Online Satellite Imagery and Information

“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

Relative Positions of Earth-Orbiting Satellites

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!)

The geostationary orbit is located at an altitude of 35,786 km (22,236 mi) above the Earth’s equator and rotates in sync with the Earth’s rotation.

The equation to calculate the radius of a geostationary orbit is: R = (GM/ω^2)^(1/3) Where:
R = radius of the geostationary orbit (km)
G = gravitational constant (6.673 x 10^-11 m^3 kg^-1 s^-2)
M = mass of the Earth (5.972 x 10^24 kg)
ω = angular velocity of the Earth (7.292 x 10^-5 radian/sec)

User Groups and Forums

Geo-Stationary Facebook Satellite Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/gswsg Facebook Group for Geo-Stationary Weather Satellites
GOESTools Users https://groups.google.com/g/goestools-users A smaller group for people who use the software Goestools
GEO-Subscribers https://groups.io/g/GEO-Subscribers The official group is for subscribers of the Group for Earth Observation (GEO)
Amateur Satellite Group on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/amateursatellites/ A subreddit dedicated to artificial satellites

Tools for finding satellite positions.

Open Source Software

Goestools https://github.com/pietern/goestools Tools to work with signals and files from GOES satellites.
SATDUMP https://github.com/altillimity/ A multi-satellite decoder and image processor.
GK-2A Decoder https://github.com/sam210723/xrit-rx LRIT/HRIT Downlink Processor for GK-2A
Sanchez https://github.com/nullpainter/sanchez Designed for processing of greyscale IR images from geostationary satellites, can also be used to reproject full-color images.
Vitality GOES https://github.com/JVital2013/vitality-goes A Web App for showcasing Geostationary Weather Satellite Data.
Raydel XRIT Decoder http://www.geo-web.org.uk/XRITDecoder.php A software solution for decoding and extracting files from GOES LRIT/HRIT stream,
CSPP Geo software https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/csppgeo/ Community Satellite Processing Package for Geostationary Data
Geo2Grid Software Package
XRIT Decoder Open Satellite Project https://github.com/opensatelliteproject/xritdemod
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
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.

Commercial Software

XRIT Decoder for GOES https://usa-satcom.com/ XRIT Decoder (HRIT from GOES on L-Band), XView, WX Sandwich Maker
GRB Play https://usa-satcom.com/ Processes NetCDF files for GOES GRB , does animations, Electron and X-Ray flux as well.
SUVI Play https://usa-satcom.com/ Displays and does animations with CSPP GEO images from GOES GRB
GRB Streamer and Imager– Bret Casebolt

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

USRadioguys Space Weather Page
GOES-R Series Space Weather Data
GOES-16 SUVI imagery from the Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC).
GOES-16 SUVI i m agery 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.

History of GOES satellites

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: