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COP26 Nowcast Nowcast: 6 September 2020

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Public Archive

A patchy record of DIY satellite imagery and weather notes since 2020. The open-weather public archive is open to everyone willing and able to contribute.

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Words for Climate

An evolving set of words chosen by contributors to reflect their experiences of the climate crisis.

Bulbs blooming,

Peaceful,

honest,

climate whiplash,

changing,

Extraterrestrial,

high pressure,

Polyphonous,

Manifold,

Entangled,

early flowering,

misty,

early,

warmth,

rapid,

Finger pointing,

Ignition,

Rain,

physical,

unpredictable,

red warning,

un-weather,

Transatlantic,

Unwetter,

hollow,

ashen,

Haze,

angry,

confused,

failing,

moldering,

bone-chilling,

damp,

LA,

teleconnections,

snow,

Smoke,

Not a care,

Rollercoaster,

edging,

Santa Ana winds,

Palisades fire,

uncontained,

Evacuate,

Windstorm,

Fire weather,

invisible updrafts,

vultures soaring,

quiet,

Tract housing,

interference,

adaptation,

suspicion,

Sunken sailboats,

Idalia,

PM-2.5,

air quality alert,

inversion layer,

Future,

Unexpected,

Contrails,

new beginnings,

Polar vortex,

1.5°C,

chilling effect,

mossy,

sudden change,

rising,

cyclical,

loss,

fire,

climate reality,

huge,

bright,

underground,

hum of seeds,

Darragh,

elemental,

worms,

mulch,

conspiratorial,

passion,

Nebel,

brewing,

clamour,

forgery,

recycling,

repurposing,

concrete,

civil war,

common ground,

dialogue,

questions,

gloom,

weather,

numb,

grey,

Short-comings,

Uncertainty,

Fog,

wind,

Storm Bert,

Coming storms,

Flat earth,

Bomb cyclone,

indoor sunshine,

displaced,

Joke,

Chaos,

Irony,

temperature rising,

decay,

dirt,

soil,

what you know,

Resist,

Tribe,

Collective action,

Silver linings,

Searching,

harvesting,

Policy,

Climate denial,

Democracy,

Fossil record,

Geologic time,

Anthropocene,

betting on the future,

gambling,

risky business,

hope,

reality,

flooding,

Cognitive dissonance,

Crisis,

slowing current,

Atlantic cooling,

Amoc,

frustration,

anticipation,

troubling,

Troubled,

everything,

Anticipatory,

Serene,

remote,

ten foot surge,

1000 year storm,

warming Gulf,

Milton,

re-member-ing,

harvest,

mushrooms,

Palestine,

given names,

the wind singing,

a lifetime,

body,

overheat,

people,

noise,

moist,

fair,

local,

light,

hotter,

learn,

radiate,

weather balloon,

upside down,

floods,

Grief,

Relational,

Breath,

Lurking,

Medium Temperature,

a story,

greening,

darkening,

inter-relations,

immeasurable,

story,

xenomorphic,

lichenous,

trans-scalar,

saturated,

fractal,

multi-scalar,

circulated,

reflected,

emitted,

warning,

sensuous,

furry,

rainy,

cloudy,

wet,

memory,

calor,

coal,

sweat,

heat,

placid,

grounded,

calm,

clear,

breezy,

chilly,

windy,

differential,

hazy,

red-orange,

green,

gelatinous,

slimy,

deforested,

ominous,

sticky,

ponderous,

summer,

rushing,

sweaty,

silver,

veiled,

vruće,

sunčano,

suho,

energetic,

wavelike,

spectral,

ancient,

railway tracks,

rupture,

warm,

unstable,

cold,

sandy,

crowded,

scorching,

relief,

tubulent,

noisy,

humid,

bodily,

red,

dusty,

dry

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Ground Station Type

Automatic Ground Stations are local, semi-permanent stations that record and upload satellite transmissions automatically once per day. Manual ground stations are DIY and often mobile; operators manually record and upload satellite transmissions.

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Satellite

The archive contains Automatic Picture Transmissions (APT) by US weather satellites NOAA-15, NOAA-18 and NOAA-19.

NOAA-15

NOAA-18

NOAA-19

Nowcast

Collective earth-sensing events led by open-weather, co-produced by a network of contributors around the world.

6 Sep 2020

COP26

Weather Between Us

Year of Weather

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A list of tagged contributors only. Please contact us if you want to be added.

859 archive entries × Clear Filters

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Additional Media

Weather Note

2021-10-31 20:44:11

Newcastle, NSW, Australia

Windy and cool, misty and foggy.

2021-11-01 05:44:00

Atsugi Kanagawa, Japan

2021-11-01 07:15:00

Atsugi Kanagawa, Japan

Pattern of cloud is the beauty of the nature.

2021-11-01 07:30:00

Atsugi Kanagawa, Japan

Pattern of cloud is the beauty of the nature.

2021-11-01 08:07:13

Newcastle, NSW, Aaustralia

Bright, Sunny. Not many clouds in the sky, cool breeze.

2021-11-01 08:56:00

Atsugi Kanagawa, Japan

Pattern of cloud is the beauty of the nature.

2021-11-21 08:14:24

Hilly Fields Stone Circle, Hilly Fields, Brockey, London, England

Bluesky cold and beautiful sunrise

2022-02-12 19:14:52

Kassel, Germany

2022-04-17 20:04:07

London, England

There was almost no wind, the sky just above was clear and the temperature was slowly lowering as the sun was setting behind distant clouds.

2022-05-07 19:38:41

2022-05-07 20:36:00

Christos Tsetsis

2022-05-07 20:36:17

Onasis Stegi, Athens, Greece

Windy and cool while the sun was setting

2022-05-08 09:49:50

clear sky, surrounded by higher buildings

2022-05-08 11:33:42

2022-05-08 11:35:31

Garyfallenia Tsinopoulou

Athens, Asteroskopeio, Greece

2022-05-08 11:36:00

The weather these days is so unpredictable that I brought a jacket with me. That was really unnecessary as it was really warm and sunny. I was afraid that my computer would overheat and crash again.. I am used to sweat and feel warm, but my devices are not.

2022-05-08 11:36:00

Athens, Greece, Greece

2022-05-08 11:37:03

2022-05-08 11:37:41

clear view, some clouds

2022-06-15 11:56:53

Karolina Pawelczyk

Nice and sunny.

2022-07-15 11:57:41

2022-07-16 11:44:21

2022-08-02 22:23:34

Saint Barthelemy, France

During the pass I was facing the Atlantic Ocean from Grand Cul de Sac beach. The night was dark, warm and breezy. I could hear the sound of the waves slowly lapping the sandy shore while observing the stars thanks to a clear sky. The forecast caption shows the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean sea, spanning North to South from Florida to the French Guiana.

2022-08-14 12:44:15

Grezieu La Varenne, France

After weeks of dry, extremely hot and sunny days, the sky was thickly loaded with light greys and white clouds. Some thunder claps woke me up in the early morning and the rain started to pour heavily, watering finally the earth which suffered from drought. That morning, the temperature dropped for almost 10 C degrees in a couple of hours.

2022-09-30 10:32:00

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2022-10-08 07:20:00

Barra, Rio de Janeiro - RJ, Brazil

Day pass over South American east coast

2022-10-14 20:21:04

amsterdam, netherlands

humid, post-rain weather with pretty clear sky

2022-10-14 20:23:03

Andrea González

Amsterdam, Netherlands

2022-12-07 19:36:41

Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom

The weather was very cold, hitting 0 degrees celsius during the pass. There was very little wind, only 4mph from the north west.The sky was mostly clear, with some wispier clouds towards the south eastern horizon. The UK is currently experiencing a cold turn with air from the Arctic spreading south across the country and bringing freezing to near-freezing temperatures. In response the Met Office has issued a Level 3 Cold Weather alert across England with very cold nights expected. Due to the ongoing UK Energy Crisis, which has driven household energy costs up, I fear what this cold spell could mean for those trying to save money by not using their heating, those who cannot afford to turn on the heating, and indeed those without heating at all. During the satellite pass, the warmth of my hands against the cool metal of the turnstile created condensation, making it slippy to hold. As the pass went on my hands lost more feeling, until by the end I couldn't feel them at all, making it difficult to hold the turnstile and afterwards stop the recording and begin to decode it.

2023-01-31 11:07:00

Landaff Fields, Cardiff , United Kingdom

A second recording just after NOAA 19 passed our horizon.

2023-03-13 11:39:00

Centre for Research Architecture: team 1

Wind! Breeze as though we were on a Kent-ish beach

2023-03-13 11:39:00

Leila_Asli_Heloise_Susan

GOLDSMITHS UNIVERISTY OF LONDON, UK

Overcast, Blustery Wind, Patches of Blue

2023-03-13 11:39:33

Goldsmiths University London, United Kingdom

2023-03-13 11:43:00

Faye Leonie Fine

London, New Cross, UK

windy, excited, bright but cloudy, noisy

2023-05-18 09:51:51

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, United States

Clear Sky, temp around 20 deg celsius

2023-05-18 10:25:53

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, United States

Clear sky, temperature – 20 deg. Celsius

2023-05-18 12:48:37

West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, United State

Clear Sky, 20 deg Celsius temperature.

2023-06-01 10:46:06

Mount Florida, Glasgow, Scotland

Warm and cloudy

2023-08-20 08:34:30

Steve Engelmann

Pacific Palisades, California, United States

Standing on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean you could feel the anticipation. Light rain had started and the winds of the incoming storm were beginning. Over 50 years I have spent many hours looking out, working through dilemmas, contemplating, searching for perspective. Today was like no other. Hilary had been down graded to a tropical storm by the morning. She tracked east of Los Angeles and ended up closing down Death Valley with historic floods.

2023-11-08 07:34:42

Anna Madeleine Raupach

Ngunnawal / Ngambri Country, ACT, Australia

The sun was bright although there were clouds in the sky. I remember there were flies and insects in the air. While receiving this image I noticed my mobile network was down, and after returning home I found out that Optus (one of Australia's main data networks) had a nation-wide outage. I am not sure if this would have affected the signal from NOAA15, but I did notice the radio landscape was more clear than normal that morning – however that did not result in a particularly clear image. (This is not the best image of the bike-tenna but the one I took on the day of this capture.)

2023-12-22 09:25:50

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

There were flood risks in Southern California over the last few days as the region received storm cell bursts. I recorded my image during a clear break in the rain, though the air, ground, trees and sidewalks were still soggy. A woman was throwing a branch to her Australian Shepherd in the park while I was recording the image. The dog was kicking up so much mud its multicoloured fur was completely mud-coloured after a few minutes. As I returned inside after the satellite pass, another burst of rain began pounding the roof of my Mom's condo.

2023-12-22 09:53:21

clear skies after a storm, solstice sun, strong warm wind, wet wood of the balcony

2023-12-23 09:12:47

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

Today the light is a pale yellow and the air shimmers with leftover water evaporating from puddles and storm drains in LA. The city smells more intensely, as if all the materials on concrete surfaces, roads and sprawling buildings have sublimated. Throughout the satellite pass, the roar of airplanes taking off from runways at nearby LAX was palpable, though the misty clouds meant none of the planes could be seen.

2023-12-23 21:14:06

Mild, very windy, raining

2023-12-24 09:29:15

windy, mild, a small amount of blue sky, it's Christmas eve!

2023-12-24 10:46:10

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

The sun was very bright and the air so warm today, I ended up in a t-shirt while capturing the satellite pass. The park was lively as a soccer team started warming up and a group of walking womxn did laps on the sand trail. I was on a video call during the whole satellite pass, and this made me reflect on the ways the signal from my phone was relaying through a nearby cell tower and onward to the other side of the planet, while the NOAA satellite above me sent radio waves to the ground – I wondered, did the signals touch?

2023-12-25 09:20:08

Grey and so warm. It's Christmas (and my birthday). The horrors being reported from Gaza seem to be worsening: Heavy weather, lethal weather. Clouds maps are always moving. Clouds make visible our shared breath.

2023-12-25 10:36:26

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

There is a soft light today, like the air is filled with small reflecting particles, whether water droplets or dust.

2023-12-26 10:20:51

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

The humidity is unusually high today- around 88% The local park was very vibrant and active, with a young soccer team and a group of people throwing frisbees. On my way back home I noticed several policemen checking parked cars along Green Valley Circle. One group had what looked like a kit with a brush- I wondered if this was for fingerprints. Had the humidity of the air affected which fingerprints could be lifted off car doors, handles and windows?

2023-12-26 18:10:44

2023-12-27 10:08:41

Sasha Engelmann

Culver City, California, USA

It is a sunny and bright morning. As many people are working today after a few days holiday break, the air is filled with sounds of vacuum cleaners, washer/dryers, leaf blowers and home DIY equipment.

2023-12-27 22:05:20

Hazy, damp cold. First night in Bergamo.

2023-12-28 09:58:30

Sasha Engelmann

Heather Village, Culver City, California, USA

A very warm, bright balcony

2023-12-28 19:00:15

It is my second night in Bergamo at same location but with my v-dipole antenna instead of the turnstile. Yesterday I learned that that the radio environment was noisy, however I was still surprising to receive no image. During the day Nicola and I observed an opaque haze hugging the alluvial plains of Lombardy. At dusk, a narrow slip of sky, frame by the haze below and clouds above, glowed blood red. Having heard how the Alps trap air pollution from the small factories on the plain, the red glow felt menacing.

2023-12-29 09:43:41

Sasha Engelmann

Fox Hills, Culver City, California, USA

The air has been warm but the visibility is low- a light fog has settled over the Los Angeles basin. Throughout the day the fog became more dense, and was likely trapped by the marine layer of cold air coming in from the Pacific.

2023-12-29 11:51:45

Near Mantova, Italy

Low, thick cloud cover. The air was warm and moist. Low light despite it being nearly midday. Standing between the fields, there were no obstructions other than telegraph and electricity pylons. It was amazing to as “see” the southern boarder of Algeria.

2023-12-30 09:32:43

Sasha Engelmann

Fox Hills, Culver City, California, USA

On my way to LAX airport to drop off my brother this morning, the air was so misty and wet, and the rain was so "strong", that people were driving at almost half the normal speed limit- a sign that the rain is affecting how people feel in LA. I didn't think the same would be true of people or drivers in the Pacific Northwest or Europe. By the time I caught the satellite pass, the clouds had parted and the sun was hot on the balcony.

2023-12-30 11:46:17

Lago Inferiore, Mantova, Italy

Still, damp air, mild. Beautifully misty. Mottled sky.

2023-12-31 11:02:00

Sasha Engelmann

Fox Hills, Culver City, California, USA

The air is so clean today- the rain has washed and blown away the particles that caused the air pollution spike at the end of last week.

2023-12-31 11:38:40

Very cold, a few snowflakes in the air. I failed to press record!

2024-01-01 10:48:44

Sasha Engelmann

Regent Street, Culver City, California, USA

I was on a palm tree-lined neighbourhood street in Culver City, around the corner from the Diorama-Museum of Bhagavad-gita, where I had booked a tour for the morning of January 1st. I balanced my laptop on the hood of my brother's car and held the antenna to the clear blue sky. The weather was bucolic, as if even the light had slowed down.

2024-01-01 11:15:10

There was heavy snowfall yesterday afternoon and overnight. This morning it is sunny and clear with no wind. I was able to take my winter coat off.

2024-01-02 10:35:18

Sasha Engelmann

Heather Village, Culver City, California, USA

I experienced the weather of a private children's playground on a bright morning in January in LA. I could hear small children's voices echoing out of the Montessori School nearby, and the creaking of the playground equipment as swings and ladders moved.

2024-01-02 22:17:00

Fondamente Nove, Venice, Italy

Damp cold, overcast and dark. My second failed satellite pass! Nicola was helping but dropped one of my antenna poles onto the marble of Fondamente Nove, crushing the screw thread. I also for my USB adapter. I am very tired.

2024-01-03 07:51:57

Sasha Engelmann

Heather Village, Fox Hills, California, USA

A storm has passed through southern California overnight, and there are still impressive clouds in the sky. The air is brisk and full of water. I captured an image from NOAA-15 which turned out without glitches but unusually dark – as if the satellite was somehow sensing the atmosphere on the ground.

2024-01-03 20:34:37

Fondamente Nove, Venice, Italy

It is a beautifully still night on the Venice lagoon; overcast, but with good visibility. I captured the image from a floating pontoon on the Fondamente Nove. As the satellite passed overhead, the pontoon was rocked by passing Vaporetti. I made a sound recording of water and radio waves mixing with the and clinking metal of the pontoon and a man singing.

2024-01-04 07:54:36

Chilly, damp morning air. It is misty on the lagoon. Cloudy, soft light, pastel colours. There is lots of radio frequency noise. The satellite's signal is weak, perhaps because of the noise or because my turnstile antenna is missing a pole.

2024-01-04 08:26:26

Sasha Engelmann

Yucca Valley, California, USA

A pack of coyotes howled in the distance as I captured this satellite image. I was on the edge of Yucca Valley bordering Joshua Tree National Park, and while the air was cold, the sun was very strong, reaching into the crevices of the hills and boulders. The wind whistled among the Joshua Trees and Cholla Cacti. I felt very 'close' to the satellite too- there was so little radio noise, the moment I picked up my antenna, the satellite signal came through clearly, even though it had barely crested the northern horizon. I didn't need to look at the compass on my phone because the north star had shone so brightly the previous evening and it was easy to remember where 'north' was.

2024-01-05 09:59:43

Sasha Engelmann

Heather Village, Fox Hills, California, USA

Standing in an elevated parking lot attached to the Heather Village condominium complex in Culver City, Los Angeles, I could hear engines starting and wheels tentatively moving as commuters started their day. The nearby 405 Freeway made a constant whoosh-hum, and airplanes took off and landed at LAX.

2024-01-05 20:16:07

Chilly and noisy (cars, mopeds, buses)

2024-01-06 11:26:55

Sasha Engelmann

The Bluffs at Pacific Palisades, California, USA

From the 'point on the bluffs' in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, I could see as far as Palos Verdes and Catalina Island. It was a bright, warm day, and many people were out walking. The satellite 'set' over the Pacific Ocean- I felt I could hear it for much longer than I normally can from a place in the city, as there was only air between me and the horizon.

2024-01-06 20:00:00

Cold. It's been raining all day. I held my antenna out of the window.

2024-01-07 08:21:24

White-grey sky. Not too cold. It began to snow just before the satellite pass, so I had to change plans and stay on my balcony, where my laptop could stay dry, instead of going to the park. I used a stretchy piece of plastic to weatherise my dongle.

2024-01-07 08:58:27

Mount Florida, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

Scotland, United Kingdom

It was really misty, I couldn't see anything beyond the garden, cold too.

2024-01-08 12:08:23

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

Snowflakes started to fall on my laptop during the satellite pass. They were very small and fragile, fluttery fragments of crystalline ice, not heavy like hail or water.

2024-01-08 19:18:03

Peace Palace, Den Haag, The Netherlands

The Netherlands

Brrrr. It is bitterly cold! I almost stopped the recording early because I couldn't feel my fingers despite my gloves. The sky was icy clear so I tried to spot NOAA-15, without luck I arrived in the Netherlands this morning after taking the the night train from Wien. I woke to thick snow flakes floating outside the train window. Inside the weather was toasty. It's no long snowing, but a wide current of cold air, coming down from Russia, is chilling Central and Western the Europe to the bone! Tomorrow I will wear my thermal leggings.

2024-01-09 11:13:34

Malieveld, Den Haag, The Netherlands

The Netherlands

It’s bloody freezing! Today’s image is from the workshop demonstration. I am too brain-fried from teaching to write more.

2024-01-09 11:56:24

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

I made a poor choice not to bring a hat and gloves when I went out for the pass today, as Hackney Downs was sunny but extremely cold and windy. Even the dogs running in the park had sweaters and multicoloured outfits on. A man stopped and asked what I was doing, and a woman and a dog happily took some photos of me.

2024-01-10 08:48:00

Carnegieplein, Peace Palace, The Netherlands

The Netherlands

Lizzie and I stood outside the Peace Palace. Its public square was the closest the open space to our apartment. But we had also retuned out of curiosity to record the atmosphere before tomorrow’s court hearing. “The world will be watching The Hague,” several Dutch people had told me. On arrived, the square was empty except for people going to work or walking dogs. At the palace gates, security guards were using LED-lit mirrors to check the underbellies of vehicles. Perhaps this level of caution at the Court was normal? Lizzie and I assembled the antenna and tuned to the satellite's frequency. At first, a security man walked over and asked us to leave. We negotiated 10 more minutes. Annoyingly, we had not yet picked up a signal. I was about to begin troubleshooting when the a police car pulled-up. A police man asked for our IDs and took them into the patrol car, while his colleague stood, leaning on its open door. Still no satellite signal. Lizzie experimented with the position of the antenna, when she rotated it, I was sure that I briefly saw the telltale lines of the transmission. Cold, we gave-up, packed down, and waited for our IDs to be returned. Lizzie lamented having not pressing record: at least then we would have documented radio environment. As it was, we left twitchy from police check and without an image. From inside a nearby cafe, I tuned to the tension in my muscles and their alertness. Perhaps we hadn’t needed the radio antenna. Our bodies had picked up a tension in the air that I had failed to see.

2024-01-10 10:02:11

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

The grass crunched with frost this morning, and the air was so cold that my hands felt clumsy while assembling the antenna. Midway through the pass, a beautiful Italian greyhound in a pink sweater came over to investigate.

2024-01-10 20:50:30

Zuiderstrand Den Haag, Netherlands

It was a super cold night. Around that time polar jet streams brought cold air onto mainland euorpe as the polar vortex at the north pole was discrupted beginning of this year. The beach was surprisingly calm. No wind interferred with the recording and the sound of the satellite came in clearly.

2024-01-11 09:51:05

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

I wanted to catch the satellite pass in my back garden, but the gate was so cold the lock had frozen or stuck, and I couldn't open it. I hurried to Hackney Downs and found a spot very close to the entrance in the long shadows of the plane trees. As I was listening to the satellite a woman with bright pink gloves came up behind me and asked what I was doing. When I told her about the satellite and my radio antenna, she immediately asked – are you a creative? This is the second time a person in Hackney Downs has asked me whether I am a 'creative' while I am holding my antenna. She kindly took the photo I uploaded.

2024-01-11 10:46:05

Eline Vere Park, Den Haag, The Netherlands

The Netherlands

"GLOBAL SOLIDARITY CALL WITH SOUTH AFRICA. JUSTICE FOR GAZA, MANIFESTATION AND LIVESTREAM OF COURT HEARING. Bring banners and signs with text: 'No genocide, No ethnic cleansing, Anywhere', 'Justice for the Palestinians', IsraelOnTrial for its #GazaGenocide'" @free.palestine.nl Today, I am unable to organise my experience of the weather into the coherent report. At lunch, I stood in the park behind the ICJ and watched a live stream of South Africa's lawyers argue that Israel is intended to commit genocide. Outside it is still below freezing. A street away, the students are build antennas: Ice-tennas, Tree branch-tennas, Finger-tennas.

2024-01-12 11:26:31

Sasha Engelmann

Downs Road, London, United Kingdom

I tried to stay away from the weather today as my asthma had kept me up the previous night and I was worried about too much time in the cold. I leaned out my second story window to catch the segment of the satellite pass that managed to creep in between the Victorian buildings on my street.

2024-01-12 19:22:06

Between Amsterdam and 's-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands

The Netherlands

I am on the night train. The weather inside is controlled by a continuous cold draft from an overhead ventilation duct. I rigged my v-dipole antenna to the ladder for the beds, and tuned to NOAA-15 mid-pass. As the train sped between lit buildings, I could see the satellite dip in and out of reception. I finish the recording just before we reach the next station. I am thinking about how the current political climate renders some lives disposible, ungrievable. "An ungrievable life is one that cannot be mourned because it has never lived, that is, it has never counted as a life at all", wrote Judith Butler. Is this fascism? Golrokh messaged from Tehran. There is so much weather between us. At 's-Hertogenbosch, a woman paediatrician boards the train. She is wearing a blue surgical mask and says that she’s got the flu (later, she corrects, she thinks that she has Covid). Our shared compartment feels tense as we exchange gases, aerosols, and possibly virus. She is going on a skiing holiday.

2024-01-13 17:53:11

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

I assembled my antenna on a bench in a dim pool of lamplight after sunset in the local park. I had just come back from the march for Palestine and still had my placard with me. As I was already so cold and tired from being out at the march all day, and the park was even colder than the streets, I struggled to concentrate, almost dropping my antenna and laptop.

2024-01-13 18:50:29

Cold but clear. I enjoyed being in the weather because I have a new coat and I have been inside all day. Amazingly, the snow on the balcony is the same as when I left a week ago. I take pleasure in this stability because I am feeling disorientated: I did not sleep on the night train and I stayed in bed all today.

2024-01-14 11:02:15

Sasha Engelmann

Downs Road, London, United Kingdom

I stayed almost entirely inside during this satellite pass, in sweatpants, slippers and an oversized jumper I had found in a vintage store in Buenos Aires. Even before I stuck my arm outside the kitchen window to catch the last half of the satellite pass, the antenna was picking up NOAA-18 inside the flat. This made me wonder about the porousness of our flat to the 'weather' of radio. Nicola took a look at my satellite image, he pointed out a cluster of white pixels where Mt Etna should be: the volcano is snow covered!

2024-01-14 20:03:14

I wore too many wooly layers! It was milder than I expected, around zero Celsius. My ground station was between the bins and the Austrian Post Academie. A few stars were visible between the clouds and light pollution. People hurried past: a dog walker, a parent and child, a runner. I have felt restless today. I asked Nicola about the weather: he says people are ice skating on the nearby pond in Türkenschanzpark.

2024-01-15 10:41:52

Sasha Engelmann

Clapton Pond, London, United Kingdom

Half of Clapton Pond was frozen on the surface, the other half (receiving the sun over the tops of buildings) was not. Pigeons stayed out of the shade, milling about the edge of the pond and periodically bursting into the sky. In the decoded satellite image, I noticed that the mainland UK appears sandwiched between two bodies of east-moving cloud, receiving its own intermittent winter sun.

2024-01-15 21:29:44

Cold, dark, damp. I feel "under the weather". Today, I stayed home and experimented with the loop antenna. To adapt the antenna to receive Very High Frequency transmissions, I squashed it into folded dipole. Despite what the online instructions recommended, this seemed to make things worse. I reverted to the open loop – the circumference of which is just under a half wavelength of 137 MHz. It okay but was highly directional. I will try again soon.

2024-01-16 11:29:29

Augarten, Wien, Austria

A piercingly clear day. Fresh. Chilly! I was glad to feel the sun on my face.

2024-01-16 12:09:16

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

The weather today is gorgeous – bright blue skies and golden sunlight. All morning the DJs on NTS radio have been remarking on the beautiful (if cold) weather conditions. To soak up the weather as much as I could, I found a spot in the middle of the widest field in Hackney Downs and set up my ground station. I was exposed in other ways too- many people stared and pointed at me from a distance, but none came near.

2024-01-17 09:39:48

The balcony of my flat, Wien, Austria

Cold, small, icy snow flakes. I had to keep my laptop inside. I used the loop antenna, elevated by a curtain pole to 1.5 metres. The antenna was highly directional, and so was challenging to keep tuned to the satellite. There is still pockets of snow on the rooftops. It feels around –3C outside. It wasn't forecast to snow today but the clouds are a pale white-grey and city has the deadened acoustic quality of a snow day. The light level is low.

2024-01-17 21:49:09

Sasha Engelmann

Downs Road, London, United Kingdom

I had finally made it home after a fourteen hour day at work at the university and on many commuting trains. It's been so cold in the UK with a current of Arctic air reaching down across northern Europe this week, but it has also been very clear and bright- I could see the stars as I reached my antenna off the kitchen windowsill.

2024-01-18 08:13:21

The balcony of my flat, Wien, Austria

So icy underfoot! My body felt sluggish this morning from a lack of sunlight and and my period. I ventured outside only to grip the v-dipole antenna to the balcony railing and then stayed inside for the duration of the satellite pass.

2024-01-18 09:26:57

The balcony of my flat, Wien, Austria

I tried the loop antenna again, this time squashing it into a folded dipole. The result was not good. Despite the near overhead position of the satellite, I could barely hear its transmission. I experimented with orientating the antenna vertically and horizontally. The temperature feels a warm 2–5 degrees this morning. It is raining lightly. Over WhatsApp, my brother sent a photo of the sun rise off the coast of Cornwall. In return, my mum shared a photo of her frosty garden. In both photos, the sky was clear. Yet an hour later my sister’s partner sent a video of large snow flakes falling in Truro. The weather in the UK is so much more changeable than in Austria. Here we have steady, continental weather. British weather is sea weather.

2024-01-18 11:44:26

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

The weather was bright and gusty, and bitingly cold. Hackney Downs was wide open and clear, so clear it made me wonder what it was before there was London. There were so many dogs being walked in Hackney Downs – I saw one person holding eight dogs – and a short-haired Australian Shepherd ran up to my laptop during the satellite pass. I stopped to pet her, and I wondered if her energy was having an influence on the satellite image.

2024-01-19 11:32:55

Sasha Engelmann

Downs Road, London, United Kingdom

I was in between two meetings on Microsoft Teams – one finishing and another one starting at 11:30. NOAA-18 was due to start its orbit over London at 11:31. I wondered – was there time for the weather? I tried to 'create time' by writing a 'I'm five minutes late' message to the person I was due to meet, and took my laptop to the bedroom to the nearest possible window to receive the satellite pass. As I was counting the minutes of the pass I was also counting how late I would be. I wished I could stay in the 'weather' of the bedroom and sunny back garden, and avoid the 'weather' of the Teams meeting room!

2024-01-20 11:20:08

Sasha Engelmann

Hackney Downs, London, United Kingdom

It was a gray blustery morning in Hackney Downs. A man with a dog stopped nearby and asked 'what's that mate?' to which I replied 'a radio antenna, I'm trying to catch the signal of a weather satellite'. He gave a thumbs up and said 'so it's a weather thing? a weather thing?' I nodded, and he walked off without further questions. I had apparently given a satisfactory answer. Yet I wondered what kind of 'weather thing' he was convinced I was operating.

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