Some of the earliest weather satellites were launched in the 50's. Since that time, technology has come a long ways from simple images of clouds, with new payloads that can see through the clouds and give information like ocean wave heights, ground temperatures, wind speed and direction, and other interesting information.

The even better part of this is that all this information is being sent in the clear, continuously, meaning if you can receive it and decode it, you can view and use the data. Be your own weather forecaster! Hardware needed to accomplish this is as simple as a dipole antenna on a tripod and a $30 SDR dongle.

On the software side, there are many different programs you can use to collect the signal. Some, like SatDump, even do everything all in one place: tune, decode, and assemble the output all in a single click. It's even possible to setup a schedule and fully automate collecting imagery.

Moving beyond the simple APT data, you can get even higher resolution data if you build a simple dish antenna. While it is entirely possible to just hand-hold the antenna with a cell phone strapped to the back to show you where to point, it's just as easy to buy a cheap used dish rotator and have the same software automatically track it for you.

Once you get into decoding weather data, it's just a simple hop, skip and a jump to learning how to send signals to amateur radio satellites or even the ISS. And all you need is a Technician license!