Group for Earth Observation

The Independent Amateur Quarterly Publication for

Number 31

Earth Observation and Weather Satellite Enthusiasts

September 2011v
Inside this issue . . .
EUMETCast-Europe
Migration to DVB-S2
Participating in EUMeTrain
International Training
Project Esko Petäjä
Official EUMETSAT visitgroup photo
EUMETSAT Current andFuture Satellite Operations
John Tellick
Osaka Bay with the World
Longest Suspension Bridge
GEO returns to Newbury
TCARC Field Day June
2011
Martian Craters Les
Hamilton
Lake Eyre,Image Question?
Tsunami Calving of
Antarctic Icebergs
Hurricane Irene J
Progress 44 Fails
GEO EUMETSAT Visit PhotoMontage
NPP-NOAA New Generationof Satellites John Tellick
Farewell to the Shuttle
John Tellick
Quarterly Question
Computer Corner
Douglas Deans
Plus much more ...

Envisat image received by Donald Martin Cleveland UK on the
22/07/2011. RGB MER FRS 300m resolution of South East
Greenland ice melting.

The GEO Quarterly

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
Public Relations
Francis Bell,
Coturnix House, Rake Lane,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB
England.
Tel:
01483 416 897
email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
General Information
John Tellick
email: info@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly EditorPeter Green‘Hollowtree’
Eggesford, Devon EX18 7QX, England.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Assistant GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton
email: les.hamilton@tiscali.co.uk
Membership and Subscriptions
David Anderson,
35 Sycamore Road,
East Leake, Loughborough LE12 6PP
England, UK.
email: members@geo-web.org.uk
Tel:01509 820 067
Fax:
01509 559 015
Technical Consultant (hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Ray Godden
e-mail: ray-geo@lescharriols.eu
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David Painteremail: education@geo-web.org.uk
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email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton
email: international@geo-web.org.uk
Nigel Evansemail: nigel@geo-web.org.uk

September 2011
Editorial: Peter Green

A

lthough much has happened in the world of weather and remote imaging since
our the last GEO Quarterly, hurricanes, tropical storms as well as our own
symposium and the second GEO visit to EUMETSAT I have found it very difficult
to fill the pages for this our 31st Quarterly. Simply because I have not had the copy
from our membership. So reluctantly I have had to make this issue much thinnerthan usual.
ur magazine depends on you, the membership to send in your contributions ofarticles and images that you find interesting and that may be of interest toothers. I am sure you will notice that this time there are very few contributors.
o if you want your magazine to be full of interesting and diverse articles, then I
urge you to get writing now for the next issue the deadline is Saturday October
29th.
n the GEO Report Francis offers a disc of presentations from our EUMETSAT
visit, this is in Powerpoint format,If you do not have Microsoft's Powerpoint
software on your computer, don't despair. Microsoft have made a Powerpoint
Viewer program available, completely free of charge. You can download it at http://
www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=13

O
S
I

Front Cover and full page images
Front CoverThis Terra MODIS image shows Hurricane Irene poised over the Bahamas on August25, 2011.
Page 22Montage of pictures taken during GEO's visit to EUMETSAT, from left to right theyshow EUMETSAT HQ,satellite dishes and offices, GEO members assembled for thestart of the days presentations,Dieter Klass making his presentation to the group,agroup photo under a EUMETSAT dish, full scale engineering model of an MSG satellite.

Contents
Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company inEngland and Wales, limited by guarantee
and not having share capital. The
Company number is 4975597.
The registered office is Coturnix House,
Rake Lane, Milford, Godalming, Surrey
GU8-5AB England.
Printing
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Devon EX17 1ES
Responsibility
Every effort is made to ensure that thetechnical and constructional articles
published in this Quarterly are correct.
However, the ultimate responsibility is withthe reader to ensure the safety of
constructions and for any interfacing withother equipment. GEO cannot accept
liability for shortcomings in any publisheddesign or any constructions carried out bymembers or other third parties.
Copyright GEO © 2010
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
Observation Ltd. and its contributors.
Copying of text or images, either from theprinted Quarterly or from any electronicallystored source, is forbidden without
permission from the Editor.

GEO Report

Francis Bell

2

EUMETCast-Europe Migration to DVB-S2

John Tellick

3

Participating in EUMeTrain International Training Project Esko Petäjä

5

Official EUMETSAT visit group photo

Francis Bell

9

EUMETSAT Current and Future Satellite Operations

John Tellick

10

Osaka Bay with the World Longest Suspension Bridge

Francis Bell12

GEO returns to Newbury

Francis Bell13

TCARC Field Day June 2011

Francis Bell13

Martian Craters

Les Hamilton

14

Lake Eyre,Image Question?

Ken Morgan

16

Tsunami Calving of Antarctic Icebergs

NASA Earth Observatory Report 17

GEO Shopi

Helplines and Internet Discussion Groupsii

Copy Deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterlyii

GEO Membership Renewal Formiii

Hurricane Irene

John Tellick

19

Progress 44 Fails

John Tellick

21

GEO EUMETSAT Visit Photo Montage

Francis Bell22

NPP-NOAA New Generation of Satellites

John Tellick

23

Farewell to the Shuttle

John Tellick

24

Quarterly Question

Francis Bell30

Computer Corner

Douglas Deans

31

Feedback

32

GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Francis BellMy report for this Quarterly mustcelebrate our recent visit to Darmstadt.

formalities of our arrival.
The day was split into three parts:

Established members will know thisevent was advertised in two of our past
Quarterlies also our website. The
rationale behind the visit was toreinforce the personal contacts weenjoy with EUMETSAT and, importantly,
to be briefed about EUMETSAT'splanned future satellite programmes,
together with information about datatransmissions and how they may affectindividual reception. Also, not to bedismissed, was the opportunity for
GEO members from different countries
to meet together, and for some, to meetthe helpful EUMETSAT staff for the firsttime.
It was early 2011 that the date for our
visit was confirmed, and Harriet Locke
was appointed by EUMETSAT to oversee
our visit. Harriet was brilliant in every
respect, looking after theadministration and planning of ourvisit. Via email correspondence with her
I had asked for presentations relating
to EUMETSAT's future programmes andtheir co-operation with NOAA, again
from the perspective of how this would
influence the reception of satellite data
at home. I think all our delegatesjudged the final programme to be
perfectly arranged for us.
If you want to view the visual material
relating to these presentations read thenotes at the end of this report; pleasecontact me for a CD containing the fullpresentations from our visit.
There was no charge for the visit but
delegates had to make their own travel
and accommodation arrangements. The
reality was that we all stayed in two
adjacent hotels close to the centre ofDarmstadt. This was delightful,generating the opportunity to spend
time together outside the formal
programme of visits. In total there were
28 GEO delegates, who came from theNetherlands, Germany, UK, Finland,
Ireland, Austria, and France.
On arrival at the EUMETSAT HQ for the
first day our welcome was genuinely
friendly and, as best I could judge,
EUMETSAT staff were pleased that wewere visiting their HQ. It was Sally
Wannop, head of User Services andHarriet Locke who looked after the2

1. The formal presentations in theCouncil Chamber—there were seven ofthese presentations
2. Tours of the technical facilities, thesatellite control rooms and the Data
Storage Centre
3. A brilliant lunch which gave us abreak from the tours and formalities. At
the end of the day a group photograph
was taken, followed by a small
technical meeting between some of our
GEO delegates and EUMETSAT
technical staff.
I was delighted that, during the day, I
met Dr Lars Prahm, Director General of
EUMETSAT. He has been very
supportive of GEO over the years. He
retired a few days after our GEO visit. I
think he has been appointed head of
the Danish Meteorological Services.
There is an article in issue 34 of Image
which gives the background to Dr
Prahm's career and his time at
EUMETSAT. If you don't have a copy ofIssue 34 of Image then I have no
sympathy whatsoever with you. The
details of how to be included in thispublication's mailing list have beenreported often enough in GEO
Quarterly.
An evening of wining and dining with
GEO delegates and some EUMETSAT
staff brought to an end our first fullday.
Day two started with a visit to
EUMETSAT's primary ground station atUsingen. Accompanied by threemembers of EUMETSAT staff, a one
hour coach ride brought us to theground station. The site is located on
top of a gentle hill amid wooded
countryside, on what used to be a WW2
airfield. Its geographic position andgeology, I guess, makes the area ideal
for locating the very large satellite
dishes which stand there today. I don't
quite understand the ownership of thesite but it seems to be primarily run byMedia Broadcast GmbH. As with ourarrival at EUMETSAT HQ, the reception
we received by Media Broadcast could
not have been more friendly andwelcoming. A presentation was given towww.geo-web.org.uk

us by Juergen Schaefer, Lothar
Stockmann and Andreas Nowak about
the role of Media Broadcast and its
activities. Apparently Media Broadcast
has about 60 customers and looks after
thousands of TV and data satellite
channels which pass through theUsingen site.
I was sincerely impressed with the VIPtreatment we were given, both for thetime and trouble that have been given
to the presentations and then the twohour tour of the dishes and control
rooms. The were dishes of every size on
the site. I couldn't count them all but
judged there to be over a hundred. Our
tour included not only crawling aroundsome of the biggest dishes on site but
specifically visiting the EUMETSAT
primary dishes with their control
rooms. I came away from Usingen in
awe of the amount of data passing
through this site and the fine control
which is necessary for perfect satellite
communications.
I thanked the Media Broadcast staff
who had guided us around the site andexpressed some regret that we had toleave on time because of our afternoon
programme which included a prebooked tour of ESOC. I think we all
agreed that another hour at Usingen
would have been time well spent.
We presented ourselves at theEuropean Space Operations Centre(ESOC) back in Darmstadt with justseven minutes to spare to enjoy a tourof their facilities which I had booked,
together with a guide, several months
beforehand. The style of this visit was alittle different from the personaltreatment we had enjoyed at
EUMETSAT and Media Broadcast
because we were put through astandard tour of facilities like manyother groups. However, our guides wereexcellent and broadened our perception
from weather satellites to deep space
missions. A bonus for us was that at
ESOC there is a GEO member, MarkDrapes. Mark works with the gamma
ray and x-ray telescopes so, when wecame to his area of the ESOC facilities,
he was on hand to explain these andother missions with which he isinvolved.
Although we could look through thewindows of several control rooms

September 2011

within the ESOC buildings, we were not,understandably, allowed inside them.
Mark stayed with us for most of ourremaining time, explaining facilities as
we progressed the remainder of the
tour.
From my perspective, our two days werebrilliantly successful from every
dimension. GEO learned much about
EUMETSAT's future programmes and I
hope EUMETSAT learned a little more
about our enthusiastic and talented
GEO group, plus our equally talented
friends from the Netherlands, Werkgroep
Kunstmanen, who were well represented
within our delegate group—plus ofcourse other members of our party.
Finally some brief comment fromdelegates:
Hello Francis
It was a great trip.
Martin Schager, Austria.
Many thanks for all your efforts toorganize this meeting. It was definitely
worth attending.
Andreas Lubnow, Germany
The visiting of EUMETSAT was very

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

interesting for me and I hope I can
repeat it in the coming years.
Thomas Protzel, Germany.

Show at Kempton. GEO will be there with
our usual stand.

Thanks a lot for organising theDarmstadt visit, it was brilliant.
Regards from Germany.

As stated above, and elsewhere in thisquarterly, I refer to this disc containing
the Powerpoint files relating to the sevenpresentations given to us at Darmstadt.
I have a stock of these discs and, if you
wish to receive a copy, together with abonus publication which I will add, thentake the following action.

Future Events
September 30, 2011
The National HamFest in Newark. This is avery large exhibition of radio related
equipment. For the third year, GEO will beattending with a stand and demonstrating
live EUMETCast reception. For more details
visit
www.nationalhamfest.org.uk

October 1, 2011
TORRO is holding a one-day meeting at
Oxford Brooks University. The contact
person is Jonathan Webb, whose email
address is
Jonathan.Webb@torro.org.uk

There will be a small overlap between
TORRO and GEO memberships which I
hope can be extended.
November 6, 2011
The West London Radio and Electronic

The EUMETSAT Presentations DiscIf you live in the UK, write to me andenclose four first or six second classstamps. This is to cover some of the
distribution costs. It is not for the discwhich is free. If you live outside theUK, simply send me an email with you
full postal address.
francis@francisbell.com

My postal address isFrancis Bell
Coturnix House
Rake Lane
Milford,Godalming
GU8 5ABUK.

EUMETCast-Europe Migration to DVB-S2
John Tellick“Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring – don’t
panic!”and the change will be during theperiod 2013 and 2017.

EUMETCast-Europe already uses over
50% of the available Eurobird-9transponder capacity for this service.

Benefits of DVB-S2
 Most effective and most flexible
usage of a transponder’sresources, close to the known
physical limits.

The maximum data rate via DVB-S is29 Mbps.
In the next few years several newservices will be coming on stream via
EUMETCast with the launch of NOAA’s
NPP, EUMETSAT’s Metop B and MSG3.
Not to mention a few years later MSG-4
and then Meteosat Third Generation –which will comprise of a twogeostationary satellite system, one
satellite an imager and the other asounder.



The provision of high throughput.

The ability to change coding/modulation depending on reception
conditions.

a common service catering broadly
speaking for the Now-Castingneeds and also addressing themass amount of users, with focus
on very cheap commercial-of-theshelf equipment and small
antenna sizes;

Common service: 8PSK 3/5, 44
Mbit/s net rate, 80 cm dish(footprint core)a high volume service catering for
the NWP needs and broadly
speaking for specialised users
with focus on maximum volume
dissemination;

The ability that several coding/modulation schemes can coexist.



The ability to shape thetransponder depending on thecharacteristics of a service.



Due to flexibility in throughput themost cost effective usage oftransponder resources.

High Volume service: 8PSK 9/10,
66 Mbit/s net rate, 1.8 m dish(footprint core)

Secure the readiness of
EUMETCast for upcoming
missions.

Both services can coexist on one
transponder in any ratio. A
scenario with a 50%-50% ratio
was successfully tested for its
technical feasibility during a live
test with a full transponder in Feb.
2011. The link margin was higher
than expected.

The migration to DVB-S2 schedule will
be driven by bandwidth requirementsSo, there is going to be a massive
increase in data and DVB-S just won’t
be able to cope.
A move to DVB-S2 is the only answer
since using an additional DVB-S
transponder is inefficient, and there isa lack of transponders anyway, andwould be costly.

Considering that two virtual services
will be necessary on EUMETCast in the
future, the following services areenvisaged:

With the flexibility of the above
EUMETSAT are planning a two tier
EUMETCast service.
The future DVB-S2 based service.
www.geo-web.org.uk

3

GEO Quarterly No 31

DVB-S2 Migration User Impact
Parallel operations


DVB-S and DVB-S2 cannot coexist
on the same transponder - the newservice will start on a newtransponder with parallel operationof both services for some months.

Dish sizes.
Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

History

for large file sizes than current clientCurrent clients version are 2.4.4.a(Windows) and 2.4.3a (Linux)Version 2.5.17 was released as trial
version for Windows only, feedback
has been fed into 2.6.x development

Features of 2.6.x installer

The current dish sizes can be
maintained for the common service.

Current EKU’s (eToken Pro 32k) are
obsolete. Will be replaced by eToken
72K which require the use of a new(standard encryption) API.

Front-end

New Features of 2.6.x

Support for new eToken 72K and for
current eToken 32K



Default installation into a dedicateddirectory to avoid permission
problems (Windows installer only)

Default recv-channels.ini file uses a
dedicated default target directory
structure

The future
Any digital universal LNB which iscompatible with DVB-S2, but it isrecommended to replace oldequipment (LNB, cables) – this will
improve the link margin.

EUMETSAT skin includes link to a
local web structure on the reception
station, accessible via the Tellicast
shell



New icon

New name (tc-client)

Syntax of recv-channels.ini filechanged

Memory setting can be used for file
database and recv.log (no need for
ramdisk)“re-read configuration” can be used
to activate changes in recv.ini

DVB card or box


DVB cards/boxes must be replaced.
EUMETSAT intends to use the“VCM” mode, the DVB reception
cards/boxes must therefore support
this mode. EUMETSAT is analysing
DVB equipment on the market andwill make recommendations in thenear future.

Currently [July 2011] there are no viably
priced DVB-S2 cards or boxes available
which support the VCM standard.

The New Tellicast Client.
New Features of 2.6.x

EUMETSAT are therefore stating:Do not prepare for or worry about
DVB-S2 – it is too early! Tellicast
Client Evolution.

4File database can be reduced tohold only control information,

Better performance and scalability

www.geo-web.org.uk

The Tellicast server/clientarchitecture has been tested
successfully up to 180 Mbps

I would like to thank Klaus Peter Renner
most sincerely for allowing me to forward
this comprehensive information, which
was presented at the GEO visit to
EUMETSAT in July, to our members at
this time.
And also to thank Klaus Peter for thetechnical meeting he arranged during
this visit between his EUMETCast
engineering team and some of themembers of GEO who are currently, andhave been for several years, involved inregular liaison with this team byforwarding technical feedback fromtesting the EUMETCast system on
various platforms and detailing theresults/problems encountered from its
various updates and tweaks which has
led to several ‘fixes’.

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Esko Petäjä
My family and I have a highly technical background. I am anengineer and work amongst engineers, my wife teaches computerscience and my youngest boy has a passion for technical Lego kits:
the house is full of them. But I think that it is important to have analternative perspective, and in my case it is an interest in
meteorology.
In an earlier article, I described my weather satellite receiving
station and how my dream of receiving weather satellite pictures
came true. After getting my system running and enjoying the first'wow' effects, I became hungry to understand more from thepictures and the analysis of weather satellite data.
In GEOQ 28 there appeared an article describing EUMeTrain, a
training course organised by EUMETSAT, and I was very
interested. I made enquiries to find whether it was possible forprivate persons to participate in that course. I learned that national
institutions have the first choice to send members to the course but,
if places remain free, private individuals could also participate. I
registered myself for the course and, after waiting a couple ofweeks, was accepted at the end of March.
EUMeTrain [1] is an international EUMETSAT project providing
training and support in the field of satellite meteorology, in
combination with other meteorological data sources. The training
has particular emphasis towards hazardous weather events.
EUMeTrain provides users of EUMETSAT satellite data andproducts with training resources to assist them in making more
effective use of this information, either as stand-alone material or in
combination with other meteorological data sources.
The course itself was entitled the ‘EUMeTrain Basic Satellite
Meteorology Course’ and ran from April 1 to May 30. The
registration fee was 500 euros.
The Course
The course consisted of a series of twelve online lectures given
over the Internet using Saba Centra software, with course materials
and exercises provided from the EUMeTrain 'Moodle' archive. Therewas, additionally, a three-day classroom (workshop) phase based at
the Headquarters of EUMETSAT in Darmstadt.
Summary of Course Content
Lecture 1: ‘Satellites - a technical invention with high impact’,described the history of satellites and the purpose of EUMETSAT’s
current and future satellites. This Lecture gave me good general
understanding of satellite meteorology.
Lecture 2: ‘Satellite orbits’, described the basics and theory ofsatellite orbits and the different planes they occupy. There was also
a section which described station-keeping manoeuvres andactivities, needed because of disturbances to satellite orbits caused(among other things) by the fact that Earth is not a perfect sphere.
Lecture 3: ‘Principle of radiative transfer’, described the basics ofradiative transfer and how satellites make use of both visible andFigure 1 - A lesson playback Saba Centra

infrared channels. I also learned how channel combinations were
the basis of colour imagery.
Lecture 4: ‘Data acquisition, data processing and applications‘,
dealt with how to get the satellite data, how this was postprocessed to extract the required data, and the uses to which thatdata could be put. This lecture also explained the basics of HRIT
data, and calculations from radiance to temperatures and fromradiance to reflectance. Image enhancements like changing
contrast or brightness were also explained.
Lecture 5: ‘Spectral bands and their application’, explained in detailthe usage of different satellite channels and how the channels could
be used in different applications. This was most interesting andgave me a full picture and understanding of RGB.
Lecture 6: ‘Geostationary Satellites’, explained the basics andusage of geostationary satellites such as Meteosat, GOES, FY,
INSAT and KALPANA. It also explained the difference between spinstabilised and 3-axis stabilised satellites. Also, different sectors andcapabilities from the point of resolution for Meteosat satellites wereexplained.
Lecture 7: ‘Polar Orbiting Satellites’, explained the basics andusage of polar orbiting satellites. The onboard AVHRR instrument
was explained and also the SAF products which use data from it.
The IASI and AVTOS sounding instrument were described too, andI found humidity applications based into these instruments quite
interesting.
Lectures 8 and 9: ‘Benefits of derived products’, explained theprinciple of derived products, those which are created by the further
processing of satellite images. Examples of this product type are
SAF land and surface analysis. Data is distributed through
EUMETCast or a data centre. Another section explained how data
are used for long-term climate monitoring. In meteorology there arebasic terms: 'weather' is what you see now, 'climate' is the status of
the atmosphere during a longer period.

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

Lecture 10: ‘Limitations in Satellite Image Interpretation’, explained
how the position of an observer can make a difference to theaccuracy of satellite pictures. In Finland, where I live, parallax
errors are quite big. There is also a difference between winter andsummer.
Summary of the On-line Course
The online courses had given me basic knowledge of satellite
imagery. I was very happy with this training and now canunderstand much better what I am doing and how software works.
The Workshops
I flew by Ryanair from Finland to Darmstadt, via Frankfurt. Even
though I was not personally piloting this plane, I checked weather
conditions en route (figure 2). In Finland we had rainy weather but
in Germany it was almost clear sky. The visualisation (figure 2) was
done by ViewMSGProc, software used during training.
On arrival, I booked into the Ibis hotel, just a 20 minute walk fromEUMETSAT headquarters. After registering, I joined up with theother dozen or so participants the following morning. They camefrom various countries—Nordic, east-Europe and Spain—and all
were weather forecasters. I was only private person on that course.
Workshop 1: Using Data Centre Application
The first lessons showed us how to use and download data fromthe EUMETSAT Data Centre. EUMETSAT has an enormous datastore which contains material from different weather satellites forthe past 25 years. I hadn't previously understood the purpose andbenefits of being able to use that service because I have been
concentrating on acquiring my data by EUMETCast.
Mainly, the data in the EUMETSAT archives is used by scientificorganisations for long-term climate monitoring purposes. But it isalso useful for private use if you need to track some specificweather conditions later on. I typically keep data in my own storage
only seven days. Here's an example showing how I was able to
track a local severe thunderstorm in my own area later on using
data from data centre and using the ViewMSGProc software which
we were trained to use during the workshop days.
The first requirement for using data from the Data Centre is thatyou are registered for it, something that is quite easy to do fromyour own portal area, where all the details of your EUMETCast Key
are stored. After logging into a Data Centre application, you areable to start selecting the data which you want to download. This
works similar to a web shop and is very easy to use.
At noon on June 1, there was heavy local thunderstorm near myhome town and I was testing how it would show up in Meteosat-9
images. The first thing was to select the correct data and time using
a data application and then put this into the shopping cart (figure 3).
After 'checking out' I was sent a link by email from which I was able
to download the data. I noticed that it takes around 10 minutes to
get that email and, after receiving the email, it takes another fiveminutes before the data becomes available.
In figure 4, the area encircled in red shows the location of thesevere storm. Animation of the image showed high sharp cloud tops
typical for high CB clouds. I also photographed some of thedamage caused by the storm (figure 5).
Tour of the Eumetsat Office
We took a break from the workshop for a short tour of the
EUMETSAT office and were shown round the Data Centre, theoutside areas which displays models of different satellites, and thesatellite control room.
Workshop 2: Using MSG Software
Here we concentrated on learning how to use the MSGProg
software developed by JAN Kanak of the Slovenia Hydro
Meteorology Unit (SHMU).
This software is widely used in eastern European countries topresent Meteosat images. The software was originally developed
for Unix and Linux platforms but today it has a front-end forWindows. The software consists of two different sections: decoding
software which encodes the files received by EUMETCast, and asecond application which displays the decoded images andanimations. The main features of the software are                    
The main screen displays file and path settings on its left hand sideand there is an encoding process indicator at top right and an HRIT
segment table indicator in the middle of the screen.

Figure 2 - Weather during flight from Tampere to Frankfurth Hahn

6

September 2011www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Figure 3 - Selecting the data for June 11, 2011

Figure 4 - A local storm over Finland captured by Meteosat on June 1, 2011

After installation you must first to set the area (Domain to be used).
This is done under 'Selection Domain' (figure 6). Different centre
point for channels 1-11 and HRC can be selected individually:
additionally, each area could have four sub areas. After this setting
is done the domains are calculated. If, later on, different areas areneeded, this procedure can be repeated.
A most important section of MSGProg is its RGB settings screen
where the following features can be set up:              !   "  #   $     " #        
After the 'RGB Settings' are complete then processing could bedone for all files (All prologues) or for only one prologue.

Figure 5 - A photograph showing devastation
caused by the June 1 storm

ViewMSGProc software, which is able to:    $ % & &* +  # $ ;      
One interesting feature is its ability to show colours bookmarks,
where the meaning of different colours are shown in text when the
cursor moves over different areas of an image.
Practical installation and operation of MSG software
I use MSG software in two different ways. First, for downloading
data from the EUMETSAT Data Centre and then as an analysis andvisualisation tool. Software has excellent predefined RBG featuresthat make it very useful for that purpose. And secondly, for using
data from EUMETCast. In this case MSG DataManager from
Satsignal Software can save raw data to a different location. This
offers a good way to use same data twice for multiple purposes.
Figure 7 shows a schematic of my set-up.

After processing is done then viewing of results is done using thewww.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

Figure 6 - The MSGProg Domain Selection

Workshop 3: Using McIDAS-V
McIDS-V is visualisation software which was developed in the USA for scientificpurposes. It has a completely different approach to other applications. It has numerous
features but, as I have not yet had time to study them fully, I am planning to describe it
in a future issue of GEO Quarterly once I have had time to become more familiar withit.
Conclusions
First I would like to thank EUMETSAT and all its personnel for their excellent training
and environment. Course content and the organisation of training were excellent. From
my personal perspective I also learned a lot.
The purpose of EUMeTrain is to develop training methods. I must say that their trainingis the best I've ever seen. Organisation of practical training is done well and very
accurately and the teachers are very skilled.
References
1 EUMeTrain
http://www.eumetrain.org/about.html
2 Eumetcal training
http://www.eumetcal.org/
3 Slovak Hydrometeorological institutehttp://www.shmu.sk/sk/?page=1
4 Free open software for 3D geophysical analysis and visualization
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/mcidas/software/v/

8

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September 2011

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Figure 7 - A schematic diagram showing how the author integrates the various elements of his MSG activities

Official photograph from the 2011 GEO visit to EUMETSAT HQ

www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

EUMETSAT Current and Future Satellite Operations
John Tellick
Our visit to EUMETSAT in July allowed
us to discuss and get the latest situation
regarding current and future EUMETSAT
satellite missions.
Not that we are not already well informed– GEO has a good working relationshipwith several EUMETSAT departmentswith whom we are in regular contact.
Sally Wannop gave GEO delegates adata which will relentlessly continue
over the coming years with future
missions.
This will require an evolution of the
EUMETCast system – see detailed
article in this issue of the GEO
Quarterly.
Current geostationary operations areshown below and you will note that
Meteosat-7’s IODC operations arescheduled till the end of 2013 but
approval is being sought for an
extension of this important operation
till 2016.
Not that it effects EUMETCast users

10comprehensive presentation of thecurrent situation and the increasingly
busy years ahead for EUMETSAT.
Also included in Sally’s presentation
was information regarding the EO Portal[see GEO-30] Product Navigator/
Registrations and Web Map Services.
The slide below shows the current
launch and operational period schedulebut many will know that Meteosat-7
currently has quite an inclination
which slowly increases with time. I
wondered if this would still be tolerable
in 2016 and asked EUMETSAT – their
response is below:
The current orbit inclination of
Metoesat-7 is approximately 7 degrees.
The satellite is expected to reach anorbit inclination of approximately 10.4
deg on 31/12/2016. A good experiencein using a Meteosat satellite in that
inclination range was acquired withMeteosat-5 (max inclination: 9.1 deg)and Meteosat-6 (max inclination: 9.9deg). Based on this experience it isexpected that Meteosat-7 will provide

www.geo-web.org.uk

for forthcoming missions.
You will see that 2012 will be a busy
year for EUMETSAT with the launch of
Metop-B planned for April 2012 andMeteosat-10 [MSG-3] planned launch
June – August 2012.
These, and the planned launch of
NOAA’s NPP polar orbiter in October
this year will result in an increase ofsatisfactory performance until end of
2016.
Plans are already well advanced for
MTG Meteosat Third Generation
scheduled to start operations from2019.
This will be a very new venture for
EUMETSAT in that the satellites will bea three axis stabilised platform insteadof the revolving cylinder of M1G and
MSG.
Not only that but there will be separate
geostationary satellites for imaging andatmospheric sounding from the same
location.

September 2011

EUMETSAT Polar System, EPS – SG(second generation) is being discussed
and could comprise a two satellite
system with distributed payloads to beready for 2018.

Group for Earth Observation

partners CNES, NASA and NOAA gave
EUMETSAT its first optional programmeon ocean altimetry which enabled it toextend its expertise in data and productdissemination for weather forecasting
and climate monitoring.

Jason-2 launched in June 2008 withGEO Quarterly No 31

Jason-3 under development andscheduled for launch in 2013 will
provide continuity after Jason-2.
Sentinel-3a/3b a third party mission
where EUMETSAT will operate thesatellites and generate the marine
products.
ESA will generate thelandapplication
products.
Sentinel-3a is scheduled
for launch in 2013.
Looking at how far
ahead the operations
schedules
andnewprojects go, I wonder inmy quickly advancing
years, how much of thisI will see.
Unless someone out
there has the illusive
elixir of life?
I would like to thank
Sally for allowing theuse of this information
and also for taking thetime, effort and suchcare of GEO delegateson our recent visit to
EUMETSAT – and indeed
to all those involved in
making us so welcome.
Our visit was, of course,
a great success.

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September 2011

This is an image of Osaka Bay and its surroundings taken by Japan's Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS) in April 2009. Osaka
Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean through the Tomogashima Strait in the south and to the Harima Sea through the Akashi Strait in thewest. The bluish-gray terrain in the northeastern part of the image comprises the cities of Osaka and Kobe. Awaji Island borders Osaka
Bay to the west.
Clearly visible to the left of the image is the 3911 metre long Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. The main span measures 1,991 metres, making it thelongest cable suspension bridge in the world. The main tower, at 300 meters tall, is the third tallest in Japan behind Tokyo Sky Tree(634 m) and Tokyo Tower (333 m).
The Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge was originally designed to be 3,910 meters long with a distance of 1,990 meters between the towers. However,on January 17, 1995, a big earthquake struck the area, causing a landslide. As a result, the total length of the bridge and the tower’s span
had to be increased by one metre. About 1.4 million cubic metres of concrete and 200,000 tons of steel were used to build this bridge.
Image courtesy the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)

12

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September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

GEO's Return to Newbury
Francis Bell
This was GEO's second attendance at the Newbury radio rally.
As can be seen from the photographs this is an open air event.
For these occasions, outside located in a grassy field you hopefor fine weather, however, for GEO this can be mixed blessing.
On the one hand sunshine and dry ground is great but it
makes viewing screens of laptops and monitors difficult. This
time we were prepared with a black waste collection box,
courtesy Waverly Council, in which to locate the laptop.

available but still kept running all day.

We ran live EUMETCast all day thanks to David Simmons'
laptop and my 60 cm dish. We only had battery power

GEO's thanks to Newbury and District Amateur Radio Society
for inviting us to their rally.

Francis Bell talking to Tony Roberts at Note the crowds in the
background

David Simmons ( GEO assistant shop manager ) left and member Tony
Roberts manning our GEO stand at Newbury.

The dish was located on the edge of a fragile table but was
stable enough to provide an excellent signal throughout
We had some distinguished visitors to our stand during the
day plus some membership renewals and others interested
enough in our activities to join on the spot.

TCARC Field Day June 2011
My local Three Counties Amateur Radio club runs a field day
once a year and in order to keep them briefed on weather
prospects I take my weather stations and operate for theduration of the event. I do have a very lightweight APT system
which I can slip into a suitcase for travel abroad but for thisevent just a few miles distant from home and a car fortransport I decided to take a slightly more robust system. It
worked well with several horizon to horizon passes of NOAAs
19 and 15 being recorded.

My APT system being operated by Bob Loveland, a radio club member. Notethe horizon

Club members discussions about setting up the EUMETCast system in site.
Left to right: John Rivett, David Simmons and Tony Roberts

The site is favoured because of its elevation and clear views of
the horizons.

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GEO Quarterly No 31

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September 2011

Les Hamilton

Salt Water May Flow on Mars! Observations
from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter(MRO) have revealed possible flowing water
during the warmest months on the Red planet.
Dark, finger-like features extend down some
Martian slopes during late spring throughsummer, fade in winter and return during thefollowing spring. Repeated observations havetracked the recurrence of these seasonalchanges on several steep slopes in the middle
latitudes of Mars' southern hemisphere.
The view opposite is one of a series of images
taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science
Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard MRO. This
image, taken early in the Martian summer,
displays warm-season features that might beevidence of salty liquid water active on Mars
today.
The set of five images, shown in figure 3, comefrom observations of Newton crater (41.6°S,
202.3°E), and stretch from late Martian spring
until early autumn. The images have beenadjusted to correct those taken from obliqueangles to show how the scene would look fromdirectly overhead. Repeat imaging of this region
by HiRISE shows that the features appear andincrementally grow during each warm season
and fade in the cold seasons.

Figure 1

This summertime image of part of the wall of Newton crater exhibits seasonaldark features that may be evidence of salty water seeping down the slope.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of ArizonaFigure 2 is a map of Mars showing the relative
locations of three types of discoveries that may
be related to salt or frozen water, plus a new
type of discovery that may be related to both
salt and water. Colouring on the map is coded
to concentrations of shallow subsurface water
ice found by the Gamma Ray Spectrometer Neutron Spectrometer on NASA's Mars Odyssey
orbiter. Blue, at high latitudes north and south,
indicates higher concentrations of water ice(deduced from detection of hydrogen): orange
designates the lowest concentrations. Somehydrogen, possibly in the form of bound water,lies close to the surface even at mid latitudes.
The white squares in the northern hemispheremark the locations of small fresh impact cratersthat have exposed water ice close to the surface
and validated the neutron spectrometer data.
Observations of these fresh craters were madeby the Context Camera and the High Resolution
Imaging Science Experiment camera on MRO.
The red squares mark locations of putative
deposits of chlorite, based on observations by
the Thermal Emission Imaging System on Mars
Odyssey. Such salt deposits could haveresulted from the evaporation of salty water.

14

Figure 2

Sites on Mars being investigated in connection with water, ice and salt.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/UA/

Observations in areas marked by
the blue squares show relatively
dark features which appear andincrementally grow down the slopes
during warm seasons. Researchers
hypothesise that these may result
from the action of briny water.

www.geo-web.org.uk

The features that extend down theslope during warm seasons arecalled recurring slope lineae and arenarrow, relatively dark markings(ranging from 0.5 - 5.0 metres inwidth) that appear on steep (25° 40°) slopes at a number of locations

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Figure 4
Oblique view showing warm season flows down the wall of Mars' Newton crater
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizonain the southern hemisphere. They extend
downslope from bedrock outcrops, often
associated with small channels and insome rare locations, form in theirhundreds. They appear and lengthen in
the southern spring and summer from
48°S to 32°S, favouring equator-facing
slopes. These times and locations
experience peak surface temperatures
ranging between -23°C and +27°C. The
activity might be explained by thepresence of liquid brines close to thesurface, but the exact mechanism andsource of the water are not understood.
The five images at left show a region on
the inner wall of Newton crater which,from top to bottom, clearly displays thechanges observed from spring throughsummer. The top frame, acquired in latespring, shows little evidence of the slope
lineae but, by early summer (2nd framedown) they are distinctly evident. In thesubsequent three-frame sequence, whichlasts till midsummer, the features
strengthen then start fading away again.

Figure 3
Seasonal changes in Mars' Newton crater

Oblique View
Figure 4 is an image that combines theorbital imagery with 3-D modelling, andshows flows that appear during springand summer on the slope inside Newton
crater. The image has been reprojected toshow a view of the crater wall as it would

www.geo-web.org.uk

be seen from a helicopter inside thecrater. Colours have been enhanced anda synthetic Mars-like sky has been
added. The HiRISE camera made thesource observation on May 30, 2011,
when Newton crater was enjoying its
Martian summer.
Summary
Although some aspects of theobservations still puzzle researchers,
flows of liquid brine fit the characteristics
better than alternate hypotheses.
Saltiness lowers the freezing temperatureof water, and the sites with active flows
do receive enough warmth, even in theshallow subsurface, to sustain liquidwater that is as salty as Earth's oceans—
whereas pure water would freeze at theobserved temperatures. And these darkflows always appear on the warmer,
equator-facing crater slopes.
Other imagery related to these new
findings from the Mars Reconnaissance
Orbiter can be viewed at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/
multimedia/gallery/gallery-index.html

Text Source
Much of the text of this article derives
from 'Science@NASA' fromhttp://science.nasa.gov/science-news/
science-at-nasa/2011/04aug_marsflows/

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Lake Eyre, image question?
Ken Morgan
I still receive signals from the
Noaa weather satellites and create
images.
Attached is an image received
from Noaa-19 (left) during a passat 3.08 pm AEST on 6-8-2011.
Also attached is section of theimage magnified by 2 (below).
The image shows what I believe tobe the creation of large amountsof "surface-water"or lakes, in thevicinity of 20 degrees latitude &135 degrees of longitude,(vicinityof Lake Woods).
This is one place where water
congregates ready to start its long
journey down to Lake Eyre.
The strange thing is that so far, I
cannot see confirmation of thiswater in passes by Noaa-18.
From the image, Lake Eyre looks
quite full & healthy.
I'm still using Wxtoing, vers.
2.10.11.
I wonder whether you areinterested enough to confirm thisfrom your own sources andperhaps make a comment ?

16

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December 2010

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 28

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

Using satellite radar data, scientists recently
observed the calving of several large
icebergs from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf on
the Antarctic coast, caused by the
March 2011 tsunami that wreaked suchdevastation to northeastern Japan.
Scientists have long speculated that ocean
waves could cause an ice shelf to flex andbreak but this is the first time that
researchers have actually observed atsunami having this effect.
Figure 1 was acquired by the Advanced
Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) aboard
the European Space Agency’s Envisat
satellite on March 11, shortly before thetsunami reached the front of the Sulzberger
Ice Shelf. Figure 2, which dates fromMarch 16, clearly shows that large chunksof ice have separated from the ice sheet tocreate icebergs which now lie well out tosea. In each radar image—which allows
researchers to see through cloud cover—land ice, ice shelves and the new 'bergs arebright white, while greyer areas represent
smaller bits of sea ice. Open water is black.
Icebergs can form in a number of ways, butmuch of the time the process occurs
unobserved. Often, scientists see large
chunks of ice drifting in polar seas and thenhave to work backwards in time to figure out
their points of origin. In this case, a
research team led by Kelly Brunt of NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Centre anticipatedthe event and looked ahead.
When the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami
occurred off Japan last March, the ice
researchers immediately looked towards the
Antarctic as the massive waves spread out
from their epicentre in the northwest Pacific

Ocean. The scientists checked records forvulnerable faces of the Antarctic coast andstudied models of the likely wave
propagation. Within 18 hours of theearthquake, the tsunami waves had
travelled 13,600 kilometres to reach theshores of Antarctica.
Using multiple satellite images, theresearchers were able to observe two large
new icebergs and many smaller bits of ice
debris floating in the Ross Sea, just hours
after the sea swell reached the continent.
The swell from the tsunami was probably
about 30 cm high when it arrived at the
Sulzberger Ice Shelf, but the consistency of
the waves created enough stress to cause
the calving. This floating ice shelf was about
80 meters thick from its exposed surface toits submerged base.

Figure 1 - The Sulzberger Ice Shelf imaged by Envisat's ASAR instrument prior to the tsunami, on March 11, 2011.
Image: ESA

17

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September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Together, the broken chunks of ice totalled an area of some
125 square kilometres, about twice the size of Manhattan
Island.
Scientists first speculated as long ago as the 1970s that
repeated flexing of an ice shelf—a floating extension of a
glacier or ice sheet that sits on land—by waves might cause
icebergs to break off. Scientific papers in more recent years
have used models and tide gauge measurements in an
attempt to quantify the impact of sea swell on ice shelf
fronts.
As soon as this earthquake happened, the researchers
used a NOAA model showing the tsunami's projected pathacross the unobstructed Pacific and Southern oceans to
identify the Sulzberger Ice Shelf (which faces New Zealand)as their target.
A closer look with cloud-penetrating synthetic aperture radar
data from the European Space Agency satellite, Envisat,found images of two moderate-sized icebergs, with more,
smaller ones in their wake. The largest iceberg was about
60 km2 in surface area, itself about equal to the surface
area of one Manhattan. All the ice surface together about
equaled about twice this. After looking at historical satellite
imagery, the group determined that the small outcropping of
ice that calved had been there since at least 1965, when it
was captured by USGS aerial photography.
A fortuitous break in heavy cloud cover allowed the team tospot the new iceberg in MODIS data (figure 3).

Figure 3
Thick cloud cover briefly fell away to reveal this first image of the icebergs breaking
from the Sulzberger Ice Shelf. The icebergs can be seen behind a thin layer of clouds
just off the ice shelf at upper right of the image.
Source: MODIS Rapid Response/NASA

References

More than a century earlier, in September 1868, Chilean
naval officers had reported an unseasonal presence of large
icebergs in the southernmost Pacific Ocean. It was later
speculated that these might have calved following the great
Africa earthquake and tsunami the previous month. Now weknow now that this is a probable scenario.

1 Tohoku Tsunami Created Icebergs In Antarctica.
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/tsunami-bergs.html
2 Natural Hazards: Earthquake and Tsunami Near Sendai, Japan
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/event.php?id=49622
3 Antarctic Icebergs Chipped off by Tsunami
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=51665

Figure 2 - The same scene, imaged by Envisat's ASAR instrument five days after the tsunami, on March 16, 2011.
Image: ESA

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18

GEO Quarterly No 31

EUMETCast
On-Line Registration
Guide
If you require to register as a first-time user for
any of the free EUMETCast data streams such as
MSG, NOAA AVHRR, Metop etc., or need torenew an existing subscription, this must be done
on-line.
GEO has produced a step-by-step guide to theentire process at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/eumreg.html
This guide also contains a direct link to the official
EUMETCast on-line registration form, which canotherwise prove somewhat tricky to locate.

GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans
Dunblane, Perthshire, SCOTLAND
All aspects of weather satellites from APT, HRPT
to Meteosat-8 DVB/EUMETCast systems.
   }%~+   }  !" John Tellick
Surbiton, Surrey, ENGLAND
Meteosat-8 advice - registering for the various
MSG services, hardware and software installationand troubleshooting. John will also field generalqueries about any aspect of receiving weather
satellite transmissions.
   }%~~+ ~    }  #!" "
Geoff Morris GW3ATZ
Shotton, Flintshire, NE WALES
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,
co-ax,connectors, mounting hardware etc. and has
also done a lot of work with the orbiting satellites.
Geoff has been a EUMETCast Meteosat-8 user forsome time and is familiar with David Taylor’s MSG
software; he should be able to share his
experiences with newcomers to this branch of thehobby.
  <}%~+   }# ! #  " 
Mike Stevens
Portland, Dorset, England.
Advice offered on EUMETCast (MSG and Metop)and APT.
 } ; !" 
Guy Martin G8NFU
Biggin Hill NW Kent, ENGLAND
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who wishing toreceive MSG/Metop using Windows 2000 or XP.
Can also help with networking and ADSL router
setup..
    #!" "
Hector Cintron
San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
Hector is prepared to field enquiries on HRPT,
APT, EMWIN and NOAAPORT   }   }#"
Email contact can of course be made at any time,
but we would ask you to respect privacy by
restritricting telephone contact to the period 7.009.00 pm in the evenings.

iGroup for Earth Observation

Internet News/
Discussion Groups
There are a numerous Internet-based discussion
groups available to weather satellite enthusiasts.
You can join any of these by sending an e-mail tothe appropriate address, with a request to
subscribe. Indeed, a blank e-mail containing theword ‘subscribe’ in its Subject line is all that isrequired. Some of the more useful groups andtheir contact addresses are listed below.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users of Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder can share information and problems.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/APTDecoder/
GEO-Subscribers
This is GEO’s own group, where members can
exchange information and post queries relating to
any aspect related to weather satellite reception(hardware, software, antennas etc), Earthobservation satellites and any GEO-related matter.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/GEO-Subscribers/
Satsignal
An end-user self help group for users of David
Taylor's Satellite Software Tools (SatSignal,
WXtrack, GeoSatSignal, HRPT Reader,GroundMap, MSG Data Manager,
AVHRR Manager and the ATOVS Reader).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SatSignal/
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat Second Generation(MSG), where members share information about
the EUMETCast reception hardware and software.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/MSG-1/
METOP
A forum for users of high-resolution AHRPT datafrom the MetOp satellite, available via
EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/METOP/
AVHRR
A forum for users who download high-resolution
EARS-AVHRR data from the NOAA polar orbiting
weather satellites via EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AVHRR/ATOVSA Group for discussions about using ATVOS data.
Data from the whole world is available from
CLASS (www.class.noaa.gov) and for an extended
Europe, via EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ATOVS/
Weather Satellite Reports
This group provides weekly reports, updates andnews on operational aspects of weather satellites.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/weather-satellite-reports/
WXtoImg
Users of the WXtoImg software package for
capturing and imaging NOAA APT can air theirproblems, discuss its features and ask questions
about it.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wxtoimg-l/

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2011

The Copy Deadline for

GEO Quarterly No 32
is Saturday, 29th October,
2011
The Editor is always delighted to receive
articles and images for inclusion in
GEO Quarterly. These can relate to any
aspect of Earth Imaging, especially <    ; hardware and software     >  \       #   *      ^  
stations
 _;   ;      `    !   {   |  
answerContributions should of course be original and,
where possible, should be submitted to theeditor in electronic format (floppy disc, e-mailattachment, CD, DVD). But of course we will
also accept handwritten and typed copy
should the need arise.
Please note, however, that major articles
which contain large numbers of satellite
images, photographs or other illustrations
should be submitted as early as possible, sothat they can be prepared and made up into
pages in time for publication.
Images and Diagrams
Images can be accepted in any of the major
bitmap formats: JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF etc.
Images in both monochrome and colour are
welcomed. Line drawings and diagrams are
preferred in Windows metafile and postscript
formats. We can also scan original
photographs, negatives and slides.
Gridding, Overlays and Captions
Please note that readers’ satellite images
should be provided without added grid lines,
country outlines or captions unless these areconsidered essential for illustrative purposes
within an article.
If your article submission contains embedded
images and diagrams, please note that you
must also submit the individual, original
images, in one of the formats describedabove: these are essential for page make-up
purposes.
Submission of Copy
All materials for publication should be sent to
the editor,
Peter Green‘Hollowtree’
Eggesford, Devon EX18 7QX, England.
Tel:01769 580 700
The most efficient way to do this is as email
attachments to the following address
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

And finally . . .
if you do have material ready for the next
issue of GEO Quarterly, please submit it assoon as it is ready—do not wait till thedeadline above: this will simply create an
editorial log-jam and delay publication.

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

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GEO Quarterly No 31

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September 2011

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Hurricane Irene
John Tellick

26th August 2011
Hurricane Irene – the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic
season is getting quite a bit of coverage not just for its
intensity – which was ‘only’ category 3, but since it is forecast
to travel across quite a stretch of Americas eastern seaboard
passing Washington, New York and Boston.

Meanwhile, Typhoon Nanmadol, category 4 with its eye just off
the coast, continues to batter the Philippines. Adjacent to thistyphoon is a tropical storm TS Talas.
Note, the IR images for Irene and Nanmadol have had thecloud ‘counts’ reversed which I believe shows up the structures
much better.

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19

GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

The past and forecast track of hurricane Irene dated 26-08-11

Hurricane Irene passes over the Bahamas

Credit: Tropical Storm Risk website www.tropicalstormrisk.com

Credit NOAA/EUMETSAT

Typhoon Nanmadol batters the Philippines with TS Tallas adjacent
Copyright MTSAT/EUMETSAT

20

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Progress 44 fails to reach orbit
John Tellick
Following the recent retirement of the Shuttle and thesituation regarding travel and cargo to and from the ISS now
relying on the Russian Progress and European ATV craft, thisinformation from ESA:
25 August 2011
Bound for the International Space Station, Progress 44 waslaunched from Baikonur Cosmodrome at 15:00 CEST
yesterday but failed to reach its target orbit and crashed in
Siberia, Russia. Five minutes and 50 seconds after launch, an“off-nominal situation” was reported, with a loss of telemetry.
The spacecraft was carrying 2.9 tonnes of food, fuel andsupplies for the Space Station, including a few spare parts for
two instruments on board Europe’s Columbus laboratory.
Thomas Reiter, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight andOperations, is following the latest development very closely
and will assess the consequences to the ESA upcoming
missions.
Specialists are now investigating what could have caused theincident, the first with a Russian cargo vessel in the last 30
years. The causes and consequences of the failure on theStation will be examined in the coming days and assessedamong the Station partners.

Progress craft photo

An earlier Progress supply craft approaches the ISS for docking
Copyright ESA

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September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

NPP – NOAA’s ‘new generation’ of Satellites
John Tellick
Hopefully a few weeks after you read thisthe first of NOAA’s ‘new generation’ ofpolar orbiting satellites will have beensuccessfully launched.

complimentary with Metop in that
NPOESS would disseminate LRD –similar to AVHRR – in the 1.69 GHz
band and HRD at 7.812 GHz.

I say ‘new generation’ but it is not quite
as had been expected.

Owing to NPOESS dissemination
requiring new ground segment capability
a test satellite was required to be flown[due for launch 2005] before the ‘full
system’ satellite was launched in orderThose of you with long memories willrecall many years ago it was agreed
that Europe would
share the morning/
afternoon polar
orbiter service which
NOAA alone hadprovided.

However, things changed across the
Atlantic and the military and civil
meteorological data imaging services
were combined and America embarked
on development of a ‘new’ system called
NPOESS.
But, the data format would not be

Fortunately NPP construction had
advanced and could provide a viable
stop-gap satellite and is due for launch
Sept/Oct 2011.
And, following successfulcommissioning will
replace NOAA-19 as theoperational afternoon
satellite joining MetopA’s morning service.

A joint project wasundertaken for a newcomplimentary
generation of all
digital polar orbiters
via a sharing ofAmericanandEuropean sensors on
similarplatforms
providing LRPT in the
137 – 138 MHz band
and AHRPT in the
1.69GHz band.
This in Europe led to what we know as
Metop.

As we know the current generation of
NOAA polar orbiters had all beenlaunched and with no ‘real’ replacementin sight [JPSS was many years away]
there were fears that there could be a
gap in polar orbiter data.

Owing to the NPOESS
delaysandprojectchanges etc, JPSS-1 will
– for expediency - be aclone of NPP.

to setup and prove the ground segment.
This was called NPOESS Preparatory
Project - NPP.
Owing to many delays, and problems –both technical, political and funding andfinally a change of heart to split the
military from the civil, NPOESS hasreally died a death and been replaced bya new project called JPSS.

JPSS-2 will be NOAA’s
new (new) generation
polar orbiter but is still
under development sofull details of hardware
and data transmission
are not yet known.
Both NPP and JPSS-1 will fly a 22channel VIIRS radiometer with aresolution of 1.6 km – 400 m.
Downlink frequency will be 7.812 GHz.
There will be no dissemination in the
1.69 GHz band.
EUMETCast will carrydissemination
from
NPP’s VIIRS imager –exactly what channels
is not yet known.
NPP
NPOESS
Preparatory Project.
NPOESS National
Polar-orbitingO p e r a t i o n a l
Environmental Satellite
System.
JPSS – Joint
Satellite system.

Polar

VIIRS – Visible/Infrared
ImagerRadiometer
Suite.
HRD – High Rate Data.
LRD – Low Rate Data.

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GEO Quarterly No 31

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September 2011

Farewell to the Shuttle
John Tellick

5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21, 2011, space shuttle Atlantis landed for the final time at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ©NASA

At 5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21, 2011,
space shuttle Atlantis landed for the
final time at NASA's Kennedy Space
Center after 200 orbits around Earthand a journey of 5,284,862 miles on the
STS-135 mission and final flight for theSpace Shuttle Program.

Though both were marked by tragedies I
think they remain an icon of man’sachievement.
Sadly, I fear, for many younger people
these days with all their ‘pocket
technology’ space is perhaps rather
mundane.

And so ended another era.
I imagine like me, many of you who grewup during the Cold War, space race,
Moon landings, the MIR space station,
Concorde, satellite TV, etc, this was apoignant moment.
Suddenly ‘we’ were without a reusablecargo spacecraft - and the retirement ofConcorde ended the supersonic air
travel era.
I feel man, in these two respects has
rather ‘gone backwards’ without areplacement for either?

Not so for me (apart from not being able
to get to grips with modern technology) I
still get a buzz seeing the ISS coming
over or watching an Ariane V or Soyuz
launch.
Travel to and from the ISS (which is now
fully built) will now be via the ‘lessluxurious and comfortable’ Soyuz
system – back to Earth with a bump on
a parachute.
Supplies now solely via the Russian
Progress vehicle and European ATV.
I somehow think that the sheer scale of24

www.geo-web.org.uk

technological advances we (of a certainage) have lived through during the last
60 years will not be replicated during
the next 60.
ESA reports:
Space Shuttle Atlantis on its last
mission, brought three decades of flightsof this unique spaceplane to a close.
The boxy black and white craft is thequeen of technological marvels from thelate 20th century. From its first launch
in 1981 the Space Shuttle has been theway to fly to space for many ofhumankind.
It has transformed spaceflight: it
dispatched and partially even returned
many satellites and deep-space probes,
it helped to end the Cold War by docking
with Russia’s Mir space station and it
made assembly of the International
Space Station possible.

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Impressively, the Hubble
Space
Telescope
wasdeliveredintoorbit,
repaired and maintained by
Shuttle on five missions.
With some 2.5 million
moving parts, the orbiterwith three main engines
fuelled from the huge
external tank, and thecomplementary twin solid
rocket boosters form apackage that is perhaps themost complex technologicalsystem ever built.
Shuttle mission STS-31
The Hubble space telescopeis released from the cargo
bay of Shuttle Discovery
into Earth orbit during thismission from April 24 – 29
1990.

Hubble Space Telescope photo

Shuttle mission STS-61. This mission – December 2 – 131993 ‘grabbed’ the Hubble Space Telescope for the firstservicing mission when corrective optics were installed to‘correct Hubble’s vision.’ ©NASA©NASA

Shuttle missions successfully ‘launched’ – deployed - manysatellites during its lifetime.

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Atlantis at MIR space station ©NASA July 4, 1995
Atlantis First to Dock with Mir
Space shuttle Atlantis is docked to
Russia's Mir Space Station and wasphotographed by the Mir-19 crew.

Cosmonauts Anatoliy Y. Solovyev andNikolai M. Budarin, Mir-19 Commander
and Flight Engineer, respectively,
temporarily undocked the Soyuz

spacecraft from the cluster of Mirelements to perform a brief fly-around.
Solovyev and Budarin had been delivered
to the Mir Space Station by theSTS-71 ascent trip of Atlantis.
'Facelift' for Atlantis
Shuttle Atlantis sits atop the
Shuttle Carrier Aircraft at
Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle
Landing
Facility.
Atlantis is being prepared for its
ferry flight to Palmdale, Calif.,
for its Orbiter Maintenance
Down
Period(OMDP)
atPalmdale's Orbiter Assembly
Facility, where it will remain
until
August1998.
There,
modifications
andstructural inspections will be
conducted in preparation for
Atlantis' future missions to
support International Space
Station assembly activities.
Photo
credit:Nov. 11, 199726

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NASA/KSC

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

STS-132 launch photo Great low angle shot of the launch of Shuttle Atlantis on STS-132 mission

Back to the Beginning
Workers at Kennedy Space
Center in Florida
accompany shuttle Atlantis
as it is towed back to its
processing hangar after
landing at Kennedy's
Shuttle Landing Facility,
completing its 13-day
mission to theInternational Space Stationand the final flight of theSpace Shuttle Program.

Photo Credit: NASA/Bill
Ingalls
July 21, 2011www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Shuttle docked with the International space Station © NASA
Below is a Placard sent to our Editor Pete Green and his wife that enabled them to experience the launch of STS-82 the second in a series of planned servicing
missions to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

STS-82 was a
Hubble Space
Telescope servicing
mission by Space
Shuttle Discovery.
The mission launchedfrom Kennedy Space
Center, Florida, on
11 February 1997
and returned to earth
on 21 February 1997
at Kennedy Space
Center.
We were able tocombine this amazing
and uniqueexperience with aholiday in Florida(well it was a good
excuse to see a
Shuttle launch) Ed

28

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GEO Quarterly No 31

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29

This MODIS image acquired on
August 17, 2011 by NASA’s Terrasatelliteshows
Novosibirskiye
Ostrova (the New Siberian Islands)       
off Eastern Russia. Frequently hidden
under cloud and often locked in by
sea ice all year round, the current
summer has provided a rare glimpseof this island group.

GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

September 2011

Quarterly Question
Francis Bell

Our June 2011 Quarterly Question related to the sun angle
as observed in Alexandria on the day of their summer
solstice. The question was provoked by the historical work of
the classical scholar Eratosthenes (276-195 C) who iscredited with the first calculation of the earth's circumference.
The answer to the question was 8.1 deg. that is 900/40,000
x 360.
My thanks to Elmar Bogels, The Netherlands who was the
only member to submit an answer. It seems our membershipare more interested in satellite images rather thanmathematics so I will resort to another image for thisQuarterly Question.
With reference to the image below what is the name of the30

major lake shown in the upper centre of the image?
The image is one I received at home from the Envisat satellite
using the Envi-Ham reception system. See previous issues of
GEO's Quarterly which will tell you how to receive theseimages. The scale of the image is approximately 300 miles
from east to west and about 200 miles north to south. It
shows and area of mid-western USA. The lake looks
distinctly artificial. The image colour are artificial. The
question is: name the lake shown on the image? You may
wish to name a structure associated with the lake but thiscannot be resolved on the image as shown.
Answers to francis@francisbell.com before the copy deadline
for our next Quarterly. Prize a postcard from tropical Bali.

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September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Douglas Deans – dsdeans@btinternet.com
Those of us who read computer magazines will have noticed
an increasing reference to Microsoft’s next operating system,
Windows 8. It seems just a few months ago that Windows 7
was delivered to my house on launch date but on checking I
now realise that by October I will have been using it for two
years so perhaps talk about the next version does not, onreflection, seem so ridiculous. By the way the pre-order dealof both a 32 bit and 64 bit copy of Windows 7 on DVD forunder £40 still astounds me when I see the normal cost. I
wonder if Microsoft will be so generous next time round.
So what is being said about Windows 8? Well it is still in early
development but it is already clear that the tablet market,
which is apparently exploding this year, is going to influence
things quite dramatically. I have never owned a tablet
although recently did upgrade both my own and my wife’s
mobile phones to smartphones which use the Android
software….. a brave step for OAP’s !
It looks as if there will be two interfaces, one the standard
Windows desktop but also a new interface to allow users toaccess apps (why do I hate this word !). So although old style
desktops will still be able to run Windows 8, the trend is to
more portable computers often with touchscreens and the new
OS will better serve those types of devices as well as the moreconventional computers.
To quote Microsoft, the new OS will support web-connected
and web-powered apps which have been developed using
HTML5 and JavaScript.
There is still much to be decided before the release which
Microsoft expects to be sometime in 2012.
It does seem that future Operating Systems will need to be
multi-functional to cater for our insatiable appetite forportable communication devices of all sizes.
I have been very pleased with Windows 7 but do not see theneed for any further upgrades for some time to come.
However should I have any problems with my hard drive, suchas failure, I will certainly use my 64 bit copy of the software
rather than the 32 bit currently in operation. That would bea useful upgrade.
I was surprised to learn that my Perthshire town of Dunblane
is on the list for upgrade to BT’s Infinity Broadband. There
have been some variations in the date for the service but it
now seems to have settled with completion due by December
this year. Being a rural Perthshire town we were quite late ingetting broadband in the first place so to be well up the list for
the 40 Megabits/sec service is surprising news. It may well beof interest for others to check their own locations. BT provide
a coverage map where you can select your own area and findthe latest news. Simply go to BT.com/infinity and select ‘findyour area’, where you will see the country divided into about
11 regions. Select the appropriate one and you will be given
a list of where the service is already available and a timetableof rollout for the following year. It is listed by telephoneexchange and those may not always match geographicalareas.

Infinity launched in January 2010 and is BT’s new super fast
fibre optic broadband service. In most basic terms exchanges
are supplied by fibre optic cable and existing pillars locatedthroughout the town are also upgraded to a fibre optic service.
Existing copper cables serve from pillars to premises and insome instances that can still be a lengthy service.
I know that many people served by cable are highly critical ofBT’s new service but it has to be remembered that many areasin the UK including towns and cities as large as Dunblane
have not been cabled and never will be, so this new service willoffer those areas their chance for faster Internet.
There does seem to be some very reasonable packages being
offered for the new Internet service but time alone will tell. As
I hope to subscribe to this myself, I will keep readers informed
as to how this progresses and if and when it becomes
available.
It may be an interesting exercise to others to hear a consumer’s
honest appraisal as to how the service is provided and thequality of it thereafter. I do appreciate that many, including
myself, will not receive the full 40 Megabits/sec as distancefrom exchange and more particularly from your local pillar all
has effect. At the moment on average I get about 6 Megabits/
sec from a possible maximum of 8 Megabits/sec. In fact when
I tested my telephone number with BT, the projected figure forthe new service is 37.5 Megabits/sec. We shall see although
I would be delighted if that came to fruition. I do know that
unlike previous services it does require a BT engineer to set it
up in your house (currently free of charge). So watch thisspace.
EPS-15
Continuing with my channel by channel analysis of the
Eumetcast system, I propose this quarter to look at EPS 15.
As a reminder to readers, for a further explanation of EPS,
Eumetsat Polar System, see my column in the previous
quarterly (GEO Quarterly No. 30, June 2011). Last quarter I
dealt with EPS 10 which amongst other files includes global
full resolution 5 channel HRPT data from Metop. Unfortunately
NOAA satellites are not able to provide global HRPT AVHRR
data but are able to provide global GAC data. I tend to
consider GAC as the digital equivalent of APT (but without theflaws of a analogue system). GAC spatial sampling is 5.4km
across track and 3.2km along track at nadir.
Global GAC data from NOAA 19 is provided on Channel EPS15.
There are approximately 480 files per day with an average filesize of 1.0MB.
A typical file takes the following form :AVHR_GAC_1B_N19_20080109092203Z_20080109110703Z_
N_O_20080109113424Z
David Taylor’s Metop Manager also handles the NOAA GAC
files (and many other data formats) and includes a fascinatingtab providing a GAC composite.
Continued on page 33

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GEO Quarterly No 31

Group for Earth Observation

Dear Dr. Prahm,
Group for Earth Observation Visit 7th and 8th July 2011
I wish to thank you and your staff for our recent GEO visit to
EUMETSAT's HQ. Every aspect of the visit was perfectly
arranged by your staff and the content of the sevenpresentations we received was just as we had asked for.
I hope the information exchange between ourselves as anamateur, educational and non-commercial interest group and
EUMETSAT's staff will prove to be of mutual benefit in the
future.
Sincere best wishes for your new role which I understand is
to head the Danish Meteorological Service. Perhaps our paths
will cross again at some time in the future.

September 2011of interest to us all. I appreciate that yourselves and other
Media Broadcast staff gave up time to ensure the success of
our visit. I also understand that it is unusual for visiting
groups such as ours to be given such a high profile tour of
your site and VIP treatment: we all feel privileged from thisperspective.
We will publish a report of our visit in our next quarterly
magazine which I'm sure will have some nostalgic photographs
recording our visit. I will send you a copy when it is published- September 2011.
My only regret is having to leave your site soon after 12.00
noon. I'm sure another hour on site would have been
appreciated by all our group but our 1.30 pm appointment
with ESOC in Darmstadt dictated our time scales. Yes: we did
make it back to ESOC with just seven minutes to spare.

Kind regards
Again our thanks to all Media Broadcast staff.
Francis Bell
Yours sincerely
Director Group for Earth Observation
Francis Bell
Dear ...Marianne Koening, Dieter Klaes, Peter Albert, Sally
Wannop, Mikael Rattenborg,Francois MontagnerGroup for Earth Observation Visit 7th and 8th July 2011
I am writing to you to express our group's gratitude for yourtime and commitment in contributing to the presentations
which were given to our group during our visit to your
EUMETSAT HQ. I understand the encroachment on yourtime, not only during the day in question and your presentation
but also in the background when preparing materials.
It was the unanimous view of our group that our two days
were delightful and informative from every perspective. I hopethe information exchange between EUMETSAT and ourselves
will prove constructive in years to come.
A few days ago I separately wrote Dr. Lars Prahm expressing
our thanks for our very successful visit. Perhaps we may meetagain - in four years time?

Director Group for Earth Observation

Dear Darmstadt Delegates,
This is a follow up after our GEO visit to EUMETSAT, Usingenand ESOC.
I judged the visit to be very successful, worthwhile andenjoyable. EUMETSAT learned a little about GEO, it's
memberships' talents and we most importantly learned about
EUMETSAT's future programmes - the main directive for our
visit. There we other benefits, for example GEO members fromseveral different countries meeting together, exchanging ideas
and enjoying each other's company. I hope everybody returned
home safely.
At the end of our first day with EUMETSAT I asked if it waspossible to have a copy of the PowerPoint presentations which
had been the visual backgrounds to the presentations madeduring the day . Obliging this was done on the spot and I havethese on a USB memory stick. Subsequently others haveasked EUMETSAT for this material. I have asked EUMETSAT
to write 100 discs containing the presentations and this has
now been done . The arrangement is that I distribute the discs
on behalf of EUMETSAT thus saving them administrative
time. A bonus being that I have a supply of discs available on
request for other GEO members who did not manage to attend
our meeting there. The discs should be in my possession
within one or two days. Please respect the copyright of theauthors' of these presentations.

Yours sincerely,
Francis Bell
Director Group for Earth Observation

Media Broadcast GmbH,
Erdfunkstelle,
D-61250 Usingen
Germany
30th July 2011
Dear Juergen Schaefer, Lothar Stockmann and Andreas
Nowak
I am writing to you on behalf of our GEO group who visited
your site on the 8th July 2011. We all enjoyed our morningwith you and a unanimous vote of thanks is offered to you andyour company Media Broadcast for the hospitality andpresentations we received. The technical tour of the site was

32

If you would like a disc send me an email with your up to datepostal address.
The trade off. I would like to increase my library of photographsof our visit. I wish to make a slide show which I can have ofdisplay and rallies,talks and exhibitions which GEO attends.
I have my own photographs of course but additional ones
would be appreciated. I have the group photographs but
anything else you could add would be great. If you can pleasewww.geo-web.org.uk

September 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 31

Continued from page 31
attach to your email disc request some photographs, say up to
three, or whatever you think - JPEG format favoured. If you do
not have photographs I will send you a disc on request
anyway. My email address is francis@francisbell.com
Another request. If you can would you please write aparagraph, just a few hundred words about some aspect ofyour time in Darmstadt and send this the Peter Green, GEO's
editor. Peter can use his editorial judgement whether to print
it in our Quarterly. Peter's email address is geoeditor@geoweb.org.uk
A recommendation. Visit the EUMETSAT web page it gives abeautifully written brief account of our visit .
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/
CorporateNews/808635?l=en.

Francis Bell

Dear Editor
Hoping everyone had a great time in Darmstadt. For me it was
my second visit, but just as interesting as the first. I would
just like to say that I would not have been there were it not for
the kindness and generosity of one GEO member Mr.Brian
Davis .I don't embarrass him by writing this but I would liketo thank him for him sponsoring me . I thoroughly enjoyedmyself especially at a time when adversity was at it's hardest.
Thanks Brian for getting me out to Darmstadt when I reallyneeded a break.

If you run 24/7 then you have a world view of the weather at
GAC resolution. An example of this, taken from my own
computer can be seen on the inside back cover.
This now means that to date I have dealt with Channels 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, EPS-10 and EPS-15.
There has also been an addition to the data in Channel 4
which I have already detailed in a previous quarterly. You willremember in the March journal of this year (GEO 29) I
described the various datas sent on Eumetsat Data Channel
4. The pick of the data was the MODIS Aqua radiance data
(and geo-location data) producing some stunning images.
Eumetsat have now added Terra data to the channel effectively
doubling the coverage and, of course, doubling the number offiles to just over 150 each day. Remember some of those files
containing visible imagery are well in excess of 70 MB so if you
are already taking a large quantity of data, it may be time,once again, to review your RAMdisk size.
More and more data is being added to the system although aconsiderable amount of it is very specialised meteorological
data, often for Nowcasting, sometimes for South African orSouth American regions. It is perhaps just as well, from acomputer point of view, that some of the data is of limited use
to amateurs.
Program Updates
David Taylor’s programs (latest releases).Just a reminder thatthe list below is for fully tested releases and does not include
the latest beta (or alpha) versions currently on test. Those canalso be downloaded from David’s site.

What a great time, especially with our Dutch friends whoentertained us. Andrew has never stopped talking about it.
Everyone got on so well with each other.
Eumetsat made us so welcome once again and this time it wasa special surprise to be shown round the visitors centre atUsingen ground station.

http://www.satsignal.eu

ATOVS Reader

v 1.2.2

AVHRR Manager

v 2.0.6

BUFR Viewer

v 1.1.8

CMA Viewer

v 1.2.0

DWDSAT HRPT Viewer

v 1.2.4

GeoSatSignal

v 7.2.2

GRIB Viewer

v 2.3.10

GroundMap

v 2.1.6

HDF Viewer

v 1.4.4

HRPT Reader

v 2.10.0

Kepler Manager

v 1.4.2

MapToGeov 1.1.8

Metop Manager

v 1.4.10

MODIS L1 and Fire Viewer

v 2.0.2

MSG Animatorv 2.5.46

MSG Data Manager

v 2.5.46

PassControl

v 3.3.2

SatSignal

v 5.2.2

Sea-Ice & SST Viewer

v 1.4.2

Wxtrackv 3.8.12

Another great success story for GEO.
Best Wishes
Rob Denton G4YRZ

Dear Editor
Like most GEO members the main purpose of my visit toDarmstadt was to visit EUMETSAT and Usingen. But once
again I was greatly impressed by the city because it seems tobe the embodiment of modernity: broad clean streets, efficientpublic transport, with high tech. Industries and scientificactivity at the very core of the city’s thriving economy. The city
has three universities, including the Technical University
which claims to be the MIT of Europe. All these activities haveplainly attracted fine architects to create an array of interesting,spacious and often beautiful modern buildings. As a studentof migration I am sure that Darmstadt has its run-down
sections, housing low-paid service workers, and there willprobably be a few homeless people in the city. But I saw noone sleeping rough.
The city lacks the architectural heritage that might draw thekind of tourist traffic that one sees in nearby Heidelberg, partof the heavy price Darmstadt paid for its early enthusiasm for
Nazism. But none of the ashes from which Darmstadt
emerged after the war can now to be seen, only a fine moderncity with which we can compare few in the UK.
Robert Moore

www.geo-web.org.uk

33

Global GAC data from NOAA 19 is provided on Channel EPS-15© EUMETSATMy entry for this Quarterly Envisat Images is one I received on 5th August
2011 from Envisat using the Envi-Ham project and my one metre satellite
dish. The image shows an area of desert in Egypt centred approximately 21
deg. N - 23 deg. E. The scale of the image is about 40 x 40 miles. The image
is only a very small subset of the full frame as received. To create theimage as shown I used three of the twelve available channels and allocatedthem Red Green Blue colours using the VISAT-Beam software issued to me
freely by ESRIN.

Quarterly Envisat ImageFrancis BellThe image shows an area which today is desert but thousands of years ago
would have been an extensive fresh water lake. Today the lake's residual
ground water is being used for irrigation systems as identified by the darkgeometric areas seen image left.. It is interesting to note that thediscovery / identification of ground water reserves in this and other areasof Egypt resulted from analysis of similar satellite images. More recently
satellite radar images of Egypt have been used to identify otherwise hidden
archaeological sites. I cannot receive these radar images but am in wonderof my access to the detail revealed by Envisat's 'visible' channels.