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| |  GeoSatSignal
download
 GeoSatSignal
mini-tutorial
 GeoSatSignal
registration - help support continued development!
What is GeoSatSignal?
GeoSatSignal is a development of my SatSignal
program, designed to process geostationary satellite data. Because the
data is a sequence of images from the same well-defined location, more exciting
processing can be done, and GeoSatSignal allows you to combine data in a number of ways:
- from multiple channels to produce a false-colour image,
including channel differences
- from multiple segments of a single satellite view
(such as those transmitted by GOES & MTSAT)
- from multiple satellites to produce a world view
- from multiple times to produce an animation
- correct data to standard map projections
- display satellite images on top of meteorological charts
Please note that GeoSatSignal is an original piece of software
developed independently by SatSignal Software, Edinburgh specifically for users
such as you, and there is a lot of direct user input in the design of the
software. This is not a re-branded program originally developed by someone
else. This allows a rapid response to the ever increasing variety of data
available.
Who uses GeoSatSignal?
GeoSatSignal is used by many leading Universities and Research
Institutions. Many National Weather services and some Airport Weather
services use the software, and some of my most recent customers have been teams
from the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006!
I welcome your
suggestions for facilities which you would like to see in the program.
You can see what some people are doing with the program from these sample image
sites.
Sample GeoSatSignal Image sites
These articles are written by the long-time geostationary
weather satellite expert, Douglas Deans, and may help put the usage of
GeoSatSignal into perspective. They were written before and during the
initial trials of the Meteosat Second Generation satellite (MSG-1), now
Meteosat-8. They are all PDF format files.
Present facilities include
- Join WEFAX images with automatic registration
- Join C02 and C03 images
- Join Meteosat visible, IR or WV segments 1,2 and 3
- Join Meteosat segments 1 and 4
- Join Meteosat segments 6 and 9
- Join all nine Meteosat segments 1 to 9 for a full disk
image
- Join GOES-E or GOES-W NW and NE segments
- Join MTSAT segments A, B, C and D for a full disk image
- Processing of saved Timestep
format .dat files
- Process many standard image file formats
- Longitude and latitude display on images
- Accurate temperature readout from digital images
- Accept Timestep MPD, Data Tools MET, Dundee PDU and Rob
Alblas format files
- Make false colour images from visible and thermal channels
- Histogram equalisation, gain-stretch, crispening, sea-blue
enhancements
- Apply NOAA GOES Enhancement curves
- Rectify C02/C03 and other European sectors to Polar
Stereographic or Orthographic projection to help remove the image distortion at higher
latitudes
- Rectify southern hemisphere sectors
- Add longitude/latitude graticule to Polar Stereographic mapped image
- User-defined re-mapping regions
- Add Bracknell or other MSLP overlay - a weather chart on top of the
image!
- Animation with variable sampling interval and frame time
- Automation with command-line parameters for complete
hands-off operation
- Automated Internet data retrieval with AutoGet
- Meteosat-8 and Meteosat-9 support
- support for the MSG-1/2 HRIT & LRIT scan mappings
- support MSG-1/2 file names
- support for new Rapid Scan service (May 2008)
- introduce new false-colour combinations
- Ability to use your own images as backgrounds (allows simulation of
permanent daylight conditions with cloud overlays)
- Multiple text annotation overlays
- Control of text style in annotation overlays
- Nearest city indication when moving cursor
- Automatic
<year><month><day><hour><minute> string
replacement in batch-mode output file naming
- Control of minimum and maximum temperatures in job for pure
temperature false-colour output
Can I register and what do I get?
As with my other software
packages, registration is required for continued use, and for technical support other than via the
self-help e-mail list. You can register here.
Please note that you can e-mail me
directly for support only if you are a registered user.
GeoSatSignal 7 is a major upgrade to
GeoSatSignal with new features including those listed below, and existing GeoSatSignal 4,
5 or 6 users will require
a new licence code.
| V7.0.0 |
Support compressed TIFF files
for image input, allow gridlines to be plotted on any image, preliminary support for new
EUMETSAT Meteosat8/9 Archive derived product data (air-mass, dust, fog, GII-K, GII-lifted-index,
total precipitable water, volcanic-ash), add compass-rose option for text
location to cities.dat files, include CI-Volcanoes data file (new edition) for use with
EUMETSAT volcanic-ash data, allow user-specified file list for the five
satellite combined world view, support new EUMETCast FSD format for MTSAT-1R (2752
square images, no mid-IR thermal calibration),
add experimental support for Meteosat 7/8/9 MPE GRIB data, enhance support
for FY2C/ FY2D/MTSAT-1R HDF-format data from China Meteorological
Administration (CMA) - including option to use 1km high-resolution
visible channel (note that memory will limit what operations may be
performed on 1km data), new widescreen remap sizes (1280 x 800, 1440 x 900, 1680 x 1050, 1920 x 1200 and 2560 x
1600 plus two MSG sizes which will need plenty of memory 5568 x 2944 and 5568 x 8192),
preliminary support for NDVI and US Kalpana data, EUMETCast browser updates for new mid-IR data, support for new RSS
Meteosat-8 data service, support embedded spaces in the NOTIFY parameter,
add Dutch language (thanks, Ton Lindemann), French and Spanish language updates. |
Important: Before you download or install the software, please check your licence
carefully. If you are unsure what licence you have, please contact
me. If you purchased GeoSatSignal 6 after 1-Jan 2008, you are entitled
to a free upgrade to GeoSatSignal 7. Please contact me about this, and supply your hardware
fingerprint. If you already have a GeoSatSignal 5 or 6 licence, and wish to upgrade, you may upgrade
here. If you have the unregistered version of GeoSatSignal and want
the new facilities, you can register
here. Your existing GeoSatSignal 5 or 6 licence code will not work in
GeoSatSignal 7. If you have an older version, you may wish to back it up
before overwriting with the new version. Notes
on testing the new version
GeoSatSignal 7 is a major upgrade to GeoSatSignal, and
requires
a new licence code.
Hardware requirements
GeoSatSignal has been developed on PCs with 500 MHz and higher processors and
512MB or more of memory. Windows 2000 or Windows XP is strongly
recommended for processing the larger images such as those from
Meteosat-8. As a minimum, I would suggest a 500 MHz or higher PC with at least
512MB of
memory. The remapping and animation functions are the most time-consuming, and processing multiple 5000 x 5000 pixel pictures will
require substantial memory. That's 25MB for visible, 25MB for IR, 75MB for
false-colour - i.e. 125MB for images alone! Your display should be at
least 800 x 600 pixels with 15-, 16- 24- or 32-bit colour. For Meteosat-8 (MSG-1)
work, 1GB of memory and a 2GHz
processor are working minimum specifications, with 2-3GB of memory and 3-4GHz
processors providing a more comfortable user experience with HRV images. Be sure
to calibrate your
monitor.
Required libraries
- All required libraries for
GeoSatSignal (which you may already have)
Extra goodies
- Register
GeoSatSignal-6
- There is a special offer including GeoSatSignal-6, the MSG Data Manager and the MSG Animator
in the MSG Toolset
Plus package.
- Join the self-help
Yahoo group for GeoSatSignal.
- Guidelines
on publishing EUMETSAT data.
- Country boundary overlay file - in
countries.zip
- Make your own background images for the Background Overlay
mode - use MapToGeo. A 30-day
trial version is available for download.
-
AutoGet V4.4.0 - get image files off the Internet from
popular Web and FTP sites
- This program can completely automate retrieval of selected data from
the Dundee, EUMETSAT and GSFC Web sites, and much other weather data. Use the Windows
Scheduler to determine when AutoGet runs, and choose what data you want
within AutoGet. Worth downloading just for the read-me
file on data sources!
Recommended Bracknell URL: http://www.wetter-zentrale.eu/wz/pics/bracka.gif
Now included in the GeoSatSignal-6 installation, but the version here may
be more recent. AutoGet is a free and unsupported utility.
- Thanks to Francis Breame, there is now a completely
user-programmable alternative to AutoGet called getCharts, which is
available for download from: http://www.vf0123.btinternet.co.uk/
-
brackachart.zip - Götz Romahn has kindly
provided a Perl script based on Francis Breame's work called brackachart.
"I have adapted -- or better say specialized -- Francis Breame's script to fetch Bracknell charts for overlay in
GeoSatSignal. The intention was to make it somewhat more user friendly and compliant with the directory structure used by
the MSG Data Manager and GeoSatSignal i.e. \%yyyy\%mm\%dd."
-
Sample CLUTs, jobs and other
submissions from the User Community (300KB zip file, 2007 Feb 17)
- Colour Lookup Tables (CLUTs)
-
TonLindemann-LUTs-ENH2.zip (1.8MB) -
stepped and smooth CLUTs from Dutch weather expert Ton Lindemann,
including superb documentation. Worth the download for the
documentation alone! The LUTs look for cold cloud tops allowing easier
recognition of possible
rainfall and severe weather. The CLUTs supporting the land-sea masks
now use the full range of 120°C to 60°C. Shaded colours from -85° to
+60°C; from -120°C to -85°C a uniform colour. Because of lowest
temperatures in earth's atmosphere are around -80°C the range -120°C
to -85°C is not used for shading. The read-me is also updated with more
information about meteorological use of enhancement of IR-satellite
imagery. You can also refer to Ton's Web site
(only in
Dutch)
- Nederlandstalige
informatie over GeoSatSignal en Autoget.
-
Nederlandstalige leesmij.txt for
GeoSatSignal and Autoget from Ton Lindemann
- Convert Timestep .DAT files directly to JPG or BMP images -
simply drag-and-drop a .DAT file from Explorer.
- Rename Timestep .MPD files into a standard naming
convention to allow animation with GeoSatSignal
- Convert GOES WEFAX images (with
a binary header) to the correct width, brightness range and animation naming
standard for GeoSatSignal.
- Rik Wessels' tutorial on using
overlays with GeoSatSignal
- Convert AVI files to Windows Movie files from the command
line with the Windows
Media Encoder from Microsoft. The command-line tool is supposedly
in the Windows
Media Encoder SDK, but I haven't used it myself.
- Designing LUTs is as much an art as a science, and to get the best out
of the data you may different LUTs for different times of the year, or for different regions (warm versus cold).
- In "Background mode", the LUT works on the temperature of the infra-red
channel, operating on each pixel according to the brightness temperature of the image.
Of course, colder temperatures are usually associated with clouds bearing more rain, so it makes sense to colour those regions
distinctively - either with white (so that they stand out), or with black (so they look like dark clouds approaching), or with an artificial colour
such as red so that they stand out. The precise temperature at which you
switch from background image pixels to cloud image pixels will depend on the ambient conditions, so that a different LUT may need to be chosen
depending on the region or season being viewed.
- A refinement in "Background mode" is that in addition to the RGB colour
specified for the cloud at each particular temperature, you can also specify a transparency of the cloud colour, so that a fraction of the
background image pixel shows through as well. This allows cold storm-bearing clouds to be shown as solid masses, but warmer cloud to be
shown as "thin" cloud, i.e. with a greater transparency.
- A Background-mode LUT is specified as a Windows BMP - either 100 pixels
or 361 pixels wide, and two lines high. The horizontal axis of the LUT
corresponds to temperature. In the case of the 100 pixel wide LUT, the range is from -60C on the left to +39C on the right, in one degree steps.
The 361 pixel wide LUT corresponds to a wider range of temperatures - from -120C to +60C in 0.5C steps.
For typical use, the 100 pixel wide LUT provides adequate thermal resolution.
The top line of the LUT defines the "cloud" colour, and the bottom line the opacity of the cloud colour
(0..255).
- Taking a LUT such as the supplied LutLightClouds-B.bmp, the top line
shows the basic temperature to colour mapping, with the coldest clouds mapped to a white colour (X=0, R=G=B=255), and the warmest clouds mapped
to a dark grey colour (X=69, R=G=B=87). The X value corresponds to a temperature of 9C, quite warm for a cloud.
The bottom line determines the opacity of the "cloud" pixel, and the opacity varies along the temperature
scale. At X=0, the lowest temperature of -60C, the opacity is 100% (defined by the R=G=B=255 value), so the transparency is zero, and none of
the background image shows through. At X=55 (corresponding to a temperature of -5C), the opacity is just under 50% (R=G=B=123), so the
transparency showing the background pixel if just over 50%. At X=69 and
greater, corresponding to temperatures of 9C and greater, the opacity is zero, and all the background image shows clearly through.
- You can edit LUTs with any normal image processing program such as Paint
Shop Pro. However, be sure to keep the format of the LUT exactly the same
when you edit - 24-bit colour LUTs with the specified image sizes are the only ones which will be recognised by the program.
These notes were kindly provided by Ton Lindemann.
Using the EUMETSAT archives for Meteosat 1 to 8
EUMETSAT is offering a large free archive for his satellites from Meteosat
1 to 8. All data can be ordered online and delivered on several ways, as on DAT-tape, CD, DVD, hardcopy, pushed FTP or by download via http.
By the end of 2005 all the data can be ordered by the new U-MARF (EUMETSAT's archive) online at no costs.
GeoSatSignal supports for Meteosat-1 to Meteosat-7 the 0°, 10°E (Meteosat-6) and 63°
(Meteosat-5) services.
GeoSatSignal supports only the OpenMTP format for the northern hemisphere for
Meteosat-1 to Meteosat-7 0°-services, and you can choose for Meteosat-8
the PNG-greyscale as format option for use with GeoSatSignal. The Meteosat-8
image data may need to be processed with GSSprepare first before you can use it in GeoSatSignal.
It should be noted that the historical images (Meteosat-1 to Meteosat-7) can be ordered by EUMETSAT's
order form long as they are not available in U-MARF.
Getting access to the archives
Older information
On the main page of EUMETSAT
go to:
Data, products and services, and there to "archived data retrieval services" under "services".
You will find the archives there on the right part of the main screen in the green box.
The first option: "Ordering online" gives you access to the new archive. The last option gives access to the old archive, this for
data which where not transferred already to the new archive. This data must
be ordered by a request form and sent to EUMETSAT. Data from the new archive can be ordered online.
You must register with EUMETSAT before you can use the archive. There is a manual with clear
instructions available about the use of the old and new archive which can be accessed at the documentation page of
EUMETSAT. Search there for the EUM TD 06 and EUM UG 04 documents.
Update - November 2005
At this moment (late November 2005) more than 80% of the old off-line
archives are have been migrated to the new online archive. This means that
you can access almost all the data from all Meteosat satellites back to 1977.
The migration will be completed early 2006. Before you can use the archive and order the data you must register with
EUMETSAT, but this is free.
On the new EUMETSAT Web site, go to:
->Access to data
->User archive
->Online ordering
Click here on <archive online ordering> to get access to the archives.
There is a manual with clear instructions available about the use of the old and new archive which can be accessed at the documentation page of
EUMETSAT. Search there for the EUM TD 06
document.
You can
find it in the documentation section of the EUMETSAT Web site.
 |
Fires in Portugal using data
from EUMETSAT's Meteosat-8. The visible channel is used to make the
brightness component of the image and a thermal channel is used for the
colouring. The mid-IR channel which is sensitive to fires has been
used to provide the red hotspot overlay.
|
(click for an enlargement) |
The Nile region on 06 August 2005
at 10:00 UTC using the new RGB false-colour option in GeoSatSignal.
The vegetation stands out clearly in green, obtained by using the visible
waveband channel 1 data for the red image, the high-resolution,
broader-band visible channel for the green image, and the 10.8µm thermal
waveband channel 9 data for the blue image. All data from
Meteosat-8.
|
|
Using the background mode in
GeoSatSignal, Ferdinand Valk
produced this image turning night into day! By using data from the
thermal channel, and overlaying it on a "clear-sky" Blue
Marble background image (remapped through MapToGeo),
the cloud data can be easily related to the land masses. This data
was from a winter 1800 UTC scan of Meteosat-8 when much of Europe was in
night-time, yet the image looks like a daylight one!
|
Click for an enlargement |
| Solar Eclipse of 2001 Dec 14,
data off the Internet from GSFC from the GOES-W satellite with false-colour
processing. The original image has three times the resolution of
this image. Note the moon's shadow just to the right of centre of
this view over the Pacific Ocean.
|
 |
| This is from the experimental
World View mode of GeoSatSignal which combines the results of 5 geostationary satellites
around the world into one composite image. The WXtrackGL
program is then used to display the results. You can see the areas
of cloud showing as cold (white) superimposed over a world map
background. Within WXtrackGL, the globe can be rotated to view as you wish.
WXtrackGL is a free and unsupported utility.
|
Click for an enlargement |
| Meteosat 7 visible and thermal channels combined with
false colouring to show the temperature range. The image has been
rectified to a polar stereographic projection.
|
Click for an enlargement |
| The same image as above, but
processed with a 2-channel land-sea mask and country boundaries.
Note the improvements in the image with much better location of the land
masses and elimination of thin cloud.
|
Click for an enlargement |
|
Meteosat D1, D2 and D3 sectors
automatically combined, rectified, and a mean sea-level pressure overlay
from Bracknell has been added. |
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