OVERVIEW
Capturing NOAA satellite imagery and weather reports with a backyard ground station.
MOTIVATION
I am fascinated with the concept of receiving transmissions directly from space. These human created objects hanging in geosynchronous orbit casting their photos of earth back down to us has an almost mythic sensibility. I wanted to prove that I could get and process imagery myself with a relatively low cost and low power setup. Also, with the right energy setup including a solar panel and a battery system this setup could feasibly give you access to detailed weather and emergency reports off grid. This could prove essential during a disaster scenario.
TECHNICAL APPROACH
On a high level, I used a 2.4 Ghz wifi dish and aimed it towards GOES-18 using dishpointer.com to find the correct information (fun fact I have the dish mounted on a drum cymbal stand, works great). The radio signal is then amplified by an low noise amplifier (SAWbird+ GOES LNA) and received by a software defined radio (NESDR SMArTee XTR SDR). The signal is then plugged into an OrangePi 5 located at the edge (on the roof) running satdump that extracts the reports and imagery. From there I transfer the information over the network.
Parts list:
- NESDR SMArTee XTR SDR
- SAWbird+ GOES LNA
- Repurposed 2.4 GHz antenna
- OrangePi 5 and Satdump for processing
OUTPUTS
I have received some truly beautiful shots of the earth. My favorite ones are the sunrise moments where the earth forms a crescent of light. I also have let it collect images overnight and then compiled them into timelapse animations.
Please take a look at my instagram to see the best ones I capture: https://www.instagram.com/dalioshindev/