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Receiving images of Earth from satellites with software defined radio

235 pointsby l00sedalmost 5 years ago

23 comments

enginooralmost 5 years ago
I feel that GOES satellite imagery is a hidden gem, I&#x27;m surprised more people aren&#x27;t working with it.<p>The imagery is available at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov&#x2F;GOES&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov&#x2F;GOES&#x2F;</a> but is better explored at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;rammb-slider.cira.colostate.edu&#x2F;</a><p>I have personally built a Twitter bot to collect and animate imagery throughout the day. I have it running for two locations currently.<p>Continental US: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;satellite_CONUS" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;satellite_CONUS</a><p>NorthEast US: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;satellite_NE" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;satellite_NE</a><p>It&#x27;s amazing to see storm formation visually.
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leetbulbalmost 5 years ago
This is surprisingly easy to do with some cheap hardware[0]. There is plenty of information if you just search something like &quot;NOAA RTL-SDR.&quot; Building the antenna is the most labor intensive part, but still very easily done. I haven&#x27;t personally, but it&#x27;s on my to-do list for this summer.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtl-sdr.com&#x2F;rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weather-satellite-images&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.rtl-sdr.com&#x2F;rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weat...</a>
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jonpurdyalmost 5 years ago
Somewhat related. For those who are new to SDRs, you can easily view airplane altitude, heading, speed, and other stats of passing aircraft with a cheap SDR. Aircraft transmit this using ADS-B and it&#x27;s totally open and unencrypted.<p>FlightAware (among other services) work by aggregating data from users around the world. You can even get a free premium subscription to their service by contributing. Easiest way is to use a Raspberry Pi, install their software (much easier now than back in 2013!), and you&#x27;re good to go!
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mhh__almost 5 years ago
Anyone interested in how SDR works&#x2F;is implemented: the book &quot;Software defined radio for engineers&quot; is the only book I&#x27;ve come across that combines DSP and SDR in the right ratios (Proakis&#x27;s DSP book is bad if you want to build things straight away)
jbjalmost 5 years ago
You can also look into receiving weather forecast from the sky: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.othernet.is&#x2F;t&#x2F;wiki-pages-for-the-othernet-dreamcatcher&#x2F;5314" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;forums.othernet.is&#x2F;t&#x2F;wiki-pages-for-the-othernet-dre...</a>
adwialmost 5 years ago
A few posters have mentioned this being accessible with inexpensive hardware. Any tips on how someone starts getting into SDR stuff?
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cushychickenalmost 5 years ago
Can&#x27;t hack the dense, overly-arty prose.
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7kayalmost 5 years ago
The title first suggested that the article is about a security vulnerability of a satellite. The DoD actually held a CTF recently focused on the security of space systems. Information is on <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hackasat.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.hackasat.com&#x2F;</a> I&#x27;m looking forward to the public release of the exercises from the qualifying round which will be on June 19.
axegon_almost 5 years ago
This is incredibly cool!!! Kind of had a similar weekend RTL SDR project in the back of my mind for quite a while but like a lot of things lately, it&#x27;s been a classic case of kicking the can. I really wish I could dig up some motivation from somewhere(in general, not just this).
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aasasdalmost 5 years ago
So, if people say here that plenty of folks receive satellite imagery, are there projects to assemble a complete map of the planet and have it continually updated? As in, you know, a satellite view for OSM.
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arethuzaalmost 5 years ago
During the Falklands War the Norwegians gave the UK a constant stream of images obtained from Soviet spy satellites that gave very good information on the position of the Argentinian Navy.
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dghughesalmost 5 years ago
As a young teen in the early 80s I read about a project that used an FM radio, a printer, and a bit of code to detect meteoroids. When the meteoroid became a meteor it gave off a frequency in the FM range.<p>I liked programming but wasn&#x27;t good at it and didn&#x27;t understand what I needed. I wasn&#x27;t sure if my Atari 600XL was suitable for the project but I do believe the code was BASIC which the 600XL could run. And I didn&#x27;t have a printer which at the time was like owning a unicorn.
ethbroalmost 5 years ago
Also, &quot;How not to optimize a webpage for HN.&quot;<p>(Said with loving snark, as a former architecture student and knowing exactly why all the bells and formatting whistles were thrown in)
zwirblalmost 5 years ago
Hug of Death? Couldn&#x27;t find it in archive, so google cache it is <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:https:&#x2F;&#x2F;l-o-o-s-e-d.net&#x2F;signs-of-life" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;webcache.googleusercontent.com&#x2F;search?q=cache:https:...</a><p>Though I haven&#x27;t read the article yet
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praveen9920almost 5 years ago
This is interesting data. Are there any online services which stream this data over internet?<p>AWS has an offering called Ground station. Can we use it to get same data? Anyone worked on it before?<p>What kind of license apply to this satellite data? Can we use it for commercial purposes?
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jcun4128almost 5 years ago
Man that&#x27;s awesome... crazy how your brain is &quot;zoomed in&quot; to your daily life&#x2F;forget zoom out on this rock in nothingness like a film of bacteria.
jungletimealmost 5 years ago
Are any of those images of earth and space released to public domain, since NASA is a government agency? Especially video. I would like to use a clip for Youtube.
ameliusalmost 5 years ago
Who do we have to thank for not encrypting this data?<p>PS: Aren&#x27;t these images available on the web anyway?<p>Well, if not, perhaps this project could change that.
tomato2juicealmost 5 years ago
I wouldn&#x27;t call this stealing? Maybe &quot;catching&quot;? I&#x27;ve been following a related subreddit on this topic that might be useful to the hackers here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;RTLSDR&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.reddit.com&#x2F;r&#x2F;RTLSDR&#x2F;</a>
jrockwayalmost 5 years ago
Stealing? The NOAA satellites exist for you to receive the signals; the NOAA even offers a detailed guide on how to build a receiver: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;noaasis.noaa.gov&#x2F;NOAASIS&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;Users_Guide-Building_Receive_Stations_March_2009.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;noaasis.noaa.gov&#x2F;NOAASIS&#x2F;pubs&#x2F;Users_Guide-Building_R...</a><p>The introduction even reads like this art project: &quot;Satellites provide us with a unique and long-sought after opportunity to look at Earth from space. These spacecraft now enable us to observe and measure the many forces of nature which converge on our planet. Mankind can now observe the global nature of the environmental factors which interact to form the complex systems we call Earth. From the unique vantage point of space, sophisticated environmental&#x2F;weather satellites bring us information about cloud formations and movements, precipitation amounts, temperatures, ocean currents, sea surface temperatures, air and water pollutants, drought and floods, severe weather conditions, vegetation, insect infestations, ozone content of the atmosphere, volcano eruptions, and other factors that affect our daily lives. They have also provided us with less tangible aesthetic values which help shape attitudes about the environment of this planet. This global attitude is, perhaps, just as important as the hard data that the satellites provide.&quot;<p>I was hoping that this was some security vulnerability that let you receive images from private satellites.
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stjoalmost 5 years ago
+1 for cool project; -1 for baity title<p>as jrockway said:I was hoping that this was some security vulnerability that let you receive images from private satellites
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annoyingnoobalmost 5 years ago
Connection timeout. Seems that someone is &#x27;stealing&#x27; your bandwidth.
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dekhnalmost 5 years ago
it&#x27;s not stealing if they broadcast it unencrypted.
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