NOAA SIGNAL DECODING AND IMAGE PROCESSING USING GNU-RADIO

The paper presents several technical issues and software implementations proposed in order to decode, process, and render images received from NOAA satellites. NOAA satellites are seeking extreme weather events on Earth. The proposed solutions offer the possibility of decoding and processing the NOAA signals, by using the PC and its audio-in port, without any extra signal processor-based boards. Also, system architecture is open, according to the GNU requirements and hardware independent, due to its capability of working offline, by decoding a pre-recorded .wav file. Finally, the results are converted to a standard image file that lends itself easily to processing for relevant feature extraction. In spite of its hardware independency, the algorithm is capable to operate also online with SDR receivers. These receivers must follow the Universal Software Radio Peripheral specifications on USB ports.