MMM-Globe: Meteosat imagery broken — fork with fix available

rkorell

Dear community,

just a heads-up for those of you using MMM-Globe with the europeDiscNat or europeDiscSnow
style — you’ve probably noticed that the satellite image has been stuck since around
February 22. Turns out EUMETSAT has pulled the plug on their old static image server at
eumetview.eumetsat.int. They moved to a shiny new platform at view.eumetsat.int, but
unfortunately it’s a JavaScript app now — no more simple image URLs we can point a module
at.

I’ve also opened an issue on the original repo for reference:
https://github.com/LukeSkywalker92/MMM-Globe/issues/22

I realize this probably flew under the radar for most of you — if your globe is pointed at
the Americas or Asia, everything’s fine. But for the small but proud club of European globe
watchers, it’s been a rough week staring at the same cloud pattern wondering if the weather
had simply stopped.

Since the original MMM-Globe hasn’t seen any updates in a while, I went ahead and created a
fork that adds a new “meteosat” style. It pulls Meteosat full-disk imagery from the CIRA
SLIDER service (run by NOAA/RAMMB at Colorado State University). The GeoColor product looks
really nice on the mirror — natural color during the day, and city lights on a Blue Marble
background at night. I think you’ll like it!

Big thanks to Luke Scheffler (@lukecodewalker) for creating MMM-Globe in
the first place — his idea of turning satellite images into a globe with a simple CSS circle
clip is just brilliant. This fork builds on his work.

If you want to give it a try:
cd ~/MagicMirror/modules
rm -rf MMM-Globe
git clone https://github.com/rkorell/MMM-Globe.git

Then change your config to:
{
module: “MMM-Globe”,
position: “lower_third”,
config: {
style: “meteosat”,
imageSize: 600,
updateInterval: 15 * 60 * 1000
}
},

The fork also fixes an annoying startup issue where the globe would stay blank after a
reboot if the network wasn’t ready yet — something that probably bugged a few of us running
this on a Raspberry Pi.

All the details, available styles and config options are in the README:
https://github.com/rkorell/MMM-Globe

Happy mirroring! 🪞

plainbroke

@rkorell
If I install your fork and use the style: “meteosat”,
Will that work in the USA ? I like the prettier styling…

rkorell

@plainbroke :-) It will work in US but you will see the wrong half of the globe …

To be serious: No, you requirement is for sure to see USA side of the globe - so it will not work for you - wrong satellite.

Warmest regards,
Ralf

eddiebrok

Thanks for the update and the clear explanation, that broken image issue has been frustrating for a lot of users. The fork with the new meteosat style and the fix for the blank startup problem sounds like a solid replacement, especially with the improved imagery source. Appreciate you sharing the install steps and config example, it makes testing the fix much easier for everyone.

Gabian 0

@rkorell Thanks a lot, I’ll try that this week ! Greetings

rkorell

Today added a minor fix: Globe disappeared when browser-refresh is performed…

rkorell

@plainbroke said:

Will that work in the USA ? I like the prettier styling…

Dear @plainbroke ,
well, I owe you an apology — and a thank you!

When you asked, I answered “wrong satellite” and moved on. Technically correct, but I completely missed the obvious next question: “So… can we get the
RIGHT satellite?”

Turns out, we can. The CIRA SLIDER service that provides the beautiful Meteosat GeoColor imagery (with the night city lights) serves four geostationary
satellites — and one of them is GOES-19, parked right over the Americas at 75.2°W. Same API, same image quality, same stunning day/night visualization.
I just never looked.

Your question made me look. So as of v3.1.0, MMM-Globe now supports:

┌─────────────────┬────────────────────┬───────────────────────────┐
│      Style      │     Satellite      │           View            │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ geoColorEurope  │ Meteosat (0°)      │ Europe / Africa           │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ geoColorUSA     │ GOES-19 (75.2°W)   │ Americas ← this is yours! │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ geoColorPacific │ GOES-18 (137.0°W)  │ Pacific                   │
├─────────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────────────────────┤
│ geoColorAsia    │ Himawari (140.7°E) │ Asia / Australia          │
└─────────────────┴────────────────────┴───────────────────────────┘

Just set style: “geoColorUSA” and you’re good to go. Same auto-polling every 60 seconds, same beautiful globe, just the right half of the planet this
time. 😊

So thank you for what I should have recognized as a feature request instead of a geography lesson. Sometimes the best contributions come disguised as
simple questions.

Warmest regards,
Ralf