“We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.
That’s a clear prescription for disaster.”
Carl Sagan
Online Satellite Imagery and Information
- RealEarth™ is a data discovery and visualization platform developed at SSEC/CIMSS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to support the outreach and collaboration efforts of scientists.
- Beginner’s Guide to GOES-R Series Data How to acquire, analyze, and visualize GOES-R Series data.
- GOES-R SERIES DOCUMENTS – The GOES-R series Documents and PUGS
- The Geostationary Weather Satellite Group on Facebook.
- Stuff in Space A Graphical Representation of the stuff in orbit.
- Celestrack Cesium A graphical tracking page.
- WxSatS A very cool view from a weather satellite perspective.
- SatNOGS Network
- POES Operational Status – POES Status – OSPO
- SOLARHAM.com | Solar Cycle 25 | Space Weather Website
- ForWarn II is a US Forest Service satellite-mapping tool if you’re interested in tracking vegetation changes caused by wildfires, flooding, tornados, severe weather, insects, diseases, and human-induced disturbances.
- GOES Imagery Viewer – NOAA / NESDIS / STAR
- ABI Meso-scale location search function from the SSEC Data center for GOES-East and -West over their operational lifetimes.
- GOES Data – A big list by SSEC/CIMSS. The GOTO for all things GOES by the University of Wisconsin – Advanced Satellite Products Branch (ASPB) ~ The Birthplace of Satellite Meteorology ~This site has A LOT of information, data, imagery, etc. Including a section on free software for image manipulation, data analysis, phone apps, and more!
- GOES HRIT Schedules (this is what you can download off your dish.
- GOES-16 Band Reference Guide (PDF) So, what is Band 15, and why is it ‘Dirty’?
- ABI BANDS QUICK INFORMATION GUIDES These include two visible channels, four near-infrared channels, and ten infrared channels. Each fact sheet covers what the band measures and how this is operationally relevant. The fact sheets also include links for more information.
- GOES GRB Schedules (you’ll need a bigger dish!)
Tools for finding satellite positions.
Software
- Goestools Tools to work with signals and files from GOES satellites
- Sanchez A unique and awesome tool for working with satellite IR and
- XRIT Decoder
- Xplanet
- Grafana
- McIDAS-V (UW Madison)
- SIFT–Satellite Information Familiarization Tool (UW Madison) More info
- Python notebook displaying ABI data from @blaylockbk
- SSEC’s HYDRA (use single or multi band CMIP files) Most recent version of the code
- GOES-16 Manipulation Tools from GNC-A
- Manipulating GOES-16 with GDAL from the OCC
- NCview a netCDF visual (quicklook) browser
- CSPP Geo Community Satellite Processing Package for Geostationary Data Geo2Grid Software Package
- Integrated Data Viewer (IDV) (UNIDATA)
- Panoply from NASA Goddard.
- Pytroll GOES-16 ABI: Example
- ImageJ image manipulation.
- Software for Manipulating/Displaying NetCDF Data list from UNIDATA.
- Weather and Climate Toolkit (WCT) from NOAA/NCEI.
- Beginner’s Guide to GOES-R Series Data Resources compiled by Danielle Losos, GOES-R Product Readiness and Operations
- Google Earth Engine: CIMSS “True” Color multi-band example (2 km) and Level 2 Fire/Hot Spot Characterization by D. Losos and K. Schwehr.
GOES-16/17 ABI Info
- GOES-R Program the GOES-R Series Data Book and the GOES-R Series Book, including space wx (Elsevier)
- GOES-R Docs F&PS, ATBDs, PUGs, etc. ABI File name conventions
- NESDIS home page and the Product Quality overview page.
- GOES-R/16 tweets and GOES-S/17 tweets
- Pre-launch BAMS article on the ABI including ABI Band Table and ABI Guide
- ABI Mode 3 “cooling” timeline (G-17 only certain times) Mode Mode 3 (flex) Mode 4 (CFD) GOES-16 Mode 6a (w 10-min FD) GOES-17 Mode 6m (w 10-min FD)
- Post-launch NWA JOM article on the ABI including ABI Band Table
- Photons to Pixels article on the ABI
- Generation of GOES-16 True Color Imagery without a Green Band in AGU’s Earth and Space Science, including this figure
- GOES-R Series Publications List
- Recent / Planned ABI Meso-scale locations GOES Contacts e.g., email: SPSD.UserServices@noaa.gov and the meso-sector reposition priority list. NCO.
- ABI Meso-scale locations over the last year and more from the SSEC Data center the last year and more for GOES-East
- ABI Meso-scale location search function from the SSEC Data center for GOES-East and -West over their operational lifetimes
- GOES-East and GOES-West Meso-scale preview location tool from CIRA; Default coverage/pixel size plots, West and East from CIMSS
- Special Bulletins/ General Messages regarding NOAA’s satellite operations.
- GRB ABI Schedules and HRIT ABI Schedules from NOAA’s satellite operations and contacts and Mesoscale Research Request form
- How to DIY and aquire HRIT and other signals by @carlreinemann
- SSEC ABI Monitoring page
- Big Ten Network on Geo Wx Satellites and 2017 Wednesday Nite at the Lab seminar on GOES-16
- Top 25 ABI Animations from GOES-16 and Top 25 ABI Animations from GOES-17
- Beginner’s Guide to GOES-R Series Data Resources compiled by Danielle Losos, GOES-R Product Readiness and Operations
Recommended Hardware Suppliers
Space Weather
- GOES-R Series Space Weather Data
- GOES-16 SUVI imagery from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
- GOES-16 SUVI imagery from a DIY GRB receiving system by @wxstar3000 and @H_Neil and a RGB maker Art and Science together!
- GOES-16 SUVI First Light RGB-maker small and large.
GOES-R Model, built from Paper!

Over on AXM PAPER SPACE SCALE MODELS BLOG they have a downloadable, printable model of the ATLAS V GOES-R EELV ROCKET and GOES-R PAPER MODEL. The Model of GOES-R is 1:35 scale, designed by Zach from Zach’s PaperSat Designs. The two pdf’s need are below: