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.
View on Schleswig-Holstein and Danmark

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:

    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):

    Caspian Sea and Lake Aral Bosporus
    Thunderstorms (Overview); Thunderstorms (Detail);
    Greenland (Overview) Greenland (Detail)
    Arctic Sea (Overview) Arctic Sea (Detail)
    Floods of the Oder River; Schleswig-Holstein

    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