Exercise: Earth Observation

Earth observation satellites, operated by organizations like NOAA and EUMETSAT, provide vital data for weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. NOAA manages polar orbiting satellites that deliver real-time weather data, while EUMETSAT operates satellites that support Europe and other regions with climate data.

In this exercise, you’ll track a weather satellite, capture its signal, decode the data into an image, and identify features such as mountains, cities, lakes, and weather fronts.

Objective

With the ground station (GS-SBIC-1M2), your task is to capture a signal from a Polar-orbiting satellite of your choosing and identify the signal you have received.

Here are your key tasks:

  1. Track a Weather Satellite: Use a ground station to track a NOAA or EUMETSAT weather satellite in real time.
  2. Capture a Direct Readout Signal: Receive and record the satellite’s live data stream using the ground station.
  3. Decode Raw Satellite Data: Process the captured signal to decode it into a weather image.
  4. Analyze the Image: Identify geographical features such as mountains, cities, lakes, and weather fronts in the decoded image.

Guidelines

1. Select a target satellite:

  • Objective: Target a polar orbit satellite in view of the ground station.
  • Hints: See suggested satellites in datasheets section, recommend NOAA-19.

2. Determine Azimuth/Elevation (Azi/Ele) values:

  • Objective: Find the target satellite position in the sky (Azi/Ele) relative to the ground station.
  • Tools: Use the Dashboard for accurate estimates.

3. Schedule the satellite pass:

  • Objective: Plan the motion of the ground station’s dish by defining waypoints. 
  • Tools: See the ground station datasheet describing rotor performance and book via Dashboard.
  • Considerations: Ensure to stay within ground station performance limitations for rotor speed and maximum recording duration (4 mins) when defining waypoint times.

4. Post-processing:

  • Objective: Decode raw data into a usable image
  • Tools: Install and use SatDump to decode the data.

Support Videos

Turtle Image

You need a membership to access this content.

Not a member? Subscribe or log in below.