Yet another update has been beamed to your computers now! This time starring:
New features
Automation improvements
It is now possible to very easily build an automated station for APT or LRPT satellites, advantageously replacing previous setups that required anywhere from 5 to 12 separate pieces of software.
lego11 has made a detailed configuration guide for such a station.
Later, additional features such as simultaneous reception of NOAA APT and DSB, or LRPT and APT, are planned.
A lot of image enhancements
We added a lot of enhancements for AVHRR this time.
APT and HRPT had all the «traditional» NOAA enhancements added by lego11. Included are: BD (Hurricane), MD, MB, CC, EC, HE, HF, JF, JJ, ZA, TA. This means that SatDump has now complete feature parity with WXtoImg with respect to the meteorologic capabilities.
Additionally, Marhmarchi has made an experimental night time fire detection enhancement based on the brightness temperature of AVHRR channels 3b and 4. It appears to work quite well, but more data is necessary to validate it.
Alpha channels in composites
It is possible to have an alpha channel in the composite’s equations, making it possible to build transparent composites that are designed to be overlaid on top of other channels.
A typical use case would be overlaying and projecting MHS data over AVHRR in the Viewer, for example.
A Rainfall (transparent) composite that makes use of the alpha channel is already included in SatDump if you want to try it out.
A cheatsheet for the composite system is available here, should you wish to experiment.
New APT projections
Aang23 reworked the APT projections, which are now much better and more precise than with the previously used algorithm.
JPSS-1 DNB projections
JPSS-1’s DNB channel can now be projected correctly.
JPSS (HRD) Reed-Solomon checks enabled
HRD has Reed-Solomon checks enabled by default to ensure data integrity. This also fixed another issue: corrupted ephemeris data could lead to unexpected results on JPSS projections. This is no longer the case.
ATMS calibration
ATMS is now calibrated on all JPSS satellites (including little SUOMI NPP) and can be used for science work, providing higher resolution and more channels than the older instruments used by NOAA: MHS and AMSU.
Among others, a transparent AMSU-like snow cover algorithm has been added, and the difference in resolution between the 1980s vintage AMSU-A and ATMS is quite stunning.
Transparent composites have been made for ATMS too, including an experimental Snow cover algorithm.
Arbitrarily long APT passes support
SatDump now supports arbitrarily long APT passes, which could happen if you forgot to stop the recording before switching to another satellite. Previously, the limit was 20 minutes.
The decoded image preview has been updated to also support this, so the image will not be cut off!
Map overlay improvements
Aang23 made it possible to save default color and labels settings for the map overlay. Settings are saved on a per-instrument basis: this means, for example, you can have WXtoImg like colors on AVHRR APT, and a different color palette for AVHRR HRPT.
In the viewer, you can reset the colors to their defaults with a simple click.
Additionally, it is now possible to show the location of your QTH on the map. Of course, it can be displayed in any color you like.
This composite, made by Carl Reinmann, combines Meteor-M N°2-3 polar-orbiting imagery with geostationary satellites imagery. It really showcases the capabilities of the viewer and projection system following the upgrades it has recently had!
GUI backend improvements
JVital2013 has made several improvements to the GUI system, improving compatibility with older graphic cards and Android systems and reducing the chance of the dreaded gray or corrupted screens appearing.
This also increased compatibility with Windows 7 systems.
Additionally, Raspberry Pi users no longer need to have the MESA_GL_OVERRIDE flag to run SatDump!
Despeckle noise reduction algorithm
JVital2013 implemented a despeckle noise reduction algorithm based on a Kuwahara filter. Compared to median blur, it can help reduce noise with less degradation of the image sharpness and quality.
Proba V-CC pipeline update
The Proba V-CC’s pipeline has been updated. The satellite is still in the commisioning phase, so further updates are expected.
Manual bandwidth choice on LimeSDR
LimeSDR users can now choose a custom, manually specified bandwidth for their SDR.
List of poor bugs we killed (yet again)
HackRF crash
If the HackRF was in use by another program, SatDump could crash. This was fixed.
Error messages notification crash
Too many error messages (toast notifications) could cause a crash in certain circumstances. That has been fixed too.
Bug with Aqua
A bug introduced in 1.1.1 has been fixed with the Aqua satellite decoder.
LRPT and GOES-R fixes
JVital2013 did a bunch of LRPT and GOES-R fixes!
The last minute fix…
