Group for Earth Observation

The Independent Amateur Quarterly Publication for
Earth Observation and Weather Satellite Enthusiasts

48
December 2015
Inside this issue . .
At last, we offer acomprehensive and up-to-dateguide to setting up a basic
Meteor M2 receiving station.
There has been such rapid
progress in this field,
particularly in softwaredevelopment, that many URLs
for downloading software are
no longer active. This article
puts this right.
Also on the theme of weather
satellite reception in the
137 MHz band, we reproduce
Chris van Lint’s article onbuilding a QFH antenna from
PVC tubing and coax cable.
If you have ever wanted toinvestigate your reception
horizon, Barry Smith may
have the answer as hedescribes a website that can
produce accurate contour
maps around your station.
Finally, Mike Stevens reportson the TBS-6908 DVB-S2
tuner that he has been
evaluating over the summer.
And of course, there are theusual selection of articles
from NASA Earth
Observatory.

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAMLes Hamilton

Director and 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: information@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton,
8 Deeside Place,
Aberdeen AB15 7PW, Scotland UK.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Despatch
Peter Green
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
Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Shop Manager
Nigel Evans (Assistant: David Simmons),
email: shop@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton,
email: liaison@geo-web.org.uk
Management Committee Members
Clive Finnis
Carol Finnis

Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company in Englandand Wales, limited by guarantee and nothaving share capital.
The Company Number is 4975597.
The registered office is Coturnix House,
Rake Lane, Milford, Godalming,
Surrey GU8 5AB, England.
Printing (December Issue)
Hedgerow Print,
16 Marsh Lane,
Crediton, Devon EX17 1ES.
Tel: 01363 777 595
Responsibility
Every effort is made to ensure that thetechnical and constructional articles
published in this Quarterly are correct.
However, the ultimate responsibility iswith the reader to ensure the safety of
constructions and for any interfacing withother equipment. GEO cannot accept liability
for shortcomings in any published design or
any constructions carried out by members orother third parties.
Copyright GEO © 2015
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
Observation Limited and its contributors.
Copying of text or images, either from theprinted Quarterly or from any electronicallystored source, is forbidden without
permission from the Editor.

geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

A

s GEO Quarterly approaches its 50th issue next June, we can lookback on one of the most productive years for direct satellite reception.
The arrival of Meteor-M2 sparked a flurry of activity, with reception andprocessing software being developed apace; so much so that many of thesources for required software have changed. It is clear that newcomers to
Meteor reception now find it very challenging indeed to set up a reception
station, so I have compiled a new guide (page 27) with current URLs foreverything that’s required, from the SDRSharp software defined radio (nowunder the Airspy banner) and its essential plugins to processing software.

A

ssociated with this there’s been increased interest in constructing
antennas for the 137 MHz satellite band (no doubt many of you
are now regretting disposing of old APT gear). To remedy this, we are
reprinting an article that appeared in the very first issue of GEO Quarterly,
detailing the construction of Chris van Lint’s collapsible QFH antenna: it
can be constructed in just a few hours from PVC tubing and coaxial cable.
I have built several of these over the past 15 years, and can confirm thatthey are every bit as good as my commercially manufactured turnstile.

F

inally, a reminder that, in addition to your digital copy of GEO Quarterly,
you will also be mailed a printed copy of the December issue, as
promised last year. We very much hope you enjoy it.

Everyone on the GEO Management Committee wishes all our readers
all a most pleasant Christmas, and a productive New Year.

C

opy deadline for the March issue of GEO
Quarterly is Sunday, February 21, 2016.

Contents
GEO Report and Quarterly Question
Cover Image Details
Red Sprites above the USA and Central America
TBS-6908 DVB-S Tuner Review
Meteor M1 transmits again!
GEO Symposium 2016
GEO Outreach at Newbury and AMSAT-UK
Magnetic Storm Disables Meteor M2
Chile Earthquake on the RadarGEO Visit to EUMETSATGEO Shop Report
What’s Your Horizon
Himawari-8
Summer in the Netherlands
Malaspina GlacierReceiving Images from Meteor Satellites (update)
Using Satellites to study Svalbard’s Growing Season
Lake TuzA Portable Collapsible QFH Antenna
GEO Outreach - Kempton Rally
Ship Tracks off Kamchatka
Satellite Status
GEO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
GEO Membership Application FormGEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Mike Stevens
Enrico GobbettiFrancis Bell
Francis BellLes Hamilton
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
Nigel Evans
Barry Smith
Les Hamilton
ESA
NASA Earth Observatory
Les Hamilton
NASA Earth Observatory
Les Hamilton
Chris van Lint
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory

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3
4
6
9
10
11
14
15
16
19
20
23
25
26
27
33
35
38
43
44
45
46
47
48

GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Francis Bell

Since GEO’s visit to Darmstadt in July this has been arather quiet summer for me in relation to weather satellite
reception, with domestic and other travel engagements
tending to occupy much of my time. However, I havebeen trying to keep up to date with members’ activities,
particularly those relating to the reception and decodingof images from the Russian Meteor‑M2 satellite. My
congratulations and admiration to those progressing thehome reception of data from this satellite: however, it would
be of great benefit to our members if we saw more regular
reports and articles about this latest satellite, plus theestablished ﬂeet of weather satellites, in our Quarterly.
I know of the editor’s frustration about the lack of materials
being submitted to him for publication, so I urge members
who have access to technical information—or just personal
experiences—to write a report and send it to our editor.
Such initial material does not have to be perfect because
editing and redrafting may be possible, but if there is nostarting point there is nothing to publish. I must issue thewarning that lack of copy from our members puts at risk
the continuation of GEO Quarterly, of which I feel sure weare all proud. The future of our Quarterly rests firmly withthe membership, in anticipation of their contributions.
Structure of GEO
This is just a reminder that the overall structure of GEO
remains the same: that is, we are a registered limited
company but with no shareholders. The advantage of thisformat is that it provides protection for the Group should
there be any disputes, with the responsibility resting withthe company and not with any individual. Each year I
submit information to Companies House which includes asummary of our accounts. We do not publish accounts in
the Quarterly but they are always available at our members
AGM which is usually held in Leicester. Broadly speaking,the membership subscriptions cover the publication anddistribution of the Quarterly together with some additional
expenses. The GEO Shop generates a profit which provides
a buffer against any capital expenditures.
Symposium 2016
On the subject of Leicester please see the separate noticeon page 10 relating to our 2016 Symposium which isscheduled for April 23, 2016. Please attend if you can. The
day’s programme is looking great, and there is the plus
factor that it offers the opportunity for members to meetwith each other. This makes it a must‑attend event for me!
ISS
I continue to follow the HDTV images being transmitted
from the ISS. In this country, the ISS will become morenewsworthy because astronaut Tim Peake will soon bejoining the crew onboard the station for several months.
Tim will be only the second British astronaut, the firstbeing Helen Sharman 25 years ago. With Tim onboard the
ISS there are plans to involve UK schools in space scienceand technology. I will follow these with interest because of
my own background in a Guildford school where we were2

concerned in the first radio contacts with Helen Sharman
while she was on the Russian MIR space Station. The URL
for the HDTV from the ISS iswww.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload
The BBC have recently contacted me because they haveembryo plans for a TV programme celebrating the 25th
anniversary of Helen Sharman’s ﬂight on the MIR spacestation. It is currently planned to be part of ‘The One Show’which is scheduled for early evening on BBC 1. Perhaps
I can contribute to the programme using some of the live
recordings I made of my personal and school contacts with
the MIR space station all those years ago.
ESA Bulletin
I noticed that the last ESA Bulletin I received, No 161,
contained a notice about the future of the printed copyof their Bulletin. Routinely, in future, it will be available
on‑line, and only by special request will a printed copyof the Bulletin be posted. I will be regularly asking for apaper copy because I find it infinitely more convenient
than reading material from a computer screen.
Final Note
If you have any material or even references to third party
material which you think may be of interest to our GEO
Group, please send it to our editor. Without a steady inputof potential copy for the Quarterly it is likely to cease
publication in its present form. Over to the membership!
The Notice from ESA
The ESA Bulletin is 40 years old this year, and in a bold move,
ESA Communications has decided to reduce its print run. Why?
To reduce ESA’s carbon footprint and encourage more readers
to access the ESA Bulletin online.
Launched in 1975, the printed Bulletin now has a readershipof 10,000 people worldwide, with many more reading theelectronic version. Each Issue is packed with articles on ESA
space activities, as well as updates on the status of our major
projects.
Bulletin 161, released for the 1st quarter of 2015, was the lastissue on general and automated distribution. For future editions,
we invite all our readers to read the free online version of theBulletin, available on our Spacebooks online platform at
www.spacebooks-online.com
or through the ESA Bulletin App on the iTunes store.
If you still wish to receive printed copies of the ESA Bulletin, you
can order them via the Spacebooks Online Platform. Note thatthe printed ESA Bulletin will still be free for readers located inany of ESA’s 22 Member States, and Canada. Readers outsidethese areas will be asked to contribute to the delivery costs.
You can choose to order individual copies of the ESA Bulletin or
take out a subscription to receive all four issues published in ayear.

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Islands Divided into more than one Country
When I first view a satellite image of any part of the Earth,
I mentally try to identify the area by looking for any coastalboundaries which may be visible in it. If I can identify a coast
I immediately relate this to a country, thus giving a frame ofreference to the rest of the image.
Coastal outlines often represent not only a geographicalfeature but may also have a political dimension. Other major
geographical features can also be important in relation topolitical boundaries such as a mountain range, a major lake orriver. Other country boundaries are often historic, dynamic andquite arbitrary, representing the territorial ambitions of cultural,religious or ethnic interests of local leaders. Even in my lifetime
I have I have seen many changes establishing different or new
boundaries for many countries.
Many land boundaries between countries are difficult or
impossible to see in a satellite image. However, evenrecognising the dynamic political background to our present
day countries, what has not changed are the permanent costal
outlines, particularly of islands, compared with dynamic politicalchanges on the continents.
Individual islands or island groups are usually associated witha specific country, and although I recognise that countries canargue over the sovereignty of a particular island or group ofislands, there are a small number of islands which are divided
into, or between, more than one country. I think that there arefewer than ten such islands. I have visited several of theseislands hence this Quarterly Question.
The Question is this:‘Name those islands in the world which are divided into
more than one political country. Also, for as many islands
as you can, create a list of the islands and the names of
the countries associated with them’.

Front CoverWhen the first winter storm hit the British Isles, specially severe
over Scotland’s Western and Northern Isles, Mike Stevens wason hand to capture this Meteosat image with his TBS-6903 tuner at
13.15 UT on October 25, 2015.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015

Inside Front CoverMike Stevens sent in this Metop-A image dating from 03:52 UT
on October 22, 2015. The myriad of lakes dotting the Tibetan
plateau is revealed, with the cold, dry Taklimakan Desert to thenorthwest
Image © EUMETSAT 2015

Inside Back Cover

It would be an interesting bonus if you could provide asatellite image of one or more of the island you identify. As
encouragement, and a clue to one qualifying island, please see
page four of GEO Quarterly 44, which shows an image of aqualifying island imaged by the ISS.
Answers by email toorfrancis@francisbell.com
francis@geo-web.org.uk

I will try to compile a comprehensive list for publication in our
next Quarterly.

This image acquired by NASA’s Terra satellite on
November 2, 2015 highlights the huge bank of fog whichdeveloped over the North Sea and caused dozens of flights fromUK airports to be cancelled. If you look carefully, you can see thedark shadows of aircraft contrails over the cloud.
Image: LANCE Rapid Response/NASA/GSFC

Back Cover
Unusually for this region, category-2 Cyclone Chapla bore downover the Horn of Africa on November 2, 2015. This image of thebeautifully compact storm comes from a Meteosat image sent inby Mike Stevens.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

NASA Earth Observatory
Viewing from a point over northwest
Mexico, astronauts aboard theInternational Space Station looked
northeast and shot these unusualphotographs of red sprites above the whitelight of active thunderstorms. In the first
instance (figure 1), the sprite was 2,200
kilometres away, high over Missouri or
Illinois. The lights of Dallas, Texas appear
in the foreground. The sprite shoots up
towards the greenish airglow layer, near
the rising moon.
Two minutes and 58 seconds later, as
the ISS was above the coastal Mexican
resort of Acapulco, the crew documented
another red sprite over a brilliant white
thundercloud and lightning discharge
near the coast of El Salvador (figure 2).
The shorter distance to the storm—about
1150 km—makes it somewhat easier tosee details of the sprite. City lights are adiffuse yellow because they are shining
through clouds.
These photos show the sprite’s tendrils
reaching as high as 100 kilometresabove Earth’s surface. Sprites are major
electrical discharges, but they are notlightning in the usual sense. Instead,they are a cold plasma phenomenon
without the extremely hot temperaturesof the lightning that we see underneath
thunderstorms. Red sprites are more likethe discharge of a fluorescent tube. Burstsof sprite energy are thought to occur
during most large thunderstorm events.
They were first photographed in 1989.

Figure 1 - A red sprite bursts upwards above a thunderstorm at the left of this image.
Credit@ NASA Astronaut Photograph ISS044-E-45553

Figure 2 - A red sprite bursts from a thunderstorm above El Salvador.
Credit @ NASA Astronaut Photograph ISS044-E-45576

Figure 3 - This is an enlarged view of the red sprite observed over El Salvador.

4

Credit @ NASA Astronaut Photograph ISS044-E-45576

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Peter Kooistra obtained this excellent Meteor M2 image showing the entire Black Sea from the 08:05 UT pass on September 20, 2015.

Another interesting Meteor M2 image from Peter Kooistra, of Iceland at 13:20 UT on September 25

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Mike Stevens
This is the latest DVB Tuner Card from our friends in the
Far East, and what a card it is!, I have been running one
since July/August 2014 without any problems at all, so letme give you some technical details about this unit.
Technical Details
The TBS-6908 is built to the highest possible professional
standards and shows rock‑steady reliability, which iscapable of supporting ACM/VCM Multi‑input stream,
16APSK and 32APSK Generic Stream Mode. Application ofa unique DVB‑S2 Demodulator Chipset makes it possible
to receive all these modes at a rate of up to 190 Mbit/schannel bit‑rate capture. It also has a wide range ofsymbol rate support from 1 Msps to 45 Msps, and iscapable of High Speed Data download via a satellite link.
The receiving Frequency ranges from 950 to 2150 MHz.
Power consumption is 0.66 ‑ 33.13 watt, and it will
support Data Burst and Tone Burst, DiSEqC2 and Motor.
The card will operate on Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10 andLinux operating systems.
Installation
By now, most readers will be aware of PCIe Cards and how
to fit them into a computer. The TBS-6908 is no different,
fitting neatly into to a PCIe Slot on the motherboard, with
one exception: this particular card will only fit into a fullsize, 19 cm wide PC. As it is a Quad Tuner, it has four LNB
inputs, making it impossible to fit into the narrower andsmaller 9 cm wide small form factor desktop PCs (figure 1).

and installing same. The specific software required is asfollows:• TBS 6908_windows_driver_v1.0.0.6• TBS_IP_Tool_v3.0.4.6• TBS_tsrecorder_v3.0.1.1 (this is required for test
purposes)
Just as a precaution, I downloaded these to a ﬂash drive,
then installed from there once I had checked for any
problems.
I advise to start by installing the 6908 Windows Driver.
And do not forget the dpinst file (‘dpinst64’ or ‘dpinst86’,
depending on whether you run a 64-bit or 32-bit system);without that file the system will not open correctly as
many members have discovered.
Once this software is installed, you then continue by
installing the TBS-IP Tool software. Follow the on‑screen
details and all should be well. Then finally, of course, thelast item is the TS-Recorder software. Immediately all threepackages have been installed, I recommend a system
restart to bed everything in.
System Set-up
After the PC has come back on‑line you should have new
icons on your Desktop for TS‑Recorder and TBS‑IP Data.
Click on IP‑Data to open the screen shown in figure 2 at
the Tuner Setting tab. This is where you must enter all the
relevant data for Satellite, Frequency, Symbol Rate and
MODCODES.

Figure 1 - The TBS-6908 PCIe Card

That is the only drawback, however, and all otherconnections are the same as for the TBS‑6925/6983, withan additional connector for supplying power to a satellite
dish rotor, should you plan to use one.
Once you have removed the cover and inserted the card
into the PCIe slot its a case of downloading the required
software from the TBS website at
Figure 2 - The Tuner Setting Tab

www.tbsdtv.com/downloads

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

Then press the ‘Set MODCODES’ button to reveal thescreen where you must tick the correct boxes for theservices you wish to receive (figure 3):• ‘8PSK_3/5’ for the Basic Service• ‘16APSK_2/3’ for the High Volume Service.

GEO Quarterly No 48

Next comes the task of making sure that TBS‑6908 cardtalks to Tellicast (which I assume is already installed).
Open the Network and Sharing Centre and change the adaptor
settings, locate Virtual MPE Decoder Adaptor, right‑click, andgo to Properties to enter in our old friend 192.168.238.238,
which should coincide with the Interface Address in yourTellicast ‘recv.ini’ file.
Next I advise going into Windows Firewall and allow the newprograms to operate. You may need to use the Command
Prompt to run the programme, to enter the line ‘Run as
Administrator’ (see my article on the TBS‑6925 in GEO
Quarterly 44).
Once all that is completed, I would again advise a systemre-start to bed everything in. When you next reopen
TBS‑IP Data, your tuner should open correctly and
EUMETCast files should be coming into the system.
You are now ready to run David Taylor’s software (MSG
DataManager etc.) and start receiving some excellent
satellite images.

Figure 3 - Selecting the appropriate MODCODES.

You then open the IP Over DVB tab (figure 4) where you
must enter all the EUMETCast PIDs. Once that operation
is done, switch off the TBS Data Services box and reboot.
You should now see the red‑to‑green bars in your Strengthand Quality section, indicating that the system is receiving
data from EUMETCast.

Figure 5 - The TBS-TSRecorder Capture Control Tab

TBS-TSRecorder
TBS-TSRecorder (figure 5) is a handy piece of software
which allows the user to see the type of transmissions
being received at the tuner. On the bottom half of thescreen you have all the relevant details and information toshow you what your Tuner is physically capable of.
Don’t forget to add in all satellite details, and if you go to
the Capture Control tab, you will find that you can set andrecord a Q-capture file for more analysis later. This has
been used by me to send a file to TBS Support, for them tolook into back at HQ.
Figure 4 - The IP over DVB Tab

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GEO Quarterly No 48

Figure 6 - A Meteosat-10 image acquired at 12:15 UT on September 10,2015
Image © EUMETSAT 2015

Finally, you must run TBS-TSRecorder using‘Run as Administrator’, and you cannot run theTBS-6908 at the same time. To reactivate theTuner, you must switch off the Recorder, andsometimes may even require a PC re-boot to
unlock the receiver.
Multiple LNB Inputs
If you plan to use the TBS‑6908 receiver card,
you will have three additional LNB inputs toplay with. The tuner will handle them all, which
gives you a lot of scope to carry out experimentswith other satellites and different broadcast
channels simultaneously with reception of
EUMETCast. I have done this myself with noadverse effects at all using DVB-Dream v 26, so
happy weather watch and satellite hunting from
Portland.
The TBS-IP Data software, used in these trials
at the time of writing this article, was notofficially released but should now be available.
Also, there is now a new PCIe Card available,
the TBS-6903, which I will look at in detail andreport back on for users later.
My thanks to TBS Support, whose help has been
invaluable in testing these new tuners. I am
sure there will be more to follow, getting evermore user friendly and affordable.

8

Figure 7
Another view of the the TBS‑6908 PCIe Card, clearly showing the four LNB inputs.

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Image from Enrico Gobbetti
After having been withdrawn fromoperational use on October 1, 2014,
Russia’s Meteor M1 satellite wasreactivated on November 6, 2015. Thissatellite is similar in most respects toMeteor M2, except that it transmits
at the 80k symbol rate and displays
a telemetry band at one side of each
image. At the time of writing, Meteor
M1 is flying close to the Earth’s

terminator and channel 1 and 2
images are very faint. But channel-3
is producing excellent images, as
the 06:36 UT pass reproduced below
illustrates.
Enrico’s reception system consists of
two motors for Az and El tracking, a 9+ 9 element right circularly polarised
beam antenna, a cavity filter for

www.geo-web.org.uk

137/138 MHz, an amplifier providing
10-15 dB, 27 metres of 75 ohm coaxial(satellite TV) downlead, and as a USB
DVB-T + DAB + FM dongle costing €8.
The software used is SDRSharp with
the QPSK v 1.5 demodulator, LRPT
Analyser, SmoothMeteor and Microsoft
Office Picture Manager to correct thebrightness and contrast.

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Francis Bell
Similarly with previous years, GEO has booked the National
Space Centre, Leicester for our 2016 Symposium, which will
be held in their ‘Shuttle Suite’. This accommodation is ideal as
it provides space for any individual or group to set up a small
display or demonstration stand, while leaving us a seating area
for more formal business. For more details about the National
Space Centre, its location and activities, visit their web site atwww.spacecentre.co.uk

Location
The National Space Centre (NSC), Exploration Drive,
Leicester LE4 5NS is located about 1.5 miles north of Leicester
city centre. There is a railway station in the centre of Leicester
and a bus service from there to the NSC. If coming by car to the
NSC, there is a large car park adjacent to the centre.
Accommodation
If you are staying in Leicester overnight there are several
reasonably priced hotels nearby. As in previous years, I expect anumber of our delegates will be staying at the
Ibis Hotel, St. George’s Way, Constitution Hill,
Leicester LE1 1PL
Tel: (+44) (0) 1162 487 200

Please note the date, which is Saturday, April 23, 2016.

which is only an eight minute car drive from the NSC. For more
information about this hotel visit the Ibis website at
http://www.ibis.com/gb/
hotel-3061-ibis-leicester-city/index.shtml
Their current price for a twin room about £40 per night.

The impressive entrance and rocket tower at the NSC

Timings
The programme for the day is not yet fixed but is likely to run
between 9.00 am and 5.00 pm, which will include time for ourmembers or other groups to make presentations, followed by an
AGM at the end of the day. There will be breaks during the day
for lunch and for visiting the NSC’s exhibitions areas.
Presentations and Displays
The following groups have been invited to contribute to our day’s
activities:• Leicester University Space Department – with particularreference to the GERB instruments being carried on
weather satellites• EUMETSAT• Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. ( SSTL)• NOAA• Space Band - with reference to their SR1 receivers• European Space Agency ( ESA) - hopefully a presentation
similar to the one given when GEO visited ESOC last July.
Note that the above is a list of invitations of attendance: it has
yet to be confirmed and is not guaranteed. Additionally, if you—or any individual or group you know—would wish to make aworthwhile contribution to our symposium, please contact Francis
Bell by email at
francis@francisbell.com

The Soviet Soyuz capsule on display at the NSC

Symposium Cost
The cost for attending the symposium is not yet fixed and will
depend to some extent on numbers but the current estimate is
between £10 and £15. The bonus here is the fact that this pricealso includes entry into the NSC’s exhibition area which is very
interesting plus free car parking. Good value for money!
Registration
It would be useful if you registered your intention to attend this
symposium by contacting Rob Denton at his email address
liaison@geo-web.org.uk
Alternatively you can just turn up on the day. Non GEO members
are also welcome to attend, hopefully the experience should
provide useful information for anybody thinking of starting theirown live weather satellite reception or researching the topic.
Latest Information
For the latest information relating to the symposium and theprogramme for the day please regularly visit our website
www.geo-web.org.uk

or by telephone on 01483 416897

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Francis Bell
The Newbury Rally
As in previous years, GEO attended the Newbury AmateurRadio Rally located on the Newbury show ground.
This rally is well attended by the public and offers an
opportunity to promote GEO to technically minded visitors.
The venue is a rural showground without a central
building, which means we have to be resourceful indemonstrating live satellite signals on our stand. This
was achieved again this year and our efforts generated
some degree of admiration from those attending. A small
number of new GEO members enrolled on the spot but
just as satisfying was the promotion of our group to a
receptive public.

Although confined to his wheelchair theknowledgeable gentleman, shown in the centre of thisphotograph signed up as a new GEO member

The AMSAT-UK Colloquium July 2015
I have been a member of AMSAT-UK for about 20
years and, as best I can judge, it is still a ﬂourishingorganisation—albeit with a specialist interest area. Theirmain activity relates to communication with amateur radio
satellites, but like myself, there is often a wider interest in
satellite communications. GEO has attended AMSAT‑UK
annual colloquiums for many years, sometime giving apresentation relating to weather satellites.
The GEO stand at the AMSAT-UK 2015 colloquium where we displayed
recorded satellite images and demonstrated the use of SDR dongles.

AMSAT-UK members arranging antennas for live reception

This year the event was held in Guildford using theHoliday Inn as a venue, with SSTL close by for visits
to their satellite production facilities. GEO made no
formal presentation during the two and a half day event
this year, but we did run a stand illustrating recorded
weather satellite images. There was general interest in
our stand and a small number of people joined GEO as
new members. Also on the stand we demonstrated the useof SDR dongles, which attracted the attention of many
visitors, and within a very short space of time all the stockthat we had taken to the event was sold. Other AMSAT‑UK
members ran live satellite reception from several amateur
radio satellites including the recent cubesats.
My thanks to David Simmons for his support at both the
Newbury and AMSAT‑UK events.
Special Note
If any reader knows of a Club or Event where there
is potential interest in weather satellite reception orother earth observation please, try to be supportive andcontribute if you are able. The GEO Group may be able tohelp by providing information or back‑up for such an event
if we know in time.
Please contact Francis Bell by email at
francis@francisbell.com

AMSAT delegates awaiting the next presentation

if you need help or advice.
www.geo-web.org.uk

11

This section from the 04:30 UT image captured by China’s Feng Yun 2F satellite on October 17, 2015 shows Typhoon Koppu poised
to make landfall over the Philippines. The fifteenth typhoon of the season, Koppu’s 200 kph winds whipped up coastal surges 4 mhigh and drenched the islands for over three days causing major flooding and displacing thousands from their homes.

12

www.geo-web.org.uk

André T’Kindt captured the 17:40 UT NOAA 18 pass on September 26, 2015 with WXtoImg, and applied the
MCIR with Precipitation overlay to highlight heavy rainfall in the depression to the northwest of Scotland.
www.geo-web.org.uk

13

GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Les Hamilton
Readers will recall that we reported onan unusual Meteor M2 image in ourprevious issue, resulting from a loss of
spatial orientation. Another similar event
occurred on September 23, when the
08:42 pass produced an unusual ‘twisted’
image and the subsequent pass no image
at all. A report from Moscow’s TASS
News Agency attributed the problem to amagnetic storm, which caused the failureof a microcontroller on one of the craft’s
orientation system subsystems. Thanks

are due to Enrico Gobbetti, who sent inpart of the Meteor image (figure 1) alongwith a NOAA 19 APT image (figure 2) froma few hours later for comparison. Enrico
also forwarded a link to a report on thesituation on lifenews.ru at
http://lifenews.ru/news/162238
which cast additional light on the problem.
Apparently, the fault—which was
attributed to a solar flare—was discovered

Figure 1 - The aberrant Meteor M2 Image at 08:42 UT

14www.geo-web.org.uk

thanks to images provided by radio
amateurs. These images clearly showedthat the sensors aboard Meteor M2, whichshould have been pointing verticallydownwards towards the Earth’s surface,
had become aligned more towards
the limb of the planet. This led to theconclusion that the satellite had started
to spin out of control. Restoring theoperation of the microprocessor took
specialists about an hour and a half, after
which the satellite returned to normal.

Figure 2 - The 12:39 UT NOAA 19 image

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

ESA: Space in Images

This image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)© ESA SEOM INSARAP study PPO.labs/NORUT

On September 16, 2015, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck thecoast of central Chile, triggering tsunami warnings and coastal
evacuations. Lasting three minutes, this powerful earthquake
occurred along the boundary of the Nazca and South American
tectonic plates.
By combining Sentinel-1A radar scans from August 24 and
September 17, the rainbow-coloured patterns in the image
show how the surface has shifted as a result of the quake.
Interferograms such as this allow scientists to quantify groundmovement. By counting the fringes, it is estimated that theearthquake caused a displacement of 1.4 metres along theviewing direction of the radar observation. In addition, a 0.5
metre horizontal movement was estimated along the flight
direction of the satellite.
Sentinel-1A’s all-weather, day-and-night radar imagery isparticularly suited to support impact assessment for many typesof geohazards. Read more about ESA’s InSARap Project at
insarap.org.
Sentinel-1A, developed and operated by ESA, was the firstsatellite launched for Europe’s environmental monitoring
Copernicus programme, is led by the European Commission.

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15

GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Francis Bell
This year’s trip to Darmstadt was GEO’s third visit to
EUMETSAT’s HQ and ESA’s ESOC centre. We seem to befollowing a four yearly cycle with these visits.
Our visiting group consisted of 22 GEO members from fivedifferent countries. I think most if not all of us stayed in acentral Darmstadt hotel, just a twenty minute walk fromEUMETSAT’s HQ and a similar distance from the ESOC
facilities. A bonus for us was the proximity of a number ofdelightful eating places for evening meals which, together
with some staff from EUMETSAT and ESOC, made for very
enjoyable evenings after the day’s technical business.
Without doubt the most striking feature of our day at
EUMETSAT was the personal support and welcome we
received from the staff who work there, some of whom
we have known for many years. Other features which
I noticed were the complex and thorough preparations
behind the technical details which lay behind our tour of
their buildings and the more formal presentations which
we experienced during the day. If you have the opportunity
to view the computer‑based materials which formed part ofthe presentations, you will see that they were personalisedfor our visit. [See the separate notice about obtaining the
CD containing these presentations.]

Figure 1 - A full scale modle of a Meteosat outside EUMETSAT HQwith the new data storage building in the background

Prior to our visit, the day’s programme was agreed andsome variations made at our request, giving us time to visit
more of their control facilities and large new data storage
facility which lies adjacent to the Headquarters building.
The programme for our visit, shown below, also lists someof the many EUMETSAT individuals who were involved
with us. Some of the names may be familiar because they
have made presentation at our own GEO Symposiums in
Leicester. We followed the agenda quite closely, with only
the lunch break being shortened a little because of our

Figure 2 - The EUMETSAT HQ building with the newdata storage building shown just beyond the flags

GEO Visit to EUMETSAT - Darmstadt 2015
09.00 - 09.15
09.15 - 09.30

Registration
Welcome address and Overview of Current
Satellite Operations

09.30 - 10.30

EUMETCast DVB-S2 Operations and FutureHigh Volume Service

10.30 - 10.45
10.45 - 11.15

Coffee BreakFuture Satellite Services - Sentinel-3

11.15 - 11.45

Future Satellite Services – MTG

11.45 - 12.20

Tour of the Technical Infrastructure Building

12.30 - 14.00
14.00 - 14.45

Lunch
Presentation of a Case Study

14.45 - 15.15

Tour of the Control Rooms

15.15 - 15.30
15.30 - 16.00

Coffee Break
Update on User Service Activities(UNS, WMS, Data Centre Ordering Client)

16.00

Wrap-up and Group Photograph

Livio Mastroddi
Director of Operations & Services to Users
Klaus-Peter Renner
Dissemination System Manager
François Montagner
Competency Area Manager – Marine Applications
Stephan Kox
Lightning Imager Support Consultant
Peter Muellner
Technical Infrastructure Manager
Jochen Kerkmann
Training Officer
Phil Harvey
Ground Segment Analyst
Sally Wannop - User Relations Manager
Kim-Hui Gaune – User Support Officer
Harald Rothfuss – Data Centre Operations Manager
Sally Wannop – User Relations Manager

The Agenda for the EUMETSAT Visit16

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GEO Quarterly No 48

7 This was the final formal presentation of the day, which
related to ‘User Services’ activities. I did not fully understandall the framework of this service but it was well described in
the presentation slides: Figure 10 gives more detail.
The Evening
The day’s events did not end with our departure fromthe HQ building because the staff there had booked
a local restaurant for an evening meal with us. This
extra curricular event was attended by most of the
GEO delegates, together with a significant number of
EUMETSAT ‘ops’ staff, plus several of the speakers who
had kept us informed during the day.
I would like to place on record how much GEO appreciatedwhat I judge to be our VIP treatment during the day attheir HQ but, perhaps as importantly, the delightful social
evening we spent together.
ESOC
Figure 3 - A group photo outside the EUMETSAT HQ

The second day of our expedition to Darmstadt involved amorning extended visit to the Technical Infrastructure
Building.
Our main meeting area was in the Council Room which
was suitably equipped with a PA system and a computer
projector. There were six sessions in this room, as listedon the agenda. It is not possible to relate all the content ofthese sessions but in summary they were as follows:
1 The welcome address was given by EUMETSAT’s Directorof Operations, who also outlined EUMETSAT’s current
satellite operations (figure 6, next page). The presentation
covered each of the main headings shown on the slide.
2 This presentation indicated that future data rates via the
EUMETCast service will rise in the coming years. This did
not surprise me, as technology and innovation will neverend, but I recognise that I may struggle to collect all theavailable data. Figure 7 illustrates potential future data rates
via the EUMETCast service.
3 I must say I was on a sharp learning curve in relation
to the ESA Copernicus programme and its Sentinel
satellites, which were outlined during this presentation. The
programme involves a series of satellites and EUMETSAT
have a role in the dissemination of some of the data
generated. EUMETSAT is already dealing with Sentinel 2
data, and I note since our visit that Sentinel 3 has beensuccessfully launched and images are being disseminated.

Figure 4 - GEO delegates visiting EUMETSAT’s main control room

visit to ESOC. This centre is, unsurprisingly, quite close to
the EUMETSAT HQ, because it was only in the 1980s that
ESOC’s weather satellite activities were devolved into the
newly formed EUMETSAT.
The ESOC establishment is so popular with visitors thatthe task of organising visits is contracted out to a local
tour agency, leaving the ESOC staff to progress theirjobs with the minimum of interruptions. For a numberof reasons, it took me many months of negotiation withthe tour agency to arrange our GEO visit, but eventually

4 This presentation related to MTG satellites which are
expected to come into service in a few years time. Unlike
EUMETSAT’s previous spinning satellites, MTG will bebased on three axis stabilised satellites carrying many
instruments as illustrated in figures 8 and 8a. These
diagrams give a broad perspective of the planning andimaging capabilities of the MTG satellites.
5 This presentation used a series of case studies ofatmospheric observations. These are available to readers,
as are all the presentations, from the GEO website. The
URL appear at the foot of this page.
6 This presentation related to stored data, not only fromEUMETSAT’s own satellites, but also from their international
partners. Guidelines for access to the immense database,which is steadily being archived, was illustrated (figure 9).

Figure 5 - The busy Sentinel Mission Control Centre

Powerpoint presentations made www.geo-web.org.uk
during the EUMETSAT visit can be downloaded fromhttp://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

Figure 6 - An overview of current satellite operations

December 2015

Figure 7 - EUMETCast DVB-S2 Operations and High Volume Service

Figure 8/8a - Future Satellite Services and Sentinel 3A Mission

Figure 9 - Future Satellite Services – MTG

Figure 10 - Data stored by EUMETSATI persuaded them of GEO special interests. They musthave contacted ESOC about this, because eventually they
not only agreed to our visit but also to provide a technicalspeaker for a one hour presentation at the end of our tour.
Our tour of ESOC took us past the control rooms for many
ESA space projects including the Rosetta Mission, theSentinel satellites and others. In addition to our official
tour guide, we also enjoyed the company of Mark Drapes,
a GEO member who works at ESOC. He had negotiatedtime off from his normal duties in order to be able tospend a few hours with us. His additional knowledge
supplemented that of our tour guide, and indeed provided

18

us access to some areas not normally accessible during
standard tours.
A further bonus to our privileged tour was seeing ESOC’s
amateur radio station, which is located in a small building
separate from the main facility but still within the
grounds. I had to smile when we saw, through the windowof the radio room, a computer screen displaying live
EUMETCast and running David Taylor’s software. I think
the call sign of the station was DE1ESA.
The final hour of our visit was outstanding. Arrangements
had been made for us to receive a presentation relatingwww.geo-web.org.uk

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

to ESA’s Earth observation projects, and particularly theCopernicus programme with its Sentinel satellites. I have to
say I was on a very sharp learning curve with this brilliant
presentation. I will try to keep in touch with this speaker.
Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs
inside the ESOC buildings, but outside photographs wereallowed and we have one showing our group just outside
ESOC buildings.
The evening of this second day was again a very sociable
time and it was great that Mark Drapes was able to join
nearly all of our GEO visitors for that final evening meal.
I place on record, on behalf of all GEO members,
our thanks to the staff at EUMETSAT and ESOC for
the technical tours of their facilities, the informative
presentations we experienced and the social dimension offriendship plus the evening meals. We very much hope to
see you all again in four years’ time.
The Darmstadt Presentations
The technical presentations which were given to us
during GEO’s visit to Darmstadt in July 2015 were mainly
illustrated by means of computer generated images using
PowerPoint software. EUMETSAT recognised that the
subjects covered during the day would be valuable to a

GEO Quarterly No 48

wider audience beyond those present on the day, and they
have kindly made these available for distribution to themembership at large.
Although there is no audio with this visual material,
the slides do provide a broad perspective relating to thecontent of each presentation. They are all now available
for download. You will find the links at the foot of the‘Darmstadt 2015’ page on the GEO website at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php
If any reader is unable to download these through lack ofa reliable Internet connection—or for any other reason—I
can supply them on a CD. Just contact me by post, oremail atfrancis@francisbell.com
giving your name and full postal address. I will send a discto any country providing the costs are covered. There will
be a small element for the disc but the postage may be themain cost, perhaps a few pounds. Rather than requesting
payment in advance, the most economical option is simply
to add the cost to your next membership subscription. I
will include note with the disc giving the total charge.
Elements from the disc’s content may be published,provided EUMETSAT’s copyright is recognised.

Nigel Evans
The GEO Shop transferred to Burnham‑on‑
Sea four years ago. Whilst membership has
reduced over recent years, the Shop playeda major role in supplying the Ayecka SR1 to
GEO members, as well as to commercial andgovernmental organisations in Europe. In total
we have supplied over 170 receivers to date.
We also purchased the remaining stock of APT
aerials from Sandpiper of Aberdare Wales,
and have just a couple of these turnstiles
remaining in stock. We also decided to stock
SDR dongles as they provide the most effectivemeans of capturing images from LRPT datafrom Russia’s Meteor M2 satellite.
Sales of the SR1 have slowed down recently.
GEO has now met the demand from existing
members and currently sells SR1s at a rateof two or three a month: the Shop was selling
three a day just before the DVB‑S2 switchover
deadline. Since the start of 2015 GEO has
sold 40 SR1s and 40 SDR dongles at the timeof writing, and hold stock of approximately
60 SR1 units and 10 SDR dongles.
Items such as LNBs and satellite dishes are
no longer stocked. Such items rarely sell andare easily purchased at great prices onlinefrom the likes of Amazon and eBay.

In addition to providing the SR1, the GEO
team have provided free support on installingthe unit and getting the system up andrunning: this included helping a couple ofindividuals who were close to giving up, to gettheir systems working.
GEO has only had to replace two units underwarranty and one power supply. Special
thanks go to David Taylor and Arne van Bellefor their work supporting members and theShop. The GEO Shop would also like to thankAharon from SpaceBand and Baruch from
Ayecka for their support and for responding
to our feedback on some of the challenges we
faced.
The hobby has changed from one where
enthusiasts would construct their own
receivers and aerials to one which
requires complex technical equipment andcommercially produced large dishes. Combine
this with declining membership, and it’s clearthat the Shop cannot provide the same scaleof financial contribution to the Group as it
used to in past years; however, every item
sold helps towards funding events such as the
Symposium.

www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Barry Smith
Some enthusiasts of Low Earth Orbit weather satellite
reception, myself included, like to see if they can receive asatisfactory signal at low elevations. No matter how goodthe equipment, reception will always be limited by the local
terrain and the height of the antenna.
You will have some idea of your local horizon in different
directions just using your eyes. In the days before theInternet, measuring the angle of the horizon with areasonable degree of accuracy could involve using maps,
measuring the distance between contours and performingsome mathematics. Now, with Google Maps, detailed
measurements should be much easier. I searched for sometime trying to find either a program or a web page that
could automate the process. Eventually I stumbled upon
www.heywhatsthat.com
This website has various tools that make use of
Google Maps with either the map or satellite view, on
which elevation contours can be displayed (the data
sourced from the United States Geological Survey). I havechecked several locations: UK, Germany, Italy, Mexico,
USA and even places like Jan Mayen Island, and it
appears that it works worldwide... except for Antarctica.

Figure 1 - A modified Google Map with added elevation contours aroundthe author’s location (purple ‘X’)
Mao Data © 2015 Google / USGS

The first facility I used waswww.heywhatsthat.com/proﬁler.html
which draws a profile of the terrain between two points
and displays the latitude, longitude and height (above
sea level) of both points, the azimuth of the second pointfrom the first, the distance between the two points and thechange in elevation (figure 2).
From my own location I can see a landmark called Jubilee
Tower, built on a hilltop 1,200 feet above sea level,
overlooking the town of Darwen (which is why, locally, it is
known as Darwen Tower).
Generating a ProﬁleAfter opening the HeyWhatsThat Path Profiler page, startby zooming the map in to the region of interest, or typea placename in the ‘Find’ field. If you require to add
contours, click the ‘Contours’ button at the top right cornerof the map. Next, simply click over the map to select two
points: the ‘origin’ and ‘distant’ points.

Figure 2 - Profiler Data Display

To locate the ‘origin’ accurately you can drag the map (orsatellite view) and zoom in on the location then click. To
locate the ‘distant’ point, zoom out and drag the map,then (if required) zoom in again before clicking. It does
not matter if the ‘origin’ is not visible on the map whenclicking on the ‘distant’ point. To see the profile in adifferent direction click ‘Backspace’ once and click on anew ‘distant’ point. The ‘origin’ selected is maintained until

Figure 3 - Jubilee Tower Profile.

20

Figure 4 - Profile in the same direction (184 deg.) as figure 3, but withthe ‘distant’ point further away.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Figure 5 - Reykjavik and Snæfellsjökull profile for an ideal ‘flat’ Earth

Figure 6 - Reykjavik and Snæfellsjökull profile for 137 MHz with a ‘curved’ Earth

you click ‘Clear’ (or click ‘Backspace’
twice).
A profile is quickly generated, alongwith a table showing all the relevant
parameters (figure 2). In my case,the data showed the tower to be
1.3 miles away from me at azimuth
184° and, from ground level at mylocation, stands at an elevation of 5.5°
(figure 3). The profile shows a straight
red line between the two points
selected. The terrain may be such thatthe red line ‘cuts through’ the profile,
indicating that the distant point
can not be seen from the origin due
to closer land at higher elevations.
Figure 4 shows the profile in the same
direction, but with the distant point
further away, and obscured.
The profile can be tailored, by clicking
on ‘Parameters’ and selecting ‘flat
Earth’ or ‘curved Earth’. If a frequency

is entered, calculations are performed
to show deviation from the straight(red) line for high‑frequency radio
signals. The higher the frequency,
the smaller the deviation from theline‑of‑sight path.

In order to calculate the whole horizon
from the origin, these profiles would
have to be created at intervals aroundthe full 360 degree azimuth, and this,as I discovered, could be very time
consuming.

The effect of these different
parameters can be seen in the
profiles of the path between the
Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavik
and Snæfellsjökull in Iceland(figures 5 and 6). Even though they
are 115 km apart, I could see thevolcano from the church bell-tower
when I was there on holiday. Theorange shaded portion in the lower
image shows the area that would be‘obscured’ at 137 MHz (figure 6). It
should be noted that the profiles are
based on the natural landscape. The
effects of obstructions such as tallbuildings (or indeed trees) can not becatered for.

Fortunately, there is another facilityon the same website to create apanorama. From the main site atwww.geo-web.org.uk

www.heywhatsthat.com
click on New Panorama. By clicking
on the map, or entering the latitude
and longitude of the origin, theprofile of the full 360 degree horizon
is created at intervals of one degree.
Currently the site is only able tocreate panoramas for locations
between 60° north and 54° south(plus most of Alaska).
A useful additional feature is that theelevation of the viewpoint above the21

GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Figure 7 - A typical 360° Panorama

ground can be included. In my case, the Google Map shows
my elevation above sea level as 545 feet. My antenna ismounted on a mast and is 30 feet above ground. The
panorama created is therefore based on the ‘view’ from575 feet. It appears (from reading the technical FAQ) thatthe resulting image and data take into account not only
the curvature of the Earth but also refraction. Tall, distantpeaks appear at a lower elevation than local, less tall,features.
Figure 7 shows the panorama from my own location.
Clicking on the large red triangles shifts the azimuth by
45 degrees per click. The small red triangles—of which
three are shown from my location—identify notable peaks.
The data for these—azimuth, elevation angle, name,distance and height asl—is shown to the right of the map,
lower down the web page.
The panorama is displayed with an exaggerated verticalscale and is comprised of 8 images in PNG format, each
100 pixels wide. The base of the displayed panorama is notnecessarily zero degrees elevation, but clicking on ‘show
0° and 1° alt’ draws horizontal lines at those elevations,giving a sense of the vertical scale of the image.

22

As you move the mouse pointer within the drawn
panorama, the data displayed directly under the image
updates to give the azimuth and elevation (in degrees) at
the tip of the mouse pointer.
Clicking within the panorama creates a profile (with theselected parameters) for the selected azimuth and also
redraws the displayed Google Map (or satellite image). The
zoom setting of the map is not affected, but can easily bechanged with the + and - icons, and the map itself can beclick/dragged to centre the area of interest.
Visibility Cloak
By selecting ‘Visibility cloak’, pixels of an image thatwould be visible from the origin are coloured, each pixel
being 3 arcseconds square and representing roughly 0.8
hectare (2 acres). Figure 7 below, with ‘Contours’ turned off
because there were so many that they tended to obscure
the coloured pixels, shows the effect well from a viewpointon Pen-y-ghent, a 2,277 foot hill in the Yorkshire dales innorthern England. Of course, the reverse also applies. If
you are located in a coloured pixel area of this map, you
should be able to see Pen-y-ghent... if it’s not cloudy orraining!

Figure 7 - Pen-y-ghent

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Les Hamilton

Mike Stevens submitted this image from Himawari-8, captured on October 17, 2015
Image © EUMETSAT 2015

Japan’s latest geostationary Earth observing satellite,
Himawari-8 (Sunflower) was launched on October 7, 2014 andbecame operational on July 7, 2015. It is operated by the Japan
Meteorological Agency (JMA), to support weather forecasting,tropical cyclone tracking, and meteorology research. Most
meteorological agencies in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia
and New Zealand use the satellites for their own weather
monitoring and forecasting operations.
Since the launch of GMS-1 (Himawari-1) in 1977, there
have been three further generations, the latest comprising

Himawari-8 and -9. The Himawari satellites do not carryequipment for direct dissemination: instead, all imagery
derived from the satellites is distributed to the various National
Meteorological and Hydrological Services via an Internet
cloud service. Additionally, there exists the HimawariCast
service which disseminates primary sets of imagery via acommunication satellite using DVB-S2 technology. This service
provides full-disk HRIT/LRIT image files compatible with MTSAT
HRIT/LRIT data every ten minutes.
For more information, refer to the URLs below.

http://www.jma-net.go.jp/msc/en/general/system/system89/index.html
http://www.data.jma.go.jp/mscweb/en/himawari89/himawari_cast/himawari_cast.html
www.geo-web.org.uk

23

24

Great Britain enjoyed an Indian Summer during the final week of September/October 2015, when a large area of High Pressure
became established over the North Sea. This infrared LRPT image from Russia’s Meteor M2 satellite, acquired at 20;51 UT on theevening of October 2, shows splendid detail of Britain, France and The Netherlands as the overnight temperature plummeted.
Image:Les Hamilton / RTL dongle / SDR#
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GEO Quarterly No 48

European Space Agency

Copyright Copernicus Sentinel data (2015) / ESA

This image was captured by Sentinel-2Aon August 5, 2015 from over 780 km above
Earth. It clearly picks out features such as
Rotterdam harbour, patchworks of fields
throughout the country, Amsterdam andSchiphol airport. The image also shows how
the Enkhuizen–Lelystad dike separates thedifferent concentrations of sediment andalgae in the Markermeer and the IJsselmeer.
As part of Europe’s Copernicus environmental
monitoring programme, Sentinel-2A carries

an innovative wide swath high-resolution
multispectral imager with 13 spectral
bands for a new perspective of our landand vegetation. The combination of highresolution, novel spectral capabilities, aswath width of 290 km and frequent revisit
times will provide unprecedented views ofEarth. Its images will be used for numerous
applications, including monitoring plant
growth, mapping changes in land cover,monitoring forests and for detecting pollution
in lakes and coastal waters.

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December 2015

NASA Earth Observatory

The ice of a piedmont glacier spills from a steep valley
on to a relatively ﬂat plain, where it spreads out
unconstrained like pancake batter. Elephant Foot
Glacier [1] in northeastern Greenland is an excellent
example; it is particularly noted for its symmetry. But thelargest piedmont glacier in North America, and possibly
the world, is Malaspina in southeastern Alaska.

glacier and deposited at its sides. Where two glaciers ﬂow
together, their lateral moraines merge to form a medial
moraine. Glaciers that ﬂow at a steady speed tend to havemoraines that are relatively straight.

On September 24, 2014, the Operational Land Imager(OLI) aboard NASA’s Landsat 8 satellite acquired thisimage of Malaspina Glacier. The main source of ice comesfrom Seward Glacier, located at the top‑center of thisimage. The Agassiz and Libbey glaciers are visible to its
west and the Hayden and Marvine glaciers on its east.

But what causes the dizzying pattern of curves, zigzags,
and loops of Malaspina’s moraines? Glaciers in this areaof Alaska periodically ‘surge’, meaning that they lurch
forward quickly for one to several years. As a result of
this irregular ﬂow, the moraines at the edges and between
glaciers can become folded, compressed, and sheared
to form the characteristic loops seen on Malaspina. For
instance, a surge in 1986 displaced moraines on the eastside of Malaspina by as much as five kilometres.

The brown lines on the ice are moraines—areas where
soil, rock, and other debris have been scraped up by the

Elephant Foot Glacier - GEOQ 46 (2015), page 31

26

Reference

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GEO Quarterly No 48

Les Hamilton
It’s exactly a year since GEO Quarterly published its first article on
the reception of images from Russia’s Meteor-M2 satellite [1] andthere have been several more articles since [2,3,4,5]. But during theyear, thanks to new versions of the SDRSharp Software DefinedRadio application from Airspy.com, customised plugins for
SDRSharp written by Vasili Beliakov (http://rtl-sdr.ru) and updated
decoding software from Oleg Bekrenev (Robonuka), everything
has advanced at an unprecedented rate.
Although much of what has previously been written remains true,recent developments have created problems which now make it
more difficult for newcomers to set up a working Meteor LRPT
receiving station. Many of the URLs for downloading software
have changed; as SDRSharp and its plugins develop apace,incompatibilities arise that can cause a system to fail; and support
for Windows XP has ended. Current versions of SDRSharp andits plugins require Windows Vista, -7, -8 or -10 to function. They
cannot be run in Windows XP.
The most recent change occurred in September 2015 when
Microsoft’s dot NET 3.5 Framework was abandoned in favour of thenewer dot Net 4.6. Current versions of SDRSharp and the plugins
required for Meteor reception have all been recompiled to run
under dot NET 4.6, and will not run on the older Framework. In manycases the converse is also true, and older plugins may not work
under the new Framework.
Another change that will be become important when the next
satellite in the Meteor series is launched is a new transmission
mode. QPSK is to be replaced by OQPSK, and from version 1.5,
the Meteor Demodulator plugin already possesses this capability.
This article is basically an updated User Guide to receiving
Meteor M2 using an RTL-SDR dongle, its key thrust to takeonboard new developments and clarify all the essential issues.

Preparing a Computer for Meteor Reception
Many readers will have benefitted from Alex’s tutorial: “Receiving
Meteor M-N2 Images in Realtime with the QPSK Plugin on RTLSDR Dongles”, which is still a valuable document [6], and can be
downloaded from the GEO website at

the files into it. My own preference is to create the SDRSharp
folder directly on the C\: drive.
Interfacing SDRSharp with the RTL-SDR Dongle
In order that SDRSharp can detect your RTL dongle, theappropriate driver must be installed. In earlier versions of
SDRSharp, the driver installation software zadig.exe was provided
as part of the package. With the current versions this is no longer
the case. Instead, you will find a file called install-rtlsdr.bat in the
SDRSharp folder. Run this as administrator (you must be online,of course) and it will deposit a copy of zadig inside the SDRSharp
folder.

Figure 1 - The ‘Zadig’ driver installer.

Before carrying out the next step, you must plug an RTL-SDR
dongle into one of your computer’s USB ports so that the
Bulk Interface options become accessible. Now run zadig as
Administrator, to download and install the required driver. Make
sure that the drop-down selector shows: ‘Bulk-In Interface(Interface 0)’. If you can’t see this option, click ‘Options’ and tick
‘List all devices’ first (figure 1).
Front End RTL-SDR Drivers
By default, the SDRSharp ‘Source’ menu defaults to the Airspy
Front End Driver. To engage your RTL-SDR dongle, this must
be changed to the ‘RTL-SDR (USB) option. This provides a
relatively simple RTL Driver, with just a single RF Gain slider. If

http://www.geo-web.org.uk/lrpt_Files/
MeteorM-N2_Realtime.pdf
Unfortunately, many of the URLs listed for downloading thenecessary software, specifically SDRSharp and its plugins,are no longer valid. There have also been name changes: for
instance, what used to be termed the ‘QPSK Demodulator ‘is
now called ‘Meteor Demodulator’.
SDRSharp from Airspy.com
SDRSharp is now distributed under the ‘Airspy’ banner, and canbe downloaded from their website at
http://airspy.com/download/
where it is the top option on the page. A new development is that
this download is a zipped archive already containing most of thefiles you require to run SDRSharp.
Start by creating an empty folder named SDRSharp on yourcomputer (preferably not in the Programs folder) and extract all
www.geo-web.org.uk

Figure 2 - The simple, default RTL-SDR Driver

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GEO Quarterly No 48
you use this driver, you must tick ‘Offset
Tuning’ (figure 2). By default, when newly
installed, the RF Gain defaults to zero.
Drag this, initially, to at least mid-scale toenable reception of a Meteor signal.
There is, however, a more versatilealternative, Vasili’s optional modified R820T
driver, which offers three levels of gain
control (figure 3). This can be downloaded
as the file ‘modrtlsdr.zip’ fromhttp://rtl-sdr.ru/uploads/download/
modrtlsdr.zip
Extract the contents of this file and copy
the four DLL files into the SDRSharp
folder.

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Preparing for Reception
There are two options for receiving
imagery from the Meteor satellites.
The simplest procedure is to store thesatellite transmission as an S‑file, thendecode it into images using Oleg’s
LRPTOffLineDecoder software. An alternative
is to make use of the TCP socket featureof the Meteor Demodulator, coupled with amodified version of LRPTOfflineDecoder,which allows real-time visualisation of thesatellite images building up, and which
also automatically saves these images. I
prefer the former system, which is what
will be described below.
Setting up the SDRSharp Radio Section
Here, it is essential to select WFM(wide FM) mode, and a Bandwidthof 120,000 Hz. It is also helpful to tick
Snap to grid and set the Step size to
100 kHz. You must also check Correct IQ.

Figure 5 - Entering the Meteor frequency

Figure 6 - The Frequency Manager Menu

The top item in figure 6 relates to the ATIS
(Automatic Terminal Information Service)signal for my local airport in Aberdeen. An
ATIS [7,8] frequency is useful for precisely
calibrating an RTL-SDR Dongle using
the Tuner Correction feature of the RTL
Controller (figure 3).
The ATIS signal shows in SDRSharp asa sharp peak with a precise frequency.
Zoom in to this and adjust it to exactly
centre screen using the RTL Driver’s
Tuner correction option.

Figure 3 - The modified RTL-SDR Driver

The Meteor and DDE Tracker Plugins

To enable it, you must copy and paste thefront-end key from the ‘ReadMe’ file into
the FrontEnds.xml file in the SDRSharp
folder (you can easily do this using
Wordpad), then save it. Next time you run
SDRSharp, you will find the new option‘RTL-SDR (R820T)’ in the ‘Source’ menu.
Note that this driver deals with the offset
tuning feature automatically.
You can access the RTL Driver
Menu by clicking the ‘wheel’
icon at the top of the SDRSharp
screen. Figure 3 shows thesettings I use for receiving Meteor.
A degree of experimentation may benecessary depending on local conditions
and your PC. If you experience difficulties
obtaining good images because ofambient rf, it is often possible to reduce
this by experimenting with different Gainlevels and the Device sample rate.

28

By default, the SDRSharp package
does not contain the plugins required for
Meteor tracking and reception. You must
download and install these yourself.
Download the Meteor plugin fromhttp://rtl-sdr.ru/
uploads/download/meteor.zip
Figure 4 - Setting the Radio Parameters

The Frequency Manager Section
The best way to centre the precise
137.100 MHz Meteor frequency on thescreen is to edit the appropriate details
into the Frequency Manager (figure 5)then select it from its menu. (figure 6).
If future Meteor satellites transmit ondifferent frequencies, this will provide an
rapid means of switching satellite.

Copy the two DLL files into your
SDRSharp folder, then copy and paste the‘magic line’ into the Plugins.xml file.
Download the DDE Tracker plugin fromhttp://rtl-sdr.ru/
uploads/download/ddetracker.zip
This time there are three DLL files to copy
into the SDRSharp folder, and additionally
the SDRSharpDriverDDE.exe file. Copy andpaste its ‘magic line’ into Plugins.xml.

To download the very latest SDRSharp
plugins, visit Vasili Beliakov’s website atwww.geo-web.org.uk
http://rtl-sdr.ru

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Receiving Images Manually
You are now in a position to receive
images from Meteor satellites manually,
without at this point making use of the
DDE Tracking Client.
With 137.1 MHz precisely centred on
the SDRSharp screen, click the triangle
icon at the top of the display to initialise
SDRSharp reception.
In the Meteor Demodulator screen (figure 7):• Click ‘Demodulator’• Click ‘File’ in the Output section• Click the ‘Start’ button• Check ‘Out’ above the Diagram• Check ‘Constellation’ below it
The software is now active, although you
will not see any evidence of this until a
Meteor signal is being received (figure 8).
The Meteor signal is the pronounced‘hump’ at the centre of the SDRSharp
display (the two peaks to its right arecaused by rf interference).

Figure 9 - Decoding an S-file with LRPTOfflineDecoder‘Symbol Rate’. Apart from a few earlytest transmissions, Meteor M2 always
transmits at the 72000 symbol rate.

The shaded section encompassing
the ‘hump’ relates to the 120,000 Hz
bandwidth set in the ‘Radio’ plugin.
Figure 8 - A section from the SDR# screen
showing a received Meteor signal

During reception of a QPSK signal,
the constellation diagram will display
the typical four-dot pattern illustrated
in figure 7. Eventually, as the satellite
rises higher above the horizon and its
signal strengthens, the word Locked willappear, indicating that the QPSK-encoded
Meteor signal is being demodulated andsaved. At the same time, in the ‘Output’
panel, you will see the ‘Write’ value
increasing as the S‑file containing thedemodulated Meteor data is written to thehard drive. When the signal level falls
too low for decoding, the process comesto an end. You can now press the ‘Stop’
button and process the data (describedlater), or simply leave the system runningto continue unattended reception ofsubsequent Meteor passes.
By default, S-files containing thedemodulated Meteor signal, are stored
inside the SDRSharp folder. I find it
more convenient to create a new folder
on the hard drive—called QPSK—and
use the ‘Configure’ button in the Meteor
Demodulator to define this as the default
save location. For the record, the saved
files have the structure
2015_10_19_LRPT_09-28-51.s
and include the date and time of reception.

Figure 7 - The Meteor Demodulator Screen

Note that all the default parameters within
Meteor Demodulator have been fine-tuned
for the Meteor M2 satellite, and need notnormally be altered. Do not change thewww.geo-web.org.uk

When future Meteor satellites arrive,at least one change will be essential.
Meteor M2 uses QPSK-encoding for
its transmissions, but all forthcoming
Meteors will abandon this format infavour of OQPSK-encoding. This isalready built into the software, and will
have to be selected manually using the‘Modulation type’ option. Whether any
other changes will be needed, only time
will tell.
Producing Meteor Images
I’ll cover the use of the DDE Tracker
plugin to control Meteor reception below,
but to complete the initial ‘beginners guide’
it’s time to describe how to decode thesaved s‑file data into images.
The s-files saved by the Meteor
Demodulator plugin can be resolved
into images using Oleg Bekrenev’s
LRPTOfflineDecoder (figure 9)
This software can be downloaded fromhttp://meteor.robonuka.ru/
for-experts/new-lrpt-analizer/
There are two versions, the advantage ofthe more recent one being greater control
via an ini file. A sample ini file for eachversion is also provided.
The ini file can be used to suppress
unwanted log files, and also to determine
which colour composite image is produced
by default. My version is as follows:[IN]
mode=72K[OUT]
rgb=125.bmp
logs=noThis acknowledges that Meteor M2
operates at a Symbol Rate of 72000/

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observationsec, creates BMP colour composite images by combining
channels 1+2+5, and suppresses unwanted log files. Type
this into Notepad and save it with the same stem filename as
LRPTOfflineDecoder, but with the extension ‘.ini’.
To commence processing, click the ‘72K’ button and navigate to
the location where you have saved your s-files. Processing should
start immediately, soon signified by the appearance of a 4-dot
constellation in the upper left panel, similar to that seen during
demodulation (figures 7,9). Processing is complete when theupper blue progress bar reaches 100% and the lower bar falls tozero.

December 2015

As explained in David Taylor’s article in our previous issue [5], socalled RGB125 images (formed by combining channels 1+2+5)
are your gateway to a wealth of processing options. You candownload his free program, LRPT Processor, from this URL
http://satsignal.eu/software/LRPT-processor.html

Next, click the Generate RGB button to create the colour
composite image. If no image appears, make sure that thefrequencies showing in the three RGB selector boxes correspondwith the channels that produced images in LRPTOfflineDecoder. In
figure 9, channels 1, 2 and 5 are displaying images, so it is thefrequencies shown at the top of these that should be chosen for
the R, G and B selectors (figure 10a). The resulting RGB imageis shown in figure 11a.

Figure 12 - A geometrically corrected version of the image

Geometrically Rectifying Images

Figure 10a
Selecting an RGB125 image

Figure 10b
Selecting an RGB122 image

The images received by Meteor satellites show geometrical
distortion to east and west as a result of Earth’s curvature. Thiscan be corrected to produce more satisfying results using the
program SmoothMeteor, which can be downloaded from this page
http://leshamilton.co.uk/meteor3m.htm
David Taylor’s LRPT Processor also provides an option to provide
this geometrical correction. The corrected version of figure 11b
is illustrated above in figure 12. Note that the broad white gap
in the image is due to a hardware fault aboard the satellite. This
results in a break roughly every 6½ minutes during almost everytransmission.

Fully Automated Meteor Reception
Recording Meteor transmissions manually, as described above,
can produce very satisfying results: but improvements are
possible. As the satellite approaches and recedes from yourstation, the Doppler effect modifies the received frequency,
increasing it as the satellite approaches and decreases it as
it departs. If a means can be found to continuously adjust thisDoppler effect during a satellite pass, the software will lock on to
the signal earlier, provide longer images, and be less susceptible
to the effects of local rf interference.
Figure 11a
The resulting RGB125 image

Figure 11b
The resulting RGB122 image

This has a distinctly unusual appearance but don’t discountit. But if you prefer a more appealing instant result, select thechannel 2 image for both the G and B components (figure 10b)
to produce the more realistic rendition shown in figure 11b. To
save the displayed image as either a BMP or JPG, click the‘Save’ option above it.

30

The solution is to use a satellite tracking program such as
Sebastian Stoff’s Orbitron (figure 13) to control SDRSharp andfeed it an updated Doppler-corrected frequency throughout thesatellite pass. Orbitron can be downloaded fromhttp://www.stoff.pl/
Double-click on the file ‘orbitron.exe’ and install it directly to the
C:\ drive (not to the ‘Programs’ folder). When first run, Orbitron
has an annoying habit of taking over the entire screen. Press
Alt+Enter on the keyboard to reduce it in size.

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Interfacing Orbitron with SDRSharp and DDE Tracker
The most important task in configuring Orbitron to engage withboth SDRSharp and the DDE Tracker module is to open the‘Orbitron/Config’ folder and edit its ‘setup.cfg’ file to add an entry
for the SDRSharp driver. Load setup.cfg into a text editor suchas Wordpad and add the following two lines at the end of the file,
immediately following the [Satellites] section, then resave it.
[Drivers]
SDRSharp=C:\SDRSharp\SDRSharp.exe
This, of course, presupposes that you have SDRSharp installed
directly on your PC’s C:\ drive. If not, replace ‘C:\’ with the path to
the SDRSharp folder.
Setting up Orbitron
There is an excellent, illustrated guide to setting up all therequired parameters for Orbitron in Alex’s tutorial document
referenced above [6]. Every step of the procedure is illustrated bya screenshot, making the entire process very straightforward. A
brief summary follows here.

Figure 13 - Orbitron - Main Screen

Updating Satellite Orbital Elements
It is important to keep Orbitron updated with the latest
Two-Line Elements (TLEs) for the Meteor satellite in orderthat the software can track the satellite accurately. These
are available from the Celestrak site as a text file called‘weather.txt’. Orbitron can download these automatically.
Click the Setup icon, which is located just above thetabs along the foot of the Orbitron display (circled
in red on figure 13). Select the ‘TLE updater’ tab andmake sure that the ‘www.celestrak.com - All’ group is selected(this should already contain ‘weather.txt’), and check the box
against ‘Mark this group to autoupdate’.
Load the Satellite 2-lineData
Click the Load TLE button below the panel at top right in the
Orbitron display. Navigate to ‘weather.txt’ in the browserthat opens and double-click to select it. The names of thevarious weather satellites will appear in the pane (figure 13).
Select Meteor M2 as the active satellite by ticking thecheckbox to the left of its name in this listing.
AOS Notification
Open the ‘Miscellaneous’ tab. If the Play sound box is ticked,
an alert will sound as soon as the satellite rises above yourhorizon. There is also an option to delay the alert till thesatellite elevation is several degrees above the horizon.

Figure 14 - Orbitron - Rotor/Radio Tablisted in the menu, you must insert it and enter your latitude
and longitude coordinates manually.
Interfacing with SDRSharp
Finally, open the ‘Rotor/Radio’ tab (second from right at thefoot of the display - figure 14) and enter 137.100 in the
DNlink/MHz field. In the Dnlink mode field, select ‘FM-W’.
Finally, select your driver from the dropdown list. You shouldfind an entry for SDRSharp there (you appended this toOrbitron’s setup.cfg file earlier).
Note: If you find that the SDRSharp driver has not been
added to the dropdown list, the most usual cause of the
problem is installing Orbitron in the Program Files (x86) folder.
It may be sufficient to move the entire Orbitron folder directly
to the C:\ drive. If this doesn’t help, delete the Orbitron folder
and make a fresh install directly to the C:\ drive.
Running SDRSharp via Orbitron

Make Meteor the Active Satellite
Open the ‘Extra’ tab. Tick the final option ‘AOS notification: makesatellite active’.
Select the Displayed World Map
Open the ‘World map’ tab, where you can select from a variety
of maps. The popular ‘coloured’ option is shown in figure 13.
Set your Time Zone
First, make sure that your computer clock is correct for yourtime zone. Absolute accuracy is not crucial, but should bewithin a few seconds of the true time. It’s a good idea tocheck regularly, or use software to maintain accuracy.
If your PC clock is not set to local time, open the ‘General’ tab
and add a correction for Local time.
Set your Location
On the main Orbitron screen, open the ‘Location’ tab at thefoot of the display and select your location. If this is not

There are three things you must do to initiate automated Meteor
reception after starting Orbitron:• Open Orbitron’s ‘Rotor/Radio’ tab, and click once on the icon
immediately to the right of the ‘Driver’ slot (which should
now show ‘SDRSharp’). There are often a few seconds
delay before the SDRSharp screen appears.
• Click the triangle icon at the top of the SDRSharp screen to
start radio reception.
• Make sure that the ‘Scheduler’ option in the DDE Tracker
plugin is ticked (in fact, if you open SDRSharp on its own,
set this option, and close down, it will automatically beticked every time you run the program via Orbitron).
At the end of a session, close Orbitron, which will automaticallyclose SDRSharp too.

Configuring the DDE Tracker Plugin
The DDE Tracker must be programmed to perform appropriate
tasks, when a Meteor M2 signal is first detected (AOS:
Acquisition of Signal) and at the end of the pass (LOS: Loss

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Figure 15 - The inactive DDE Client Panel
Figure 17 - The blank DDE Tracker ‘Scheduler’ screen.

Figure 16 - The DDE has detected QPSKof Signal). At AOS these consist of thetransmission frequency, modulation typeand bandwidth, plus commands to send
the corrected frequency (calculated byOrbitron) to the Meteor Demodulator,
then finally to activate the ‘Demodulator’
checkbox in the Meteor plugin panel assoon as QPSK has been detected in thetransmission.
At LOS, the final two items are switched off
again (figure 18) .
1. Entering the Satellite Name
The name you type into the ‘Satellite
name’ field must be identical with the way
it appears in the TLE (2‑line Keplerian
Element) file used by Orbitron: with one
important exception. Any ‘space’ charactermust be replaced by the ‘underscore’
character. So ‘METEOR-M 2’ in the TLE filetranslates to ‘METEOR-M_2’ in DDE Tracker.
Even changing the lettering from upper
case to lower case means that tracking will
not work.
2. Preparing for Satellite AOS
Any of the options listed in the right handpanel of figure 17 can be selected with themouse and copied into either of the centre
panes using the arrow buttons. The top
panel, labelled ‘AOS’ relates to Acquisitionof the satellite signal.
Add Radio Modulation TypeClick radio_modulation_type<> and copy it
to the top centre panel. Edit it by typing‘wfm’ between the angle brackets.

32

Figure 18 - The DDE Scheduler, configured to receive Meteor M2.

Add the Centre Frequency
Click radio_center_frequency_Hz<>and copy it across too. Type
137100000 between the angle
brackets.
Add the Radio Frequency
Click radio_frequency_Hz<> andcopy it across. Type 137100000
between the angle brackets.
Add the Radio Bandwidth
Click radio_bandwidth_Hz<> andcopy it across. Type 120000
between the angle brackets.
Finally
Click send_tracking_frequency_On
and copy it across.
Click QPSK_demodulator_Start andcopy it across (this switches on
the Meteor Demodulator).
3. Preparing for Satellite LOS
Only two items need be added to thelower centre panel, QPSK_demodulator_
Stop and send_tracking_frequency_Off.
Note that there is no ‘Save’ button.
All entries and alterations areautomatically saved to a file called
www.geo-web.org.uk

DDESchedule.xml, which is found in the
SDRSharp folder.
Running SDRSharp/Orbitron
Everything is now in place to records‑files from Meteor M2 transmissions fully
automatically, and under Doppler correction.
Just run Orbitron, select the Rotor/Radiotab, click the icon beside the SDRSharp
Driver, and wait a few seconds till SDRSharp
activates. Click the ‘triangle’ icon to start theradio, and wait.
References
1 Receiving Meteor M2 with an RTL-SDR Dongle
Raydel Abreu Espinet - GEOQ 44, page 6.
2 Trials and Tribulations Receiving Meteor M2
LRPT
Les Hamilton - GEOQ 45, page 41.
3 EMC Advice for using an SDR Dongle
Norbert Pütz - GEOQ 46, page 21.
4 Reducing Noise on an SDR Dongle
Marc Peigneux, GEOQ 46, page 32.
5 Enhance Meteor imagery with LRPT Image
Processor
David Taylor - GEOQ 47, page 6.
6. Receiving Meteor M-N2 Images in Realtime by‘Happysat’
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/lrpt_Files/
MeteorM-N2_Realtime.pdf
7 ATIS fequency list
http://www.javiation.co.uk/vu.html
8 UK ATC Frequencies
http://www.lightning.org.uk/frequencies.html

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

NASA Earth Observatory

Figure 1 - The Svalbard archipelago, imaged by the MODIS
instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite, on August 9, 2015.
Image: NASA/GSFC, Rapid Response

Based on its location above the Arctic Circle, just 1,300
kilometres from the North Pole, you might anticipate that the
remote Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard would be a barren
land of snow, ice, and rock. However, the West Spitzbergen
Current brings a relatively warm stream of water from the south
into the fjords and inlets of western Svalbard. This warm watermoderates the climate sufficiently that coastal areas and certain

valleys witness an explosion of green in the summer. In contrast,
a cool south-flowing ocean current keeps the eastern coasts of
Svalbard’s islands cold and snowy even during the summer.
The image opposite, acquired by the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite,
shows the archipelago as it appeared on August 9, 2015. Notewww.geo-web.org.uk

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December 2015

how sea ice hugs Svalbard’s eastern
coastlines. In western Svalbard, however,dense mats of moss, grass, and flowers
emerge in the light-filled days of summer.
The pair of images on the following pagewere acquired by the Operational Land
Imager (OLI) aboard NASA’s Landsat 8
satellite, and illustrate the dramatic
summer greening. Figure 2 shows theReindalen Valley on April 29, 2015, whenthe entire landscape was in the embraceof snow and ice.
Contrast this with an image of the same
area on July 9, shown in figure 3, where
the dark green areas near the lakes in
the lower parts of the scene are wetlands
dominated by Fisher’s Tundragrass(Dupontia fisheri) and White Cottongrass(Eriophorum scheuchzeri). Patches ofpeat moss, rare in other parts of Svalbard,
are also present in the wetlands. The
lighter green areas are mostly tundra
heath, made up largely of Northern
Woodrush (Luzula confusa) and Polar
Willow (Salix polaris). The gray areas
below the snow line are rocky areas withminimal vegetation, although Svalbard
poppy (Papver dahlianum) and someother species are present in small
numbers. In total, Svalbard is home to 178
vascular plant species, 390 moss species,
708 lichen species, and more than 750
fungi species.

Figure 2 - The Reindalen Valley on April 29, 2015

Stein Rune Karlsen, a Norwegian
ecologist at Norut Northern ResearchInstitute, has developed a method ofmonitoring the timing and duration of
the summer growing season using
satellite observations. In a 2014 study,
Karlsen reported that the average onsetof the growing season in the Reindalen
Valley occurred in June, though there isconsiderable variability from one year to
the next. Figure 4 depicts the timing of theonset of the growing season for a broader
area that includes Reindalen Valley andseveral other valleys in western Svalbard.
Karlsen also found that MODIS detecteda slight trend toward a later growing
season—a tenth of one day per year, or
1.3 days for the study period. This cameas a surprise, because temperatures
increased 1.46 degrees Celsius during/.
June and 0.44 °C in July over the study
period. However, the amount of snowfall
also increased over the 14-year period.

Figure 3 - The Reindalen Valley on July 9, 2015

“The effects on the growth season due
to the higher spring temperatures were
probably counteracted by the effects of theincreased amount of winter snow, which
delays the timing of winter snowmelt,”
explained Karlsen.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens,using Landsat data from the US Geological Survey.

34

Figure 4 - Onset of the growing season in Svalbard

www.geo-web.org.uk

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Les Hamilton
On October 10 this year, Peter Kooistra
sent me a Meteor M2 image he had justreceived, which showed an unexpectedcyan coloured object in central Turkey.
This came on a day when Meteor’s
infrared channel had been deactivatedfor decontamination purposes, andreplaced by channel‑3. The majority ofMeteor enthusiasts tend to concentrateon producing RGB colour composites
using just channels 1 and 2 (so‑called
RGB122), and this format just did notshow this object. But Peter included all
three channels in his image (RGB123),and contacted me to query what the cyancolour meant. Cyan in RGB123 images
generally indicates cold: high altitude cloudin the atmosphere and snow/ice on land.
After searching on Google Maps, I identified
the location as Lake Tuz.
Located in an endorheic basin in central
Turkey, Lake Tuz is one of the world’s
largest hypersaline lakes with a surface
area of approximately one thousand square
kilometres. In the NASA image on page 37,
Lake Tuz is coloured white, bright cyan,
blue and green: vegetation shows as green
and bare ground tan.
Tuz Golu in Turkish, the lake is the second
largest in Turkey, lying at an elevation of
905 metres but, in spite of it’s huge area,
is very shallow for most of the year witha depth of under one metre. During drysummer months, the water evaporates inhuge quantities to leave crust of salt up to
thirty centimetres thick over its surface.

The RGB122 version of the Meteor M image, barely showing Lake Tuz

This salt is extracted, worked, refined andsold in local markets, thus making thisthe biggest industry for the economy ofcommunities in the area. It’s not only thebiggest salt lake of Turkey but one of thebiggest in the world as well. Lake Tuz has
no outlet, and only a few surface streams
feed it, but these tend to dry up during
the hot summer months. Rainfall in thesurrounding area is only of the order of
250 millimetres per year.
At the time of Peter’s image, the Lake Tuz
basin would almost certainly have been dry
and salt encrusted. By the time the image
was received, in early morning, overnight
cooling might have created a pool of cold
air in this mountain basin, or perhaps evena ground frost, hence the cyan colour in
the RGB123 Meteor image. Both versionsof the image are reproduced opposite.

The RGB123 version of the Meteor M image, clearly showing Lake Tuz

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

Lake Tuz, imaged by NASA’s Landsat 5 satellite in June 2009.
Image: NASA GSFC Landsat/LDCM EPO Team36

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December 2015

Following two miserable wet days beneath a slow moving depression, the skies cleared during the evening of October 8, 2015, resulting in a rapid
drop in temperature. The result was this superb Meteor M2 infrared image of Britain and northern France, acquired from the 20:12 UT pass
Image: Les Hamilton / RTL dongle / SDR#

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

Chris van Lint
Editor’s Note
In the very first issue of GEO Quarterly, when APT in
the 137 MHz band was still the entry‑level experience
for the majority of amateurs receiving weather satellite
imagery, we published Chris van Lint’s simple but
effective design for a QFH antenna that could be built ina few hours. Noting that there has been some discussion
in the Internet Forums on antennas for receiving the new
Russian Meteor satellites, it seems an appropriate time,over a decade later, to repeat the article for newcomers to
the hobby.
Chris has since relocated to Australia, and regularreaders may remember that he contributed a fineMeteor M2 image of Australia in GEO Quarterly 45.
BackgroundIn the past, many articles have appeared in a number ofpublications singing the praises of Quadrifilar Helix (QFH)
antennas. Those of us who have had an opportunity to
try such an antenna will agree that this device appears to
be optimum for APT, since it is truly circularly polarised,with more gain as compared to the classical Turnstile or
Lindenblad types. Often these articles are accompanied byconstruction details to allow the home constructor to build
a suitable device themselves. The majority of these articles,
however, employ an infinite balun matching-scheme,
which is not exactly constructor‑friendly to the averagehome experimenter.
These antennas rely on using copper tubing filars
together with a hard-line coax filar to form the balun. In
some locations, hard-line coax is difficult to obtain and
expensive. QFH antennas using this construction method
require that the filars be insulated from the support andoften PVC piping is used for this purpose. Since the filars
have to be shaped into the desired helical form, they haveto be self‑supporting, and some means of anchoring themto the support mast has to be devised. This is not an easy
feat, in addition to which the shaping of 8‑mm tubing is
not as simple as it seems. The interconnection of the filars
has to be done carefully or the antenna will not work.
Construction details which I have seen so far are rather
confusing and they have put me off building a QFH of theinfinite matching balun type.
Ever since arriving in Hong Kong I have been plagued by
pager interference. Hong Kong uses the 137‑138 MHz
frequency bands for paging applications as well as
various others. In fact there is a pager transmission on
137.95 MHz. This has made reception of certain APT
frequencies a misery and I cannot get acceptable resultson the 137.50 MHz and 137.85 MHz transmissions. After
having tried numerous ideas to overcome the problem,
including narrow band-pass filtering, I have decided thatthe only practical solution is to change location. This is ofcourse easier said than done. It is not practical to relocatefrom my present abode for a number a reasons, not leastof which is the fact that another residential area will notnecessarily offer relief from the interference. The only areas

38

Figure 1 - Measurements for constructing the QFH

where one could expect to get interference‑free reception
would be the more remote and less populated areas on thesouth eastern part of Hong Kong Island and this would
require some form of mobile set‑up. Having convincedmyself that the best possible APT antenna must be the
QFH, I set my sights on constructing a portable version.
Description
I claim no originality for the antenna I am about todescribe. As mentioned before, there are numerous
descriptions in circulation at the moment. A fundamental
deviation from classical QFH antennas is the fact thatin this design the filars are not supported directly by
the mast but by PVC arms. This relatively simple but
nevertheless brilliant idea came from Eugene Buck W3KH,
who also provided the dimensions. My contribution liesin the idea of using removable arms and conventional
ﬂexible coaxial cable for the filars and matching line
alike, which allows the filars to be folded against the
support mast when not in use. This antenna is a ½‑turn,half wavelength device using a self‑phasing big/smallloop configuration. Impedance matching is achieved byan infinite balun arrangement in which one of the four

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

cable extra rigidity which is useful for shaping the filars
once the arms are fitted. Since the APT satellites in which
we are interested transmit their signals using right-handcircular polarisation (RHCP), the filars must be wound inan anti-clockwise direction when viewing the antenna fromthe top down its vertical axis.
Construction
Start by cutting a suitable length of support mast. In mycase I cut the mast just long enough to allow a socket tobe fitted inside the lowest 2-way junction box. This allows
the mast to be extended by inserting another length of
32 mm pipe. Cut holes in the undersides of the junction
boxes. The two junction boxes are cemented together at a
90° offset angle to form a cross and a total of three sets ofsuch assemblies are required.
Slide the centre assembly on to the mast, followed by the
top and bottom ones. For the centre assembly, a suitablehole may be cut in one of the junction box lids which isthan slid over the mast to cover the centre assembly. Notethat no dimensions are given for positioning the centre
assembly, as this is not critical and should simply be near
the centre. Cement the assemblies into place, initially withsolvent-based PVC cement. I find that this adhesive, once
a little dry, allows some level of adjustment before it setscompletely. Once you are satisfied that the assemblies arecorrectly aligned and the adhesive is dry, apply generous
amounts of an epoxy-based adhesive to complete the mastassembly.

Figure 2 - Connection diagram for constructing the QFH

elements is a length of coax to produce a characteristic
impedance of approximately 40 Ω. The antenna isconstructed from standard 20 mm PVC electrical conduit
tubing for the support arms and a length of 32 mm PVC
tube for the support mast. To accommodate the support
arms I used six PVC 2-way junction boxes. The relevant
dimensions can be noted from figure 1. The dimensions
for individual arms are always half the total width whenmeasured from the centre of the support mast. QFH
antennas of this type use a big loop and a small loop
and this is the reason why, instead of 4-way, two 2-way
junction boxes were used, mounted at 90° one above theother. This procedure creates a (B)ig and (S)mall loop.
Each loop splits into two filars, which are supported byremovable PVC arms B1, B2, S1 and S2. Figure 2 shows
the connection of the filars in relation to each other. Notethat the smaller loop is not connected at the bottom andfor this reason filars S1 and S2 may be left joined so that asingle length of coaxial cable 221.6 mm in length is used.
The diagram shows connection details as viewed from the
top of the mast, connections at the bottom and the joiningof the feed cable.
Only one filar (one half of the big loop) is used as a coaxial
conductor and those filars which do not require use asa coaxial cable have the centre conductors soldered tothe braid at both ends. I used RG-6U coaxial cable, notbecause of its low loss, which is not particularly relevantat these frequencies, but because it has a continuousaluminium shield in addition to the braid: this gives theNow cut the support arms. The actual length will dependon the physical dimensions of the junction boxes used.
Make sure that you adjust the final length on the basis of
the arms having been tightly fitted into the junction box
sockets. Remember that the loop dimensions shown infigure 1 constitute the total width of each of the two loops,
and the width of the corresponding arms should therefore
be half this, and measured from the centre of the mast.
Allow a little extra length to accommodate two slots in the
support arms into which the coaxial cable filars can besnugly pressed.
Each junction box assembly will have one pair of short andone pair of long support arms. Drill holes big enough toaccommodate the coaxial cable on top of, and as close as
possible to, the topmost arms. For the bottom set of arms
do the same, but below the arms.
Once completed, insert and twist the arms so that the slot
slopes from top left down 45° to bottom right. The arms
may now be removed and put aside. It may be helpful to
put marks on the sockets and arms to indicate in which
position the 45° angle is achieved. If the marks on both thesockets and arms are in exactly the same position there
should be no need to put identifying marks on individualarms and sockets; i.e., the position marks should be
sufficient.
Insert the coaxial cable which forms the smaller loop
into the hole below one of the short arms all the way sothat the cable exits on the opposite side. Ensure that thelength of cable at both sides is the same. Join the centre
conductors to the braid. Cut two equal lengths of coax
which will form the big loop. On one piece only, join the
inner conductor to the braid and insert one end in the hole
above one of the longer arms. Do the same with the second
half-length of coaxial cable, but in the opposite hole.
Solder the four cables in the top junction box according
continued on page 45

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39

This is a Meteor M1 channel‑3 image from Enrico Gobbetti, acquired from the 08:20 UT pass on November 7, 2015.
You can see another of Enrico’s image on page 10, along with a description of his reception system.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Russia’s Meteor M2 satellite captured this image showing the fog that shrouded most of England and the North Sea, at 10:26 UT on
November 2, 2015. So dense was the fog that over one hundred flights from London’s Heathrow airport were cancelled during the day.
Image captured by Les Hamilton using Vasili Beliakov’s SDR# Meteor Demodulator and processes with David Taylor’s LRPT Processor software.

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41

42

Mike Stevens sent in this amazingly detailed image showing the River Nile, acquired by the VIIRS
instrument aboard NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite and received over EUMETCast using the TBS‑6903
tuner. Final processing was completed www.geo-web.org.uk
using software by Hugo Van Ruyskensvelde.

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48

Francis BellGEO attended the autumn 2015 London Radio
Rally held at Kempton Park and, as usual, we
had a busy and rewarding day with many visitors
to our colourful and informative stand. New
memberships were taken and information about
weather satellite reception was available to all
visitors.
Much interest was shown in the use of SDR
dongles for the reception polar orbiting weather

satellites, enough for us to sell the entire stock ofdongles we had taken to the rally.
Encouragingly we attracted the attention of someyoung people to our Kempton stand. The 10 year
old girl pictured below, wearing a striped cardigan,
showed remarkable interest in all GEO’s activities.
She is a qualified radio amateur with her own
call sign, and has featured in RadCom on two
occasions. It was great talking to her.

The busy GEO stand at the Kempton Rally.

Two of the junior enthusiasts at the GEO stand.

This Meteosat-7 image from November 8, 2015 shows a cyclone poisedto the east of the Horn of Africa.

This rather cloudy image of New Zealand was acquired over
EUMETCast by Mike Stevens, using the TBS-6903 Tuner.

Image © EUMETSAT 2005

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Image © EUMETSAT 2005

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GEO Quarterly No 48

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

NASA Earth Observatory
Satellite images of Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula often focus on
the area’s many volcanoes, which frequently spew ash, steam,and aerosol plumes into the atmosphere. In this image, however,the plumes were produced by ships.
Large tankers, container ships, and other vessels emit somepollution particles as exhaust: other aerosol pollutants form
indirectly as exhaust gases mix and cool in the atmosphere.
Water vapour can then condense around these tiny particles toform long, narrow clouds known as ship tracks.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image of ship tracks
off the Kamchatka Peninsula on July 27, 2015. In general, thenarrower ends of the clouds are younger than the broader ends.
But age is not the only factor affecting the appearance of thesenarrow clouds. Yi-Chun (Jean) Chen, a scientist at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, and colleagues have identified specificatmospheric conditions that affect the brightness, or albedo,of ship tracks. (Albedo is the fraction of sunlight reflected backtoward space.) One condition is the structure of clouds alreadyin the area: Are they open-cell or closed-cell clouds? The image
shows a close-up of an area over the Pacific Ocean that contains
both. Open-cell clouds look like empty compartments, whereas
closed-cell clouds look like compartments stuffed with clouds.
Chen’s team used data from MODIS and from the Multi-angle
Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on NASA’s Terra satellite

Open- and Closed-Cell Clouds

to investigate the interplay between ship-emitted aerosols andcloud properties. They found that aerosol plumes increased thecloud amount and albedo significantly in areas with open-cellformations. In contrast, areas with closed-cell conditions wereless susceptible to aerosol plumes. The research was publishedin April 2015 in Journal of Geophysical Research.
Meteorological conditions mattered too, according to Chen.
Ship tracks are generally brighter compared with surrounding
clouds. But ship tracks that formed in areas where the air above
the clouds was drier, and where the cloud tops reached higher
altitudes, tended to have a lower albedo.

Ship Trails off the Kamchatka Peninsula

44

NASA image courtesy of LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response

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December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 48(continued from page 39)

to the instructions in figure 2. Insert
the opposite ends of the coaxial cablesin the holes situated ‑turn anti‑
clockwise on the bottom assembly.
Drill a suitable hole somewhere in thelowest junction box to accommodate
one end of the coaxial feed line, whichshould be fitted with a connector ofyour choice at the other end. Push
this feed‑line through and join all
cables as shown in figure 2.
Cement the top junction box coverand the cover for the bottom junction
box assembly into place. Now insert
the arms in their correct positions andadjust the slot angles. Simply press
the coaxial filars into the appropriate
slots, moving anti‑clockwise from thetop, completing a half turn by thetime you get to the bottom.
After a little manual shaping of thefilars to form the helical shapes, theantenna is finished. If the antenna
is to be used as a permanent fixture
rather than a mobile device, you
can drill a small hole through thearms, behind the slots at 90° toaccommodate a nylon tie to secure thefilars into the slots.
Performance
I have compared the performance ofmy prototype against my other QFH
antennas, including a commercial
version under dynamic conditions,using a coaxial relay to switch fromone antenna to the other.

I am convinced that the performanceof the portable QFH is a good as myother QFH antennas. There are no
noticeable nulls and I get usable
signals from AOS to LOS (on 137.62
MHz, the only frequency I can receive
without interference!).
If you are plagued by interference
from a single source, you may findthe QFH more suitable than othertypes of antenna. The QFH produces ahigher magnitude of gain on circularly
polarised signals as compared tolinearly polarised signals. This in effectattenuates linearly radiated signals
in relation to the circular ones andreduces interference.
During field testing I noticed that
Figure 3 - The completed QFH

www.geo-web.org.uk

the QFH appears to have distinct
directivity in relation to linearlypolarised signals. In my case there
is a pager transmitter, which makes
reception of signals on 137.5 MHz
almost impossible. This interference
is not intermodulation and it is there
when no signal is being received fromthe satellite.
I found that by turning the antenna
when not receiving a satellite signal,
it was possible to find a very distinct
reduction or sometimes a null in thestrength of the interfering signal. This
has enabled me, for the first time, todecode NOAA 12 signals on 137.50
MHz. A similar improvement could
be obtained when dealing with otherforms of linearly polarised interference.

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GEO Quarterly No 48

EUMETCast On-Line
Registration Guide
If you require to register as a first-timeuser for any of the free EUMETCast
data streams such as MSG, NOAAAVHRR, Metop etc., or need to renew
an existing subscription, this must be
done on-line.
GEO has produced a step-by-stepguide to the entire process at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/eumreg.
phpThis guide also contains a direct linkto the official EUMETCast on-line
registration form, which can otherwise
prove somewhat tricky to locate.

Weather Satellite Reports
If there is a single Internet Forumthat is relevant to all weather satellite
enthusiasts, it must surely be Douglas
Deans’ Weather Satellite reports.
Here you will find every conceivabletype of information about weather
satellites, whether polar or
geostationary, APT, HRPT, LRIT,
EUMETCast or whatever.
Absolutely everything is covered, andthe information is updated every week.
Special additional bulletins may be
issued if an important change takes
place mid week.
You can read the bulletins from thisURL
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/weather-satellite-reports/info
or, even better, elect to have thereports sent to you by email every
Monday.

Internet Discussion Groups
There are a numerous Internet-based
discussion groups of interest to weather
satellite enthusiasts. The home pagefor each group provides an email
address through which you can request
membership. Even a blank email
containing the word ‘subscribe’ in its
Subject line is all that is required.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users ofPatrik Tast’s APTDecoder can share
information and problems.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/APTDecoder/info
GEO-Subscribers

46

This is GEO’s own group, where
members can exchange information andpost queries relating to any aspect

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2015

related to weather satellite reception(hardware, software, antennas etc),
Earth observation satellites and any
GEO-related matter.

Mike Stevens, Dorset, England.

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/info
Satsignal
An end-user self‑help group for users ofDavid Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools(SatSignal, WXtrack, GeoSatSignal,
HRPT Reader, GroundMap, MSG DataManager, AVHRR Manager and the
ATOVS Reader).
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SatSignal/info
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat
Second Generation (MSG), where
members share information about the
EUMETCast reception hardware andsoftware.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MSG-1/info
WXtoImg-l
A forum for users of the WXtoImg
software application for receiving andprocessing imagery from the NOAA
satellite APT signals.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wxtoimg-l/info

GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans, Dunblane, Scotland.
All aspects of weather satellites from
APT, HRPT to Meteosat-9 DVB/EUMETCast systems.
• telephone:(01786) 82 28 28• e-mail: dsdeans@btinternet.com
John Tellick, Surrey, England.
Meteosat advice: registering for thevarious MSG services, hardware
and software installation andtroubleshooting. John will also
field general queries about any
aspect of receiving weather satellite
transmissions.
• telephone: (0208) 390 3315
• e-mail: info@geo-web.org.uk
Geoff Morris, Flintshire, NE Wales.
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,
coax connectors, mounting hardware
etc. and has also done a lot of work withthe orbiting satellites. Geoff has beena EUMETCast Meteosat user for sometime and is familiar with David Taylor’s
MSG software. He should be able toshare his experiences with newcomers
to this branch of the hobby.
• Tel: (01244) 818252• e-mail: gw3atz@btopenworld.com
www.geo-web.org.uk

Assistance with reception of
EUMETCast to include Metop-A andMetop-B; also MSG Data reception
and set-up within the PC, assistancewith dish alignment and set-up, andinstallation and set-up of TBS DVB-S2
units.
• email: mikeg4cfz@gmail.com
Guy Martin, Kent, England.
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who
wishing to receive MSG/Metop using
Windows 2000 or XP. Can also help
with networking and ADSL router setup.
•

gmartin@electroweb.co.uk

Hector Cintron, Puerto Rico, USA.
Hector is prepared to field enquiries on
HRPT, APT, EMWIN and NOAAPORT••

Phone: 787-774-8657
e-mail: n1tkk@hwic.net

Email contact can of course be madeat any time, but we would ask you torespect privacy by restricting telephone
contact to the period 7.00 - 9.00 pm in
the evenings.

Copy for GEO Quarterly
Original contributions relating to
any aspect of Earth Imaging should
be submitted in electronic format(although handwritten and typed copy
will be accepted).
Please note that major articles whichcontain a large number of illustrations
should be submitted as early as
possible before copy deadline,
to give time for preparation prior to
publication.
Please note that it is preferred thatsatellite images are provided without
added grid lines, country outlines or
captions unless these are consideredessential for illustrative purposes in an
accompanying article.
Submission of Copy
Materials for publication should be sent
to the editor,
Les Hamilton
8 Deeside Place
Aberdeen AB15 7PW
ScotlandThe most efficient way to do this is byemail attachments to the following
address
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Particularly large attachments (8 MB
and above) can be transmitted via
Hightail
https://wwwhightail.com/

December 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

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GEO Quarterly No 48

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GEO Quarterly No 48

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The Group for Earth Observation

www.geo-web.org.uk

December 2015