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Difficulty assigning projection to GOES Band 13 NetCDF data in FME Flow 2024

  • March 16, 2026
  • 2 replies
  • 53 views

navalbrasil
Participant
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Hello everyone,
I am having difficulty correctly assigning a spatial reference to GOES satellite imagery (Band 13) stored in NetCDF (.nc) format when working with FME Flow 4.0 / FME Workbench.
Environment
•Product: FME Flow 4.0
•Workbench: Yes
•Data type: GOES satellite imagery (ABI sensor)
•Band: Band 13 (Infrared – Brightness Temperature) Full Disk
•Format: NetCDF (.nc)
•Satellite: GOES (GOES‑16/18/19 – ABI)
Problem description
The NetCDF file opens correctly in FME, and the raster data for Band 13 is read without errors. However, no coordinate system is automatically assigned, and I am unable to manually define the correct projection in a way that allows proper georeferencing.
I understand that GOES ABI imagery does not use a traditional map projection (such as EPSG:4326, Mercator, or UTM). Instead, the data is provided in the so‑called ABI Fixed Grid / Geostationary projection, where pixel positions are defined by scan angles (x, y) and navigation parameters.
The NetCDF file contains metadata variables such as:
•semi‑major axis (req)
•semi‑minor axis (rpol)
•satellite height (H)
•longitude of projection origin (λ0)
•x and y scan angle arrays
Despite this, I cannot find a clear way in FME to:
•Associate this data with a built‑in coordinate system, or
•Define a custom coordinate system that correctly represents the GOES ABI fixed grid geometry
What I have tried
•Reading the NetCDF using the standard NetCDF Raster Reader
•Inspecting all global attributes and variables related to navigation
•Manually assigning common geographic coordinate systems (EPSG:4326), knowing this is not ideal
•Searching the documentation and community for examples of GOES / ABI data handling in FME
So far, none of these approaches result in a correctly georeferenced raster.
My questions
1.Does FME natively support the GOES ABI Fixed Grid / Geostationary projection?
2.Is there a recommended workflow in FME to:
 •Convert GOES ABI scan‑angle grids into latitude/longitude?
 •Or define a custom coordinate system based on satellite perspective parameters?
3.Has anyone successfully worked with GOES NetCDF imagery (ABI bands) in FME and could share an example or transformer chain?
Goal
My goal is to correctly georeference GOES Band 13 imagery so it can be:
•Reprojected to geographic coordinates (lat/lon), and
•Integrated with other spatial datasets inside FME Flow pipelines
Any guidance, documentation, or example workspaces would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

2 replies

danilo_fme
Celebrity
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  • Celebrity
  • March 16, 2026

Bom dia ​@navalbrasil , tudo bem?

Poderia compartilhar seu telefone para te ligar e entender a solicitação?

 

Atenciosamente,


kailinatsafe
Safer
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Hello ​@navalbrasil, thanks for your post! Just to clarify, FME Form is where you build and author your data integration workflows, while FME Flow is used to publish and automate those workflows.

It’s great to hear that FME is able to read your data without any issues! Unfortunately, GOES ABI does not appear to be natively available in FME’s coordinate system gallery. However, it is supported through the PROJReprojector and EsriReprojector (eg. GOES-16_East_ABI_Fixed_Grid_ITRF2008 [ESRI:102498]).

Another option would be to define a custom coordinate system yourself using this method.

If I’ve misunderstood your question or you were aiming for something different, feel free to let me know. Happy to help, Kailin