 has been in space in on-orbit storage since 2016, Happily waiting for its chance to become the primary Satellite, taking over from Himawari-8. Same tech, identical satellites, same AHI sensors, etc. Now is the time […]

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