             SatSignal - Weather Satellite Decoder for Windows

PURPOSE

This program is designed to decode weather satellite files saved in wave file or
image format.  The program takes a satellite recording, and produces a
corresponding image in BMP or JPEG format.  For registration details please see
this Web address:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/reg-satsignal.html

The program now includes comprehensive support for both polar orbiting and
geostationary weather satellites, including decoding the digital header of
Meteosat, GOES and GMS WEFAX signals to produce file names suitable for
subsequent animation with my GeoSatSignal program.  The home page for SatSignal
is here:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/satsignal.htm

SatSignal was orignally designed to overcome the problem that WXSat has with
decoding Meteor and Resurs images, in particular the bent verticals due to
doppler shift.  As opposed to either the phase-locked or free-running oscillator
used in WXSat, the program triggers on each line, thus ensuring correct
alignment of all lines.  (In fact the program triggers at the nearest sampling
point to the same point on each line, introducing a maximum of about a quarter
of one pixel error.)

Optionally, the program tries to produce the best possible picture by
interpolating addition lines between those produced by the satellite.  In this
way, approximately 50% more scan lines can be obtained.  The horizontal
resolution has been adjusted to produce approximately square pixels, however,
I do not have definitive information on the precise scan format of Resurs and
Meteor, and have been unable to determine the precise number of pixels per line.


VERSION 6 UPGRADE NOTES

For version 6 of SatSignal, the program will automatically work in a full-
function mode for 30 days from installation.  This allows you time to evaluate
the program and whether you wish to purchase the full version.

You can purchase a licence for SatSignal at:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/reg-satsignal.html


INSTALLATION AND USAGE

Extract SatSignal.exe, SatSignal.hlp and SatSignal.cnt from the zip file to a
suitable folder and run SatSignal.exe.  I tsrongly reccommend using a folder
outside the Program Files tree, such as:

  C:\Tools\SatSignal\SatSignal\

If you haven't already downloaded and installed my runtime Library Bundle,
do so now:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/runtime.html

If you wish to use the Background Overlay mode, copy the LutDarkClouds-B.bmp and
LutLightClouds-B2.bmp files as well.  Copy one of the Blue Marble 5400 x 2700
images available from NASA’s Earth Observatory:
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/

Notes on using Quorum image files are in UsingQuorum.txt kindly provided by
Hendricus Lulofs.

The program is written with Borland's Delphi 2009.  You do not need access to
Delphi to run SatSignal.  The program has been developed on Windows-8.1, and
runs on Windows-7 and later.  The program may work on earlier Windows, but
those operating systems are unsupported.

Note: if you rename the program to something other than SatSignal.exe, other
programs in the suite will not be able to share data with SatSignal.

If you wish a Spanish language help file, please see the late Ferran Alegret's
Web site at: http://www.qsl.net/ea3dlv.  I am very grateful to Ferran for
making this available as his time permitted.

There is a sample NOAA wave file available at the following URL, which the
program should correctly decode at a sample frequency setting of 11025 Hz.  If
SatSignal can decode this file, any decoding problems are in the wave file you
are feeding it, and not with SatSignal!

  http://www.damside.freeserve.co.uk/miniNOAA.zip  (962 KB)


OTHER LIBRARIES YOU MAY REQUIRE

In order for the program to run properly some runtime library files must be
present in your Windows System folder.  The files are available for download at:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/runtime.html

If you get error messages like "A device attached to the system is not
functioning" or "SatSignal.exe is linked to missing export...", you are either
missing one of the run-time library bundle, or you do not have the latest
version of the library bundle.  There is information on analysing "Missing DLL"
messages at the above URL

If you are running Windows Vista or later, you will need the WinHelp download
from the Microsoft Web site.  The FAQs on my Web site have more information:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/faq.htm#winhelp

as does the Microsoft knowledge database:

  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917607


NOTES

Additional image processing functions can be enabled, and are on by default.

- The program can automatically derive the black level for the scene from the
incoming signal.  If the signal is corrupt this value may be in error, resulting
in a picture that is too dark.

- Visible channel signals typically show land as having a low albedo,
conversely, snow looks brighter than you would expect.  To compensate for this,
the output image can be gamma corrected to compensate.

- You can sharpen the output image

- You can choose whether or not to make a large image by interpolation of the
received signal.

- The sampling rate can be set to best suit the combination of incoming signal
and sound card characteristics.

- The wave file input level is not critical as long as the signal does not clip.
The program automatically scales signals to the correct level - a sort of AGC -
so will see no variation in image white level for different wave file levels.

- If an overlay file for the current pass is present in your WXtrack folder, a
grid of country boundaries and latitude & longitude will be overlaid onto the
colour image.  The pass MUST be generated as south-bound in WXtrack.  (Overlays
currently for NOAA only).  Please see: "Using map overlays" in the Help, Index
for more information.



EASY OVERLAY

This is a new feature in SatSignal version 4, that allows overlay generation
without the complex involvement of WXtrack that was required for earlier
versions.  To turn on Easy Overlay, use the Settings, Easy Overlay menu.

Requirements:

You need a working WXtrack installation to provide current Kepler and country
boundary data, and a working HRPT Reader installation if you wish to provide
historical passes with accurate Kepler data.  To get location data into
SatSignal, you need the current released version of WXtrack, i.e. version
V3.3.4 or later.

Country boundary data can be downloaded from this location:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/countries.zip

Place the file contained in the Zip archive (countries.dat) in the same
directory as SatSignal.exe.

How EasyOverlay works:

There are two requirements to make Easy Overlay work: knowledge of the exact
date, time and satellite comprising the pass, and access to Kepler details
current at the time of the pass.  The program attempts to find the satellite
name, and the pass date and tinme from the filename and some information about
the file (basically, the number of lines it contains).  It then uses the
location data from WXtrack, and the minimum elevation at which you judge AOS to
occur, to work out the pass details more precisely.  As this estimate may not be
perfect, the program will present its estimate on a small dialog that will time
out after 15 seconds of display if you wish to alter nothing.

Note that you can set the AOS threshold separately for north-bound and south-
bound passes, so if you have an obstruction just in one direction you can
compensate for it by setting a higher threshold AOS value for passes from that
direction.

Kepler data for EasyOverlay:

Kepler data is extracted from two possible sources.  If you have my HRPT Reader
installed, the program will attempt to use the all-time Kepler data associated
with that program.  In addition, the program will try to use the Kepler data
associated with your WXtrack installation.  Note that this typically covers just
the current Keplers.  If wou wish to process satellite passes more than, say, a
week old, I would advise using the all-time Kepler data from your HRPT Reader
installation.


CAUTIONS

1 - The program has only been tested with the 11.025 kHz 8- or 16-bit audio
files produced by WXSat.  Other wave file sampling frequencies will not work,
except that small errors of the sound card sampling frequency can be
accomodated.  See the options menu.

2 - The program is designed for good quality signals.  If your signals are
noisy, decoding with WXSat may produce better results, and could possibly
cause SatSignal to fail.  You may need to edit such wave files.

3 - There is an option to filter the input more strongly.  This has little
effect on the picture quality, but the synchronisation works better, at least
with the sort of pager interfence which I get.  This filtering can increase
the processing time.  There is also an option for a wider filter which will
improve the picture quality.

4 - The program deals with large images.  A 256MB Pentium 500 MHz PC or
better is recommended.

5 - Wave files lasting less than 100 seconds may not be processed.  SatSignal
uses the initial signal to try and sort out the exact satellite type.

6 - The program is designed for NOAA APT, Meteor, Resurs, Okean, SICH &
WEFAX (Meteosat) signals.

7 - The first time the program loads, there may be a delay of up to 20
seconds, please be patient.

8 - If you don't like the way the program automatically updates the image
after you change a menu option, uncheck the Auto Update option.

9 - You can interrupt processing an image with the Escape key.

10 - If you enter a file extension other than BMP or JPG in the Save As
dialog box, e.g. PIC.ABC, your file will actually be saved as PIC.ABC.JPG or
PIC.ABC.BMP according to your currently selected preference.

11 - When processing a NOAA file, four output files will be produced:

  - <filename>.bmp - the composite two channel signal, unprocessed
  - <filename>-a.jpg - visible, processed for best viewing
  - <filename>-b.jpg - thermal, processed for best viewing
  - <filename>-c.jpg - visible, coloured by the thermal

12 - The program will not work with signals received through a narrow
bandwidth receiver - such signals will sound to have alternating periods of
tone and noise, rather than two alternating tones.

13 - Editing wave files.  If you remove data from a wave file, by using a
sound editor for example, SatSignal may not work correctly.  First, the
signal detection which synchronises to the toneburst in the signal may become
out of step if there is a gap not exactly equal to the line time.  You will
see this as one block of the image being displaced with respect to the block
before or after.  Secondly, with NOAA signals, the program relies on all the
timing and telemetry information at the side of the image to render the image
correctly.  Removing lines of this information will result in errors of
greyscale or temperature.

14 - User Colour Lookup Tables.  Files in SatSignal's folder named
TempToUser*.bmp will be loaded as colour lookup tables for processing NOAA
signals providing they are 100 (W) x 256 (H) x 24-bit colour bitmaps.  Note
that because the filename is used as a menu item, it can only contain letters
and numbers, underscore or dollar.  If you create a file not conforming to
this specification, it will not appear in the Options, NOAA colour model
menu.  A file name containing the string "cloudtop" should be automatically
recognised as requiring special cloud-top processing.

15 - NOAA 15 problems.  Since July 2000 the NOAA 15 satellite has sometimes
produced signals with errors.  There are two distinct types of error, missing
lines and mixed channels, and SatSignal has two different ways of dealing
with them.

- 15A - Missing lines.  Initially, there were signals which were approximately
correct, but which had the occasional missing period corresponding to one or
more AVHRR scans (1/6 second).  These signals can often be sucessfully
decoded by checking the Options, Attempt re-sync settng.  This causes the
decoder to check each toneburst, and if the toneburst is missing, the signal
is resynchronised.  As yet, there is no attempt to substitute missing lines,
so the resulting picture will contain fewer lines than it should.  An
excessive number of missing lines will cause the rest of the decoding to
fail.

- 15B - Mixed channels.  More recently, NOAA 15 has not been sending the correct
sync tonebursts for the visible and infra-red channesl.  In particular, it is
sending two bursts of 832 Hz instead of 1040 Hz (visible) and 832 Hz (IR)
bursts.  Selecting the "NOAA 832 Hz toneburst - fault mode" menu option will
make SatSignal respond to the IR toneburst, but any picture obtained will be
for interest only as the channels appear mixed and no calibration is
possible.

16 - Meteor 3-5 problems.  Since the start of September 2000 this satellite
has sometimes sent images which appear to have sinewave offset from the
nominal centre-line, as if there is a phase offset between electronics and
scanner.  This is not a fault of the program, and there is currently no
provision for special handling of these signals.

17 - Mouse wheel support may require that you install mouse wheel drivers.


REGISTRATION

There is a registered version of this program available from the Web which
includes a toolbar for faster operation, image input, temperature display,
distance measurement, command-line input and graphics and text overlays.  Only
the registered version includes technical support.

You can register SatSignal at:

  http://www.satsignal.eu/software/reg-satsignal.html


AUTOMATED PROCESSING (registered version only)

The program can take command-line parameters for automated processing:

 SatSignal.exe <input file>  <output file>  <parameters>
   parameters:  [S|N] [F=11025] [I] [G=2.2] [K] [H] [2B] [2F] [M} [W] [T] [Obcdgt] [-hide]

 Eg. SatSignal 05121234.wav  05121234.jpg  S  F=11025  I

You would need to set up the other options such as image size, type and gamma
correction first, and don't try saving a BMP output image as a JPG otherwise
everyone becomes very confused!

O controls the overlay.  All overlays will be off and can be individually
enabled - Boundaries, Calibration, Distance, Grid and Text

Two channel colour models can be requested in the 2C=XXX parameter, eg:

	2C=HSV | 2C=HLS | 2C=THERM | 2C=CLOUDTOP

The Help file contains full details of batch operation.

Note that the program will not overwrite existing files, but will pause with a
dialog box.  Please ensure the output image file does not already exist for
hands-off automated processing.


INTEGRATION WITH WINDOWS

I have found it handy to have SatSignal added to Explorer's right-click SendTo
menu.  Please see your Windows documentation for details of how to do this.  It
allows you to right-click a 2-channel PNG image file, for example, and have
SatSignal decode it, even if you normally have PNG files associated with your
image processing program.  SatSignal will try and do this for you automatically.


RECENT RELEASE INFORMATION

Release V6.0.0.566
V6.0.0  2015-Apr-07  Note that a new licence key is required for this version
                     Function unchanged from 5.2.2.565

See the Help, What's New menu for complete release notes.

Blue Marble 5400 x 2700 images are available from NASA’s Earth Observatory:
  http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/BlueMarble/


PROGRAM STATUS AND DISTRIBUTION

This program is copyrighted software from David J Taylor, Edinburgh and is
provided "as is", without any support.  Whilst I cannot answer queries relating
to the use of this program, I would value any comments or suggestions for
improvements you may have.

There is a self-help mailing list at:
  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SatSignal/
where other users of the software may be contacted.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Milan Konecny, VE3NZK, provided much useful input during development.
  http://www3.sympatico.ca/konecny/

Les Hamilton has provided many useful suggestions and a CD of wave files for me
to decode, in addition to looking after the RIG shareware library.

Nigel Evans kindly provided a CD of Meteosat signals for me to decode.

Max Hadley reminded me of the signal processing algorithm I should be using for
amplitude demodulation.
  e-mail: max@susato.demon.co.uk

Trevor Cousens, G3KXU, developed the cloud-top temperature algorithm implemented
in the program.  For more details of this, please see his Web site at:
  http://www.weather-images.co.uk

The PNG support is from Edmund H Hand's interface to LPng.dll/LPng-px.dll
  e-mails:  edhand@worldnet.att.net
  updated by: Dominique Louis (Dominique@SavageSoftware.com.au)
              Uberto Barbini (uberto@usa.net)

The library LPng.dll is freeware and the source is:
  Copyright (c) 1995, 1996 Guy Eric Schalnat, Group 42, Inc.
  Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 Andreas Dilger
  Copyright (c) 1998 Glenn Randers-Pehrson

TVersionInfoResource is from Brad Stowers
  http://www.pobox.com/~bstowers/delphi/
  Copyright bstowers@pobox.com (CompuServe 72733,3374)

The NSP interface for Delphi was written by Robert Rossmair
  e-mail: Robert.Rossmair@t-online.de

LongFilename is from Peter Below (TeamB) (100113.1101@compuserve.com)

The Help file was developed with Jan Goyvaerts excellent HelpScribble

The Spanish language help file was provided by the late:
  Ferran Alegret, EA3DLV, e-mail: aalegret@iies.es

Many thanks to Les, Lincoln and Peter who waited while I matched the Intel
libraries I built with the program I built!


CONTACTING THE AUTHOR

Web site:  http://www.satsignal.eu
E-mail:    davidtaylor@writeme.com
Software self-help: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SatSignal/

2015-Apr-07