7 ms·

Full Disk Images of Earth from GOES-17

218 points by Jerry2 7y ago

trynewideas 7y ago
Site's down. Hackaday has a writeup: https://hackaday.com/2019/05/03/__trashed-28/ https://hackaday.com/2019/05/03/__trashed-28/ And Sorensen has been active on Reddit with this: https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/bj61f9/24_hour_timelapse_loop_from_goes17_using_airspy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/bj61f9/24_hour_time...
epaga 7y ago
Looks like the site is down due to an HN hug of death.
- Stratoscope 7y ago
  If you do get through, this is much more interesting than the title makes it sound. It's not just the images, but how you can get them directly from the satellite with your own radio and antenna. Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"?
  - jonsen 7y ago
    Clickwait
  - m-i-l 7y ago
    > Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"? The opposite of bait is repellent, so in that sense it would be "clickrepellent". However, I don't think that gets across the point that it is the inverse of "low value content with a misleadingly appealing headline", i.e. it is high value content with a headline that doesn't adequately reflect the value of the content. For this I was going to suggest "clickfish", as in the valuable objective of bait (assuming a fishing metaphor). However, a quick internet search reveals this is a widely used term already, e.g. for an internet surfer who falls for (and reposts) clickbait, or the name of anti-clickbait software. Then I thought of abstracting this a level with "clicksupper", as in fish supper, a wholesome meal made from fish and served with chips. Or how about "clicktreasure", thinking of buried treasure. But then again, how about simply "anti-clickbait"?
  - cvarjas 7y ago
    Clickwin
- cpach 7y ago
  Here’s an archived version of the page: http://archive.is/GIhT3 http://archive.is/GIhT3
  - acqq 7y ago
    And the HD video he mentions is on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS86jIHusE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS86jIHusE
kylek 7y ago
Nice! A bit unrelated but If you haven't seen it be sure to check out NASA's EPIC[0] aboard their DSCOVR[1] satellite [0] https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/ https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [1] https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climate-observatory https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climat...
dreamcompiler 7y ago
This kind of thing could replace some uses of blockchain. The pattern of clouds on earth every day is unique, so anything that needs a timestamp with 1-day resolution could just tie it to a hash of today's cloud image pixels gathered from many receivers around the world, each taken at noon from the POV of a given geostationary satellite. That way one could prove that an event took place no earlier than today, especially if you hash each cloud photo with the hash of the one from the day before, which creates a cloudchain. The chain's ordering is verifiable from multiple sources and created wholly external from any human agency or pseudo-random number generator. Speaking of which, you could also use the pixels (or some permutation of them) as a random number seed that changed every day.
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  So essentially instead of hash-based computer proof of work, you're suggesting looking at cloud patterns (say, as the sun's proof of work)? Sounds like a great way to save energy, if we can ensure image authenticity/integrity.
  - dreamcompiler 7y ago
    The vulnerability is the one satellite everybody is looking at. But that could be mitigated by having a network of ground stations looking up and asking "is it cloudy overhead?" With enough of these sample points scattered around the planet and correlated with the satellite's imagery, one could make hacking the satellite impractical.
    - atoav 7y ago
      Why not taking the clouds of Jupiter? Then you could use telescopes and multiple satellites alike because that far away parallax shouldn’t change a lot.
      - dreamcompiler 7y ago
        Jupiter's not always visible from Earth (sometimes it's behind the Sun). Earth is always visible from a geo sat (provided the satellite is working).
growlist 7y ago
Nice. Makes me wonder what the hell else that's useful could be slurped from up there.. Must be hundreds of feeds to listen to.
harryking 7y ago
Very nice information ! geo stationary satellite 17 (GOES-17) would really help in forcasting weather and taking full span images of earth
zeristor 7y ago
I assume it’s a similar process to take the data from the European EUMETSAT satellites? Other geostationary satellites are available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite#Geostationary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite#Geostationar... You quite often see a bank of clocks for each time zone, it would be good to have a geostationary image like this, from several different weather satellites.
- JorgeGT 7y ago
  The Meteosats don't directly disseminate, there is a service, EUMETCast, which broadcasts from commercial communications satellites, although you need a decryption key: https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUMETCast/index.html https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUME... The rationale behind this was that, in this way, you can receive the stream with off-the-shelf satellite TV hardware and a PC, and without special radio operator knowledge. This was of course well before the advent of cheap SDR devices.
lordnacho 7y ago
I don't quite understand it from skimming the article. How are you able to talk to the satellite on the protocol level? Is it continuously sending down the bits in a known format? Do you have to authenticate with it?
- fauria 7y ago
  In this particular case, the author is using an SDR device to caputure data emitted by the satellite, and then decode it using software (goestools). There is no interaction with the satellite, it's just a device listening to a broadacst emission. As mentioned in the article, there are many interesting related projects: * https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weather-satellite-images/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weat... * https://hackaday.com/2013/01/12/listening-in-on-weather-balloons-with-rtl-sdr/ https://hackaday.com/2013/01/12/listening-in-on-weather-ball... * http://www.sdr-satellites.com/Weather http://www.sdr-satellites.com/Weather
Roritharr 7y ago
Reading the headline I thought HN overnight settled on flat-earthers being right and this link provides uncensored images for the first time.
egman_ekki 7y ago
Pretty cool. Anyone has any idea how the copyright situation looks like for these images?
- JacobDotVI 7y ago
  Most US Government produced works are public domain. https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Organization/About/use.html https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Organization/About/use.html
pennybacker 7y ago
It's also possible to receive infrared images using the same technique, which can be used in part to visualize the water vapor content of the atmosphere: https://www.goes-r.gov/education/ABI-bands-quick-info.html https://www.goes-r.gov/education/ABI-bands-quick-info.html Some parts of the imaging instrument (ABI) on GOES-17 responsible for keeping it cool failed shortly after launch, causing the temperature to vary over the course of the day: https://www.goes-r.gov/users/GOES-17-ABI-Performance.html https://www.goes-r.gov/users/GOES-17-ABI-Performance.html This doesn't affect the "visible" light images too much, but can cause all sorts of problems for the infrared, which is used scientifically for various cloud measurements, sea surface temperature, land surface temperature, etc. It's still up in the air how useful we can make this data.
yason 7y ago
I did wonder what full disk images of Earth might contain, considering various block formats to contain various data collected from the globe. Then I read the article.
ethank 7y ago
Another way to pull them: http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-17 http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-17
peatmoss 7y ago
This is really cool! I keep meaning to try something like this just for the thrill of receiving the data myself. Though if receiving the data with your own antenna and SDR isn’t exciting, and you just want to use the data, AWS hosts these (GOES-16 and 17) data on S3 for everyone to use: https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-goes/ https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-goes/ (Disclaimer: I work on the team that helps host these datasets)

218 points by Jerry2 7y ago

Site's down. Hackaday has a writeup: https://hackaday.com/2019/05/03/__trashed-28/ https://hackaday.com/2019/05/03/__trashed-28/ And Sorensen has been active on Reddit with this: https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/bj61f9/24_hour_timelapse_loop_from_goes17_using_airspy/ https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/bj61f9/24_hour_time...

epaga 7y ago

Looks like the site is down due to an HN hug of death.

Stratoscope 7y ago
If you do get through, this is much more interesting than the title makes it sound. It's not just the images, but how you can get them directly from the satellite with your own radio and antenna. Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"?
- jonsen 7y ago
  Clickwait
- m-i-l 7y ago
  > Is there a word for the converse of "clickbait"? The opposite of bait is repellent, so in that sense it would be "clickrepellent". However, I don't think that gets across the point that it is the inverse of "low value content with a misleadingly appealing headline", i.e. it is high value content with a headline that doesn't adequately reflect the value of the content. For this I was going to suggest "clickfish", as in the valuable objective of bait (assuming a fishing metaphor). However, a quick internet search reveals this is a widely used term already, e.g. for an internet surfer who falls for (and reposts) clickbait, or the name of anti-clickbait software. Then I thought of abstracting this a level with "clicksupper", as in fish supper, a wholesome meal made from fish and served with chips. Or how about "clicktreasure", thinking of buried treasure. But then again, how about simply "anti-clickbait"?
- cvarjas 7y ago
  Clickwin
cpach 7y ago
Here’s an archived version of the page: http://archive.is/GIhT3 http://archive.is/GIhT3
- acqq 7y ago
  And the HD video he mentions is on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS86jIHusE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGS86jIHusE

kylek 7y ago

Nice! A bit unrelated but If you haven't seen it be sure to check out NASA's EPIC[0] aboard their DSCOVR[1] satellite [0] https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/ https://epic.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [1] https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climate-observatory https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climat...

dreamcompiler 7y ago

This kind of thing could replace some uses of blockchain. The pattern of clouds on earth every day is unique, so anything that needs a timestamp with 1-day resolution could just tie it to a hash of today's cloud image pixels gathered from many receivers around the world, each taken at noon from the POV of a given geostationary satellite. That way one could prove that an event took place no earlier than today, especially if you hash each cloud photo with the hash of the one from the day before, which creates a cloudchain. The chain's ordering is verifiable from multiple sources and created wholly external from any human agency or pseudo-random number generator. Speaking of which, you could also use the pixels (or some permutation of them) as a random number seed that changed every day.

mehrdadn 7y ago
So essentially instead of hash-based computer proof of work, you're suggesting looking at cloud patterns (say, as the sun's proof of work)? Sounds like a great way to save energy, if we can ensure image authenticity/integrity.
- dreamcompiler 7y ago
  The vulnerability is the one satellite everybody is looking at. But that could be mitigated by having a network of ground stations looking up and asking "is it cloudy overhead?" With enough of these sample points scattered around the planet and correlated with the satellite's imagery, one could make hacking the satellite impractical.
  - atoav 7y ago
    Why not taking the clouds of Jupiter? Then you could use telescopes and multiple satellites alike because that far away parallax shouldn’t change a lot.
    - dreamcompiler 7y ago
      Jupiter's not always visible from Earth (sometimes it's behind the Sun). Earth is always visible from a geo sat (provided the satellite is working).

growlist 7y ago

Nice. Makes me wonder what the hell else that's useful could be slurped from up there.. Must be hundreds of feeds to listen to.

harryking 7y ago

Very nice information ! geo stationary satellite 17 (GOES-17) would really help in forcasting weather and taking full span images of earth

zeristor 7y ago

I assume it’s a similar process to take the data from the European EUMETSAT satellites? Other geostationary satellites are available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite#Geostationary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_satellite#Geostationar... You quite often see a bank of clocks for each time zone, it would be good to have a geostationary image like this, from several different weather satellites.

JorgeGT 7y ago
The Meteosats don't directly disseminate, there is a service, EUMETCast, which broadcasts from commercial communications satellites, although you need a decryption key: https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUMETCast/index.html https://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/Data/DataDelivery/EUME... The rationale behind this was that, in this way, you can receive the stream with off-the-shelf satellite TV hardware and a PC, and without special radio operator knowledge. This was of course well before the advent of cheap SDR devices.

lordnacho 7y ago

I don't quite understand it from skimming the article. How are you able to talk to the satellite on the protocol level? Is it continuously sending down the bits in a known format? Do you have to authenticate with it?

fauria 7y ago
In this particular case, the author is using an SDR device to caputure data emitted by the satellite, and then decode it using software (goestools). There is no interaction with the satellite, it's just a device listening to a broadacst emission. As mentioned in the article, there are many interesting related projects: * https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weather-satellite-images/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weat... * https://hackaday.com/2013/01/12/listening-in-on-weather-balloons-with-rtl-sdr/ https://hackaday.com/2013/01/12/listening-in-on-weather-ball... * http://www.sdr-satellites.com/Weather http://www.sdr-satellites.com/Weather

Roritharr 7y ago

Reading the headline I thought HN overnight settled on flat-earthers being right and this link provides uncensored images for the first time.

egman_ekki 7y ago

Pretty cool. Anyone has any idea how the copyright situation looks like for these images?

JacobDotVI 7y ago
Most US Government produced works are public domain. https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Organization/About/use.html https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Organization/About/use.html

pennybacker 7y ago

It's also possible to receive infrared images using the same technique, which can be used in part to visualize the water vapor content of the atmosphere: https://www.goes-r.gov/education/ABI-bands-quick-info.html https://www.goes-r.gov/education/ABI-bands-quick-info.html Some parts of the imaging instrument (ABI) on GOES-17 responsible for keeping it cool failed shortly after launch, causing the temperature to vary over the course of the day: https://www.goes-r.gov/users/GOES-17-ABI-Performance.html https://www.goes-r.gov/users/GOES-17-ABI-Performance.html This doesn't affect the "visible" light images too much, but can cause all sorts of problems for the infrared, which is used scientifically for various cloud measurements, sea surface temperature, land surface temperature, etc. It's still up in the air how useful we can make this data.

yason 7y ago

I did wonder what full disk images of Earth might contain, considering various block formats to contain various data collected from the globe. Then I read the article.

ethank 7y ago

Another way to pull them: http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-17 http://rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu/?sat=goes-17

peatmoss 7y ago

This is really cool! I keep meaning to try something like this just for the thrill of receiving the data myself. Though if receiving the data with your own antenna and SDR isn’t exciting, and you just want to use the data, AWS hosts these (GOES-16 and 17) data on S3 for everyone to use: https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-goes/ https://registry.opendata.aws/noaa-goes/ (Disclaimer: I work on the team that helps host these datasets)