There are currently three operational American NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) APT (automatic picture transmission) satellites passing over us several times a day. NOAA-15 was launched in 1998, NOAA-18 in 2005 and NOAA-19 in 2009. We have set up equipment to record the signals from these satellites and process them into the images you see below. The quality of the images will depend on the time of day, track and elevation of the satellites.
There are various image types: -
• MSA (multispectral analysis) - the most vivid false colour images, closely resembling visible satellite.
• MCIR (map colour IR) - false colour infra-red images.
• HVC/HVCT - false colour images that attempt to colour the clouds based on temperature, making it easier to differentiate between low (coloured) and high (white) clouds.
• therm - false colour images based on temperature, useful in visualising cloud temperature.
• sea - false colour representation of sea surface temperature.
• MSA/MCIR-precip - NO (colour IR contrast enhancement) images, where colour is added to cold cloud tops, are combined with MSA images during daylight hours and MCIR images at night. This makes it easier to see where rainfall is likely to be falling.
• We have also included charts showing the path and elevation of each satellite pass.
We are also recording higher resolution images from the Russian Meteor MN2 LRPT (low-rate picture transmission) satellites. Sadly the LRPT transmissions from Meteor MN2-2, launched in 2014, have failed but a new Meteor satellite, Meteor MN2-3, was launched on 27th June 2023, and we installed new software in September 2023 to decode these images. Unfortunately the satellite antenna failed to properly unfold after launch, affecting the length of the passes, particularly on southbound passes in the morning.
Thankfully a fourth Meteor satellite, Meteor MN2-4, was successfully deployed on 29th February 2024 and is producing some beautiful images which we are also decoding below.
Click the thumbnails for full-size images (best viewed in landscape on mobiles)