Space Science and Engineering Center University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Community Satellite Processing Package Geosphere is a free, online tool used for viewing and downloading satellite data and imagery. Developed by a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, the recently updated CSPP Geosphere features near real-time satellite imagery from NOAA geostationary weather satellites like GOES-East and -West – with the added ability to download image loops.

Scott Lindstrom is a scientist at the Space Science and Engineering Center and contributor to the CIMSS Satellite Blog who regularly highlights images from CSPP Geosphere. Each week Lindstrom’s blog posts explore atmospheric and weather phenomena through satellite imagery.

“I like to tell stories about weather on the CIMSS Satellite Blog and that requires timely and visually arresting imagery,” says Lindstrom. “CSPP Geosphere provides that.”

According to Lindstrom, features such as the ability download loops as MP4 videos are key to illustrating and explaining the atmospheric forces at play—while making the content more accessible across the web.

“Being able to save animations as MP4 files is huge because other websites don’t have this ability,” says Lindstrom. “These videos are a lot easier to share on Twitter than an animated gif.”

Since its inception, CSPP Geosphere has supported imagery from the GOES-East weather satellite, but has been expanded to include GOES-West, which provides coverage from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Imagery are available at full-resolution and reduced-sized files for easy access.

“This project is a great example of SSEC using funds to create an innovative way to display satellite imagery,” Lindstrom says.

This work is supported by SSEC.