How to Feed Satellite Pictures

Share the weather satellite pictures your own station decodes (Meteor-M, GOES, older NOAA satellites) with ArkSignal. The pictures appear on Satellite Images, with the satellite, your receiver and the time, and link to Satellite Passes.

The Short Version

Add a receiver, then run the ArkSignal uploader next to your decoder:

python3 satimage_uploader.py https://feed.arksignal.allisononline.org/sat/push/YOUR-KEY /path/to/your/decoder/output

The uploader is one small file you download from https://feed.arksignal.allisononline.org/static/satimage_uploader.py. Your key is the end of the private upload address shown on your receiver's card: My Account > My Satellite Receivers. Every new PNG, JPEG or WebP picture in that folder is sent once.

First create an account, then add the receiver. Nothing is shown to anyone until you choose Everyone for who sees its pictures (you can keep a receiver private).

How It Works

Weather satellites broadcast their pictures openly, and with a cheap radio and the right antenna you can catch them yourself. Your decoding software turns the radio signal into picture files. The uploader watches the folder those files land in and sends each new one, over https, to an address on this site that only you know. The site keeps your newest 60 pictures per receiver and shows them in the gallery.

Satellite	What it sends and what you need
Meteor-M (Russia)	Digital pictures (LRPT) near 137 MHz, several passes a day. The easiest to catch: an RTL-SDR dongle, a V-dipole or QFH antenna outdoors and SatDump. Meteor-M2 3 is near 137.9 MHz and Meteor-M2 4 near 137.1 MHz.
GOES (NOAA, geostationary)	Whole-hemisphere pictures (HRIT) at 1694.1 MHz, always overhead, a new one every few minutes. Needs a small dish (about 1 meter) or grid antenna pointed at the satellite, a filtered amplifier for 1.69 GHz and a radio that tunes there (RTL-SDR or Airspy). Decoded with goestools or SatDump. This is the more advanced project.
NOAA 15, 18 and 19	The older analog pictures (APT) near 137 MHz. NOAA has been switching these satellites off, so use Meteor-M if you can; any pictures you do catch can be sent the same way.

The site never reaches into your computer: your uploader only sends pictures out to your upload address. See GOES Imagery for NOAA's own pictures, which the site fetches by itself.

A steady series makes a loop. When a receiver sends several pictures of the same satellite and product close together in time (a GOES station sends one every ten minutes or so; a Meteor pass sends a few within minutes), the site puts them together into an animation loop you can play from Satellite Images. Give the uploader --satellite and --product so every picture of the series carries the same names; that is how they are grouped.

What You Need

A receiver: an RTL-SDR style USB dongle (Meteor-M and NOAA) or an RTL-SDR or Airspy for GOES.
An antenna for the satellite you want: a V-dipole or a QFH antenna for 137 MHz, a dish or grid antenna with a filtered 1.69 GHz amplifier for GOES. Outdoors with a clear view of the sky beats indoors by a wide margin.
Decoding software: SatDump (Meteor-M, GOES and more) or goestools (GOES).
A computer that stays on during passes: a Raspberry Pi, a mini PC or a laptop, with Python 3 for the uploader.
A network connection that can reach feed.arksignal.allisononline.org over https.

Hardware

Item	Options and Notes
Receiver	RTL-SDR Blog V4 is a popular low-cost choice for 137 MHz and 1.69 GHz. An Airspy Mini or similar gives a cleaner GOES picture.
137 MHz antenna	A V-dipole (two 53 cm elements at 120 degrees, horizontal, pointed north-south) is cheap and works; a QFH antenna is better for low passes. Keep it away from walls and metal.
GOES antenna	A 1 meter dish with a feed, or a grid antenna, pointed at GOES-East (about 40 degrees up in Arkansas, toward the southeast). It needs a low-noise amplifier with a 1.69 GHz filter placed right at the antenna.
Computer	A Raspberry Pi 4 is enough for Meteor-M. GOES decoding is heavier: a small Intel PC is easier.

Hardware Setup

Mount the antenna outdoors, as high as you can, with a clear view of the sky in all directions (Meteor-M passes can come from any side). For GOES, aim the dish at the satellite and tune for the strongest signal.
Run low-loss coax to the receiver, as short as practical. Put any amplifier next to the antenna, not at the radio.
Plug the receiver into the computer. On Linux check that it is seen with rtl_test.
Find when a satellite passes: the Satellite Passes page lists the next passes of Meteor-M and NOAA over any place, in your time zone.

Software Setup

1. Add a receiver and get its upload address

Open My Account > My Satellite Receivers, choose Add a Receiver, give it a name and say what it receives. Its card shows the private Upload Address.

2. Decode pictures to a folder

With SatDump, for example for Meteor-M (check SatDump's own documentation for the options of your version):

satdump live meteor_m2-x_lrpt /home/pi/satellite --source rtlsdr --samplerate 1.024e6 --frequency 137.9e6 --gain 40

Each pass writes its pictures (PNG files) into a folder inside /home/pi/satellite. goestools writes GOES pictures into the folders you set in its configuration.

3. Download and run the uploader

curl -O https://feed.arksignal.allisononline.org/static/satimage_uploader.py
python3 satimage_uploader.py https://feed.arksignal.allisononline.org/sat/push/YOUR-KEY /home/pi/satellite --satellite "METEOR-M2 3"

Leave --satellite out and the name of the folder or file is used. --product adds a label such as "MSA false color". --once looks once and stops, for a scheduled job.

4. Keep it running

On Linux, a systemd service starts the uploader at boot. Save this as /etc/systemd/system/arksignal-satellite.service, then run sudo systemctl enable --now arksignal-satellite:

[Unit]
Description=ArkSignal satellite picture uploader
After=network-online.target

[Service]
User=pi
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/satimage_uploader.py https://feed.arksignal.allisononline.org/sat/push/YOUR-KEY /home/pi/satellite
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

On Windows, run it from Task Scheduler at logon with python satimage_uploader.py .... Without Python, any program that can post a file works: curl -F image=@pass.png -F satellite="METEOR-M2 3" YOUR-UPLOAD-ADDRESS.

5. Test it

Send one picture by hand with the curl line above, then open Satellite Images: it appears at once if the receiver is public. Am I Feeding? shows each of your receivers and when it last sent a picture.

After You Are Feeding

Your pictures show on Satellite Images with your receiver's name and town, newest first.
Each receiver keeps its newest 60 pictures; older ones are deleted as new ones arrive. Delete any picture, or the whole receiver, from your card at any time.
Limits: pictures up to 8 MB each and 30 an hour per receiver.
Switch a receiver to private to stop showing its pictures to others.

Ports and Firewall

The uploader only makes outgoing https connections (port 443) to feed.arksignal.allisononline.org. Nothing needs to be opened on your router.

Troubleshooting

What you see	What to do
404 unknown_address	The upload address is wrong, or you made a new one (the old one stops working). Copy it again from your receiver's card. An administrator may also have switched the receiver off.
400 not_a_picture	The file is not a PNG, JPEG or WebP picture (for example a data file the decoder keeps beside the pictures). The uploader will not try it again.
413 too_large	The picture is bigger than 8 MB. Use the decoder's smaller or JPEG output.
429 too_many	More than 30 pictures in an hour. The uploader tries again later.
Nothing arrives	The uploader waits until a picture has stopped changing for ten seconds, and only looks at .png, .jpg, .jpeg and .webp files. Check the folder path and that the pictures are there.

Your Data and Privacy

A public receiver's pictures are shown to everyone, with its name and the town you typed. The site stores no exact location for a satellite receiver.
Only send pictures you are happy to share. You can delete any picture, or the whole receiver, whenever you like.
The upload address is a secret: anyone who has it can send pictures as your receiver. If it leaks, make a new one on your receiver's card.

More Help

Questions or trouble: Contact.
The other feeding pages: ADS-B, MLAT, UAT (978 MHz), Weather Stations, Radiosondes, Mesh Nodes, ACARS, AIS, Satellite Receivers, and Am I Feeding?