Meteor-M Highland Park Station

Live weather satellite imagery captured from Highland Park, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Live Site: https://dgbenner.github.io/weather-satellite-reception/

What This Is

A ground station receiving Low Rate Picture Transmission (LRPT) data from Russian polar-orbiting weather satellites as they pass overhead. Images show a continuous strip of Earth captured during each ~10 minute pass.

Current Satellites

• Meteor-M N°2-3 - 137.1 MHz
• Meteor-M N°2-4 - 137.9 MHz

Typical coverage: 2-3 visible passes per day per satellite over Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

Equipment

• Receiver: RTL-SDR Blog V3
• Computer: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
• Antenna: [TBD - temporary wire dipole for initial testing]
• Software: SatDump for decoding LRPT signals

Technical Details

• Image Resolution: 0.6 miles/pixel
• Transmission Protocol: LRPT (Low Rate Picture Transmission)
• Spectral Bands: 3 channels (visible, near-infrared, infrared)
• Ground Swath: ~1,740 miles coverage width

Workflow

Phase 1: Proof of Concept (Current)

1. Pi Zero 2 W records raw RF during satellite passes
2. SD card transferred to Mac for processing
3. SatDump decodes LRPT signal into imagery
4. Processed images uploaded to GitHub Pages
5. Simple static gallery displays captures

Phase 2: Automation (Future)

• Automated pass scheduling and recording
• Network file transfer
• Enhanced processing and annotations
• Additional metadata and analytics

Image Coverage

Each image shows the satellite's ground track during a pass over North America, typically covering:

• Central/Western Canada
• US Midwest and Great Plains
• Sometimes extending to Gulf of Mexico (depending on pass geometry)

Coverage maps generated by SatDump show the specific area imaged during each pass.

Learn More

• LRPT Protocol
• Meteor-M N°2-3
• Meteor-M Satellite Program
• SatDump Software

Project Context

This is a companion project to:

• ADS-B Aircraft Tracking - monitoring aircraft with RTL-SDR
• Weather Satellite Computer Vision (planned) - analyzing cloud formations and weather patterns from captured imagery

Part of ongoing exploration of RF reception, signal processing, and data visualization.

Updates

Check the live gallery for latest satellite imagery.

Location

Highland Park, St. Paul, Minnesota

• Latitude: 44.96°N
• Longitude: 93.18°W
• Elevation: ~850 feet

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GitHub Pages Setup

To deploy this site:

1. Push this repository to GitHub
2. Go to repository Settings → Pages
3. Under "Source", select "Deploy from a branch"
4. Select branch: main and folder: / (root)
5. Click Save
6. Site will be live at https://your-github-username.github.io/meteor-highland-park

Adding New Images

To add a new satellite capture:

1. Process your LRPT recording with SatDump
2. Save the composite RGB image to images/ directory with naming pattern: YYYYMMDD_HHMM_satellite.jpg
3. Save the ground track maps (if generated) to images/
4. Add a new <article> entry at the top of index.html (copy existing template)
5. Update metadata: satellite name, capture time, processed time
6. Update image paths to match your new files
7. Commit and push to GitHub

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This station operates as a receive-only facility in accordance with FCC regulations for monitoring publicly broadcast satellite transmissions.