An EMWIN and LRIT software receiver using GNU radio

The current generation of emergency managers weather information network (EMWIN) and low-rate information transmission (LRIT) receivers are predominantly software based and require low retail cost. In the geostationary operational environmental satellite R-series (GOES-R) paradigm, the rates for EMWIN and LRIT will be increased significantly. This paper demonstrates the feasibility of a low-cost software-based terminal, that can be used to receive GOES-R generation LRIT and EMWIN transmissions, as well as legacy EMWIN and LRIT signals. This work also describes the software architecture used to build the proposed software radio, which was designed using an advanced application programming interface (API) called GNU Radio and is designed to utilize multiple core processors on a desktop workstation. We discuss the hardware requirements needed to demodulate LRIT and EMWIN signals, and summarize key system capabilities and performance.