An Implementation of the NOAA Satellite Data Reception Ground Station for Weather and Climate Enthusiasts

During the dry season in Thailand, the risk of forest fires increases significantly, posing a serious threat to both the environment and public health. There is a pressing need for weather and climate enthusiasts to access comprehensive data on forest fires, climate patterns, and environmental conditions. This work aimed at implementing a satellite ground station to exemplify enthusiasts' alternative data access other than published data on governmental websites. The goal was to achieve good results with low-cost software-defined radio (SDR) hardware, specifically the RTL-SDR, commercial-off-the-shelf components, and open-source software. Raspberry-NOAA-V2 program suite offers a powerful solution for individuals with minimal or no coding experience, enabling hobbyists to easily set up an automatic satellite imagery reception. With the free reverse proxy functionality from ngrok, the station owner could establish and manage access to the image archive without needing any network knowledge, while their peer enthusiasts could access it from anywhere. Such an approach was considered to offer hobbyists with inquisitive interest to apply technology to build an operational ground station to obtain real-time meteorological data. While the ground station employed inexpensive components, the weather image reconstruction results were relatively satisfactory. The implemented station was a good hands-on activity for weather and climate enthusiasts. By combining the strengths of technology, real-time data, and community awareness, a municipality can create more resilient ecosystems with local engagement that are better prepared to face the challenges of climate variability.