NOAA-Sat: High-resolution weather images
The NOAA-satellites are polar orbits at altitude of about 800 km with period
of about 2 hrs. During this time ther observe the Earth surface in 5 (later 8)
different spectral bands. The data are transmitted in strongly reduced form
on 137 MHz and in full detail on 1.7 GHz
Reception on 137 MHz is possible without excessive effort, using a crossed dipole
antenna and a somewhat modified of-the-shelf scanner.
Reception of the full data (HRPT) on 1.7 GHz requires the tracking of the satellite
by the antenna via computer. The required orbital data needs to be updated from NASA
at least every three weeks. To receive the digital signals a special broad-band
receiver is necessary.
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View on Schleswig-Holstein and Danmark
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The area accessible for observations is determined by the visibility of the satellite
from the receiver site. For Kiel this means North Greenland .. Northern Africa in
North-South direction and Ural .. Mid-Atlantic Ocean in East-West direction.
Usage possibilities
It is possible to download images for specified subjects in GIF format,
for instance:
- Ice coverage North America (Gulf Stream)
- Lake Aral
- Ice in the Baltic Sea
- Ice in Greenland
- Eastern Europe (to Ural Mtns.)
- Mediterranean Coasts
The advantage lies in the simple and fast use of the data. The disadvantage
of these 'quickviews' is that they can only be looked at. A processing
to compare with the different spectral bands is not possible.
We offer a CD at the price of 5 Euro, on which the unreduced data are
stored. Für die Bearbeitung benötigen Sie bis
zu 100 MB Speicherkapazität. Die CDs oder Disketten bieten Ihnen die Möglichkeit
der vollständigen Bearbeitung in allen Spektralbereichen.
Examples
The images from NOAA have a size of about 50 MB each, which might be a bit much to
download and immediate use in school. Below you find a couple of smaller
GIF-images (about 400 kB):
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Caspian Sea and Lake Aral
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Bosporus
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Thunderstorms (Overview);
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Thunderstorms (Detail);
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Greenland (Overview)
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Greenland (Detail)
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Arctic Sea (Overview)
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Arctic Sea (Detail)
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Floods of the Oder River;
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Schleswig-Holstein
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Archive of satellite images
You may also download images by the NOAA-sats from our data base:
TUB-SAT DLR
Films and
physics experiments on the satellite per telemetrie (Project L3N)
Images by Technical University Berlin