hackproject.org — Get Weather Images from NOAA satellites — {April, 2016}
Problem Statement
acquisition of NOAA satellite images for education
Problem description
These days the weather has become a big issue. Also while climate change is being debated as well as felt around the world, it has become to help students know more about our environment. Students at my school have got some information regarding satellites, remote weather monitoring and how we could use them.
Now they are interested in acquiring image from satellites and through research found out that images could be acquired from NOAA satellites. This would allow them to have their own weather station to see remote weather.
Have’s
Students have access to raspberry pi. Students also have access to VHF kit and SDR through a teacher who is a licensed HAM radio operator. Since this access is limited they would like to find a solution probably based completely on the raspberry pi or by acquiring minimum hardware for it. Students have access to Internet, but the speed is very limited.
Have not’s
No access to professional hardware or antenna.
Constraints
No knowledge regarding antenna or radio signals.
Solution 1
Proposed by Pravin Raj Joshi
Material used
raspberry pi — 1
sd card — 1 (4GB would do the trick)
aluminium tube 6'’ — 12 ft long 1
aluminium rod — 5 ft 1
RTL23U SDR — 1
Value of solution extremely easy to make and deploy. Allows hearing signal from other satellites including the International Space Station. A Science project “Cool tool”
Steps
Make antenna as given in yagi antenna notes
Connect to RTL23U dongle
Connect dongle to raspberry pi
install wx2img
install gpredict
find passage of NOAA satellites
point antenna to satellite path
data interpreted by wx2img
Algorithm
point antenna to NOAA satellite path (elevation and direction)
open wx2img and goto file -> acquire Data
wait till image shows up on wx2img
Save image
Done
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