Author Topic: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find  (Read 2053 times)

mountainhomelodge

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Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« on: December 12, 2020, 11:32:30 PM »
Hi,  Was wondering if anyone has a URL for static satellite images ideally for the west coast of the US.  These images I am hoping to use for the WeatherCat Imagery window, thus providing an animation loop. I see a number of already created animation loops by NOAA, but no luck on individual images.  Perhaps I am not using the WeaterCat Imagery window for what it is intended for.  If folks have other suggestion would love to hear it.  Thanks.

elagache

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New URLs? (Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find)
« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2020, 10:17:42 PM »
Dear mountainhomelodge and WeatherCat welcome wagon,


Since this is your first posting, let me welcome you to the WeatherCat forum!! 

Hi,  Was wondering if anyone has a URL for static satellite images ideally for the west coast of the US. 
. . . . .

NOAA has recently revamped their websites for satellite images.  Here is the home page:

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/index.php

I am also on the west coast and use this page for imagery of the Pacific Southwest:

https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES/sector.php?sat=G17&sector=psw

There is some navigation at the top of the page for the other sectors of the west.

These images I am hoping to use for the WeatherCat Imagery window, thus providing an animation loop. I see a number of already created animation loops by NOAA, but no luck on individual images.  Perhaps I am not using the WeaterCat Imagery window for what it is intended for.  If folks have other suggestion would love to hear it.  Thanks.

Unfortunately, I've never availed myself of this feature of WeatherCat so I simply don't know.  Perhaps someone else on the forum can help with this question.

Once more welcome!  :)

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2020, 05:45:14 PM »
Thanks for posting those links which I too have tried but with no luck creating a sequence with the still images on WeatherCat.  We'll keep our fingers crossed for further ideas.

xairbusdriver

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2020, 07:59:40 PM »
I assume you have used the appropriate URL in the WC Prefs->Webcam tab->Image From URL text box. It may seem counter-intuitive to use the "Web-cam Enabled" section. [rockon] [biggrin]
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mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2020, 08:08:16 PM »
Thanks for your post.  I am placing the URL in the Imagery tab of the Prefences page.

xairbusdriver

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #5 on: December 15, 2020, 01:06:10 AM »
I understand about that location. But I thought you were wanting WC to create a video file to upload to your web site on a continuing basis. That’s why I was asking if you are putting that url in the Web-cam tab of the WC Prefs. That’s where I have the local url for my video images that WC then combines into a time-lapse mp4 and uploads to my site. I may be completely off-base with my understanding/comprehension. It wood knot bee thee furst thyme! [blush]
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system


elagache

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It works!! Oops?!? Hey wait a minute! (Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find)
« Reply #6 on: December 16, 2020, 12:03:18 AM »
Dear mountainhomelodge, X-Air, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

Okay, I took a shot at trying to figure what the problem is and . . . . . . there is indeed a weird problem that I don't know how to solve.

The first thing I did was to choose an image that was roughly the same size as the display window: 300x300 pixels.  Here is an example:



That brings up an image in the satellite image viewer.  Unfortunately, all that is displayed is the same image.  I thought the problem was in WeatherCat, but no - "da' plot thickens."  For whatever reason, NOAA is preserving these images and the date/time of the image is encoded into filename.  So sadly WeatherCat is working fine.  I'm running into exactly the same problem as mountainhomelodge.

So can anybody figure out where you can get a URL for simply the latest image? 

Now two curious minds would like to know!

Cheers, Edouard  [cheers1]

mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #7 on: December 16, 2020, 02:03:41 AM »
Thanks Edouard for confirming what I was running into and doing a much better job of explaining.  We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Ktuley

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #8 on: January 03, 2021, 03:28:42 AM »
Hi Folks.... I think I understand what the question is, and if I do, then I managed to figure out what NOAA is doing.

The most current image has the title of latest.jpg. I think there is also a file with the date and time, but if you grab the display from the page you get the date/time version.

so adjust your URL to put the filename of latest and you'll always get the latest image.  Here's the one I use.

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES16/ABI/SECTOR/sr/GEOCOLOR/latest.jpg

I assume this works on any of NOAAs images... but haven't tested it.

I discovered this by looking at the directory of images... and I saw all the timestamped versions and this latest.jpg.

Hope this helps. 

mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #9 on: January 03, 2021, 04:30:26 AM »
Thanks so much for posting this link.

I did some playing around and I found by adjusting your link address to this, I was able to get my region in the US for the Pacific Northwest: https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES17/ABI/SECTOR/pnw/GEOCOLOR/latest.jpg

File is quite large and I have begun testing to see if it will produce a video time-lapse loop.  Per the link it updates every 5 minutes, I have it set to update every 15 minutes.  We'll see.

Thanks again and Happy New Year.

Ktuley

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #10 on: January 04, 2021, 03:04:05 AM »
Glad it helped. and yes, I should have mentioned my image is for the Southwest, where I am.


elagache

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Latest 300x300 px images? (Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find)
« Reply #11 on: January 04, 2021, 11:04:16 PM »
Dear Ktuley, mountainhomelodge, and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I am only having partial success using the latest.jpg images.  WeatherCat is able to preview this image, but appears to have some difficulty making movies out of them.  I think the problem is the image resolution.  Here is the link I am using:

https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES17/ABI/SECTOR/psw/GEOCOLOR/latest.jpg

That brings up an image of 2400x2400 pixels.  I'm not sure why, but WeatherCat seems to have difficulty with images of that size.  So for the 64-dollar question, is there any way to get the National Weather Service to give us the 300x300 pixel version of the latest image?

At least one inquiring mind would like to know!

Cheers, Edouard

mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #12 on: January 05, 2021, 12:47:13 AM »
I am having the same issue and maybe there is a url for a smaller file.  Is NOAA the only source?

elagache

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Working for me now! (Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find)
« Reply #13 on: January 05, 2021, 11:00:24 PM »
Dear mountainhomelodge and WeatherCat troubleshooters,

I am having the same issue and maybe there is a url for a smaller file.  Is NOAA the only source?

It appeared to me that my setup was still broken, but to my embarrassment, I came back to my WeatherCat installation a few hours later to discover it was working exactly as advertised!  It might be an issue of being very careful when you paste the URL.  I first pasted the URL into a new browser tab to make sure it was correct.  I then deleted the previous URL and after confirming an empty field, pasted the URL that I had tested in the new tab.

Let us know if this solves the problem for you.

Cheers, Edouard

mountainhomelodge

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Re: Satellite Still Image Hard To Find
« Reply #14 on: January 06, 2021, 05:38:28 PM »
Thank you for the update.  I followed your thoughts but still no luck with this link.  Perhaps someone could give it a try and see if the file size is too large or perhaps another issue.  Thanks in advance.  https://cdn.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/GOES17/ABI/SECTOR/wus/13/latest.jpg