Part 3—Animate GOES Images Using ImageJ Software

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Step 1-
Download and Install ImageJ Software

Logo for ImageJ

Access the ImageJ Web site. ImageJ is public domain software and is freely available for common operating systems. Click on the link for Downloads, then download and install the version of ImageJ for your operating system.

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  1. Click the ImageJ Web site link to open the ImageJ home page in a new window.
  2. On the ImageJ home page, click the Downloads link.
    This image highlights the Downloads link on the Image j home page

  3. On the Download page, click the link that appears below the name of your computer's operating system (e.g., Mac OS X, Linux x86, Windows). This will transfer a compressed file of the ImageJ software to your computer.
    This image shows the Image j dowloads page.

  4. Your browser may automatically expand the file, creating an ImageJ folder on your computer. If this does not happen, click the icon to expand the compressed file and create the ImageJ folder.

Note: The ImageJ home page contains a link to the software documentation. Although it is not needed for this chapter, you may want to click the Documentation link to learn about features of ImageJ not addressed here.

Step 2-
Conduct a GOES Image Search at NOAA

Acess the NOAA GOES Web Site and click on the GOES East or GOES West Archive link in the box along the left edge of the page to open the GOES Image Search Template.

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Navigate to NOAA's GOES Web site at http://www.goes.noaa.gov/

This image shows the banner for NOAA's GOES images Web page.

On the left side of the screen, close to the bottom of the page, click on the GOES East or GOES West Archive link.

This image shows the links that provide access to the GOES East or West archives.

The GOES Image Search Template will open.

NOTE: In the box labeled What Sector CONUS stands for Continental US.

This image shows the blank template you can use to download a GOES image from the 21 day archive.

Step 3-
Download a Sequence of Images From the GOES 21-Day Archive

Make a selection from each of the categories to identify a specific GOES image, then click the button labeled Submit Choice to open the image. Save the image to your computer by clicking on the image while holding down the Control key (for Mac) or using the right click (for Windows).

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  • Make a selection from each of the categories to identify a specific GOES image. (Under What Sector?, CONUS is an abbreviation for Continental US.)
  • Click the button labeled Submit Choice to open the image.
  • Save the image to your computer by clicking on the image while holding down the Control key (for Mac) or using the right click (for Windows).
This image shows the completed template you can use to pull up a GOES image from the 21 day archive.


Things to Note

  • In general, the archive holds images for the previous 21 days. If, on a Thursday for example, you select Tuesday for the Day and 3rd Week Ago for the Week, there may be no image available.
  • As noted above, time is designated using a 24 hour clock in ZULU or UTC time. While infrared and water vapor images are independent of sunlight and are available for 24 hours a day, visible light images are available just during daylight hours. So, at 0900Z the entire United States may still be dark, and the West Coast may not have sunlight until after 1300Z.
  • Unlike the real-time GOES images, which are available at 15 minute intervals, the archived GOES images are available at 30 minute intervals.

Use the Back button to navigate back to the GOES Image Search template and download 5 additional images. For each new download, advance the time by one hour but do not change any other variables. Make a folder to hold the downloaded images. This six-hour sequence of images is what you will use to build an animation, so make sure you have a set of images you are pleased with.

Although the GOES Archive holds images for only the previous 21 days, once you download them you can use them at any time. For example, if a dramatic storm develops during the summer, as long as you download a selection of images within 21 days, you'll be able to use them whenever it is convenient.

Step 4-
Open GOES Images in ImageJ

Open ImageJ and use File->Open to browse for and then open each of your downloaded GOES images. Open the GOES images in order, from earliest to latest.


NOTE Do not open the GOES images by clicking on their icons. In order to build a animation within ImageJ, you must use ImageJ's File-> Open menu item to open the images.


This image shows the File Open menu item of Image J.

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Each time you open a new GOES image in ImageJ, it will appear on top of and slightly lower than the previous image. Be sure to open the GOES images in order, from earliest to latest.


This image shows set of GOES images open in image j.

Step 5-
Animate the GOES Images in ImageJ

Under the Image menu item of ImageJ, go to Stacks and in the sub-menu that opens highlight Convert Images to Stack. The images will appear in a single window (a "stack") with an animation control bar along the bottom. Each image in the stack is referred to as a "slice". Save the stack, and then slide the animation control bar to animate the GOES images.

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Under the Image menu item of ImageJ, go to Stacks and in the sub-menu that opens highlight Convert Images to Stack.


This image shows the Image j menu item that converts images to a stack

The images will appear in a single window (a "stack") with an animation control bar along the bottom. Each image in the stack is referred to as a "slice". Save the stack, and then slide the animation control bar to animate the GOES images.


This image shows the GOES images in the Image J animation player.

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