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noaa-apt

Decoder for NOAA weather-satellite APT imagery

Status: retired. All NOAA APT satellites were taken out of service on 2025-11-09. The software is not broken; the signals it decodes no longer exist. Verified by us against NOAA service notices rather than inherited from AHRL's shell comment. Recorded 2025-11-09. Verdict tested by us.

  • Version recorded: 1.4.1
  • Categories: satellite-decoding
  • Upstream: https://noaa-apt.mbernardi.com.ar/
  • Superseded by: satdump
  • Not a recommended default — installed only when asked for.

What it does

Decodes Automatic Picture Transmission signals from NOAA weather satellites into visible and infrared images, from a recording or a live SDR feed.

Why you would want it

You almost certainly do not, any more. Every NOAA satellite that transmitted APT was decommissioned on 2025-11-09. For weather imagery from satellites that are still transmitting, use SatDump, which handles current LRPT and HRPT services.

Before it will work

An RTL-SDR or recorded audio of an APT pass.

How it installs

  • prebuilt zip from https://github.com/martinber/noaa-apt/releases/download/v1.4.1/noaa-apt-1.4.1-aarch64-linux-gnu.zip — arch aarch64
  • prebuilt zip from https://github.com/martinber/noaa-apt/releases/download/v1.4.1/noaa-apt-1.4.1-x86_64-linux-gnu.zip — arch x86_64

Known problems

Retired: the signal source is gone. Kept in the catalog so that operators searching for an APT decoder get this explanation instead of finding nothing and assuming we missed it.

Keeping it current

  • probe: none
  • strategy: manual
  • Retired. No further updates expected or wanted.

Source: catalog/packages/noaa-apt.yaml