GOES-19 is the latest in the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-R series) operated by NOAA and NASA. Launched in 2024, it became the operational GOES-East satellite in April 2025, replacing the decommissioned GOES-16. Positioned at 75.2° W longitude, GOES-19 provides continuous, high-resolution imagery centered on the Americas, covering North and South America, the Atlantic Ocean, and adjacent regions. Its primary instrument, the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), captures data in 16 spectral bands across visible, near-infrared, and infrared wavelengths, delivering images with resolutions as fine as 0.5 km for visible channels and 2 km for infrared. This allows for detailed monitoring of weather systems, clouds, fires, and atmospheric phenomena. GOES-19 also carries the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM), the first operational lightning detector in geostationary orbit, along with instruments for solar monitoring (EXIS and SUVI), space weather (MAG and SEISS).

At the clubhouse, the Skunkworks team has built a dedicated ground station using a Raspberry Pi 5 to receive the High Rate Information Transmission (HRIT) signal from GOES-19 at 1.694 GHz. The receiver employs a NooElec NESDR SMArTee XTR software-defined radio (SDR), paired with a parabolic dish antenna (similar to a small BBQ dish) mounted on a mast. A mast-mounted low-noise amplifier (LNA) is powered via bias-tee voltage supplied directly from the SDR. The open-source goestools suite runs on the Pi 5, with goesrecv handling signal demodulation and packet decoding, and goesproc processing the data into full-disk, mesoscale, and composite images. The system also captures EMWIN emergency weather bulletins and NWS products.

Once the raw data is processed into images on the reception Pi, the JPG files are automatically transferred via secure SSH to a second Raspberry Pi 4 dedicated to video production. This video Pi uses a custom script to organize the images, enhance them with the Sanchez program for improved color and contrast, add annotations and logos using ImageMagick, and compile them into smooth MP4 videos with ffmpeg. The resulting videos provide time-lapse views of weather evolution across the Americas. A sample video is below.

The entire system operates autonomously, receiving and processing data continuously. Full-disk images are produced every 10–15 minutes, while mesoscale sectors update more frequently when active. False-color composites, created by combining visible and infrared channels, highlight features like clouds, storms, and temperature differences. Grayscale images from individual infrared channels are also generated for specialized analysis.

Below are links to the most recent images and videos from the clubhouse receiver. The data is processed throughout the day, with new videos typically available shortly after major image sets are completed. Thanks to the guidance from usradioguy.com and the Geostationary Weather Satellite Group, especially Carl Reinemann, for invaluable resources and support in building this station.

For those on the clubhouse network the current GOES19 video can be viewed here: http://192.168.50.126:8080/fd_fc_20.mp4