Weather Satellite Tracking with RTL-SDR: NOAA 15 Image Reception and Signal Decoding

This study examines the growing number of satellites, this paper explores the importance of satellite tracking and highlights NOAA-15 for information transmission and weather monitoring. It offers a low-cost configuration for receiving circularly polarized signals, using a Software Defined Radio (SDR) at 137.62 MHz and a V-dipole antenna. The directional characteristics of the V-dipole maximize capture efficiency by improving signal reception during particular satellite orbits. The flexible SDR, in particular the RTL SDR USB dongle, is used to detail signal decoding for Automatic Picture Transmission (APT), allowing for effective processing and tracking. High-quality APT photos are produced by this hardware-software integration, highlighting NOAA's crucial role in international weather forecasting. The study also emphasizes how simple and inexpensive it is to use the V-dipole antenna to receive NOAA weather satellite signals.