Group for Earth Observation

This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2
satellites at 9:00 UT on July 23, 2023, shows the extensive
burn scar created by wildfires on the Greek island of
Rhodes.

No 79 - September 2023

The massive wildfire devastated the holiday island, forcing
the evacuation of some 19,000 people as the flames andsmoke threatened homes and resorts.

Useful User Groups

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
General Information
John Tellick,email: information@geo-web.org.uk

GEO Newsletter Editor

Weather Satellite Reports
This group provided weekly reports, updates and news
on the operational aspects of weather satellites.

https://groups.io/g/weather-satellite-reports

Les Hamilton,
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk

Webmaster and Website Matters

SatSignal
This end-user self help group is for users of David
Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools, including the orbit
predictor WXtrack, the file decoders GeoSatSignal and
SatSignal, the HRPT Reader program, the remapper
GroundMap, and the manager programs - MSG DataManager, GOES-ABI Manager, AVHRR Manager etc.

https://groups.io/g/SatSignal

Vacancye-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk

Management TeamDavid Anderson
Rob Denton

MSG-1
This forum provides a dedicated area for sharing
information about hardware and software for receiving
and processing EUMETCast data.

https://groups.io/g/MSG-1

Nigel Evans: nigel.m0nde@gmail.com
Clive Finnis
Carol FinnisPeter GreenDavid SimmonsDavid Taylor

GEO-Subscribers
This is the official group is for subscribers of the Groupfor Earth Observation (GEO), aimed at enthusiasts
wishing to exchange information relating to either GEO
or Earth Observation satellites.

https://groups.io/g/GEO-Subscribers/www.geo-web.org.uk

2

Les HamiltonA

fter the Earth experienced the hottest month of July ever recorded, and wildﬁresof hitherto unrecorded magnitude were springing up throughout Europe and The
Americas, probably exacerbated by the start of a new El Niño cycle, it will come as little
surprise that many of this quarter’s articles reﬂect this.

As was hinted in the previous Newsletter, Meteor M No 2-3 was launched in late July
and, unusually, started transmitting visible imagery the day after gaining orbit.
But as the article on page 4 explains not everything has gone to plan. Admittedly thecraft is still in commissioning mode, and hopefully its teething troubles will soon be athing of the past.

For enthusiasts making use of BUFR data from EUMETcast, Richard Osborne builds
on his previous articles to describe his experiments to determine the best way tovisualise their data.

Contents
Russia’s Meteor M No 2-3 takes to the Skies
The Altered Life of GOES-3
Storm Poly Ravages The Netherlands
California Reservoirs ReboundEU’s Third Largest Suspension Bridge Inaugurated in Romania
El Niño Returns
The Cascades Range in Washington and Oregon
Canadian Smoke reches Europe
Climate Change threatens glaciers in the Himalayas
La Palma on Fire
Himarawicast Imagery of Typhoon Doksuri
Shrinking Iceberg A76A
Canals in Ukraine are Drying Up
Large Phytoplankton Bloom in the Barents Sea
Ebb and Flow in the Chausey Islands
Wildfie in Portugal
Cook Strait, New Zealand
Cloud Streets over the Labrador Sea
Experiments with EUMETCast BUFR Data
Windpark Fryslân in Lake IJssel, Netherlands
July 2023 was the Hottest Month on Record
Loch Garda Threatened by Drought
Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano Erupts
Wildfires Rage in Greece
Satellite Status

Les Hamilton
Carl Reinemann
Copernicus Image of the Day
NASA Earth Observatory
Copernicus Image of the Day
NASA Earth Observatory
MODIS Web Image of the day
NASA Earth Observatory
Copernicus Image of the Day
NASA Earth Observatory
David Sale
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earthg Observatory
Copernicus Image of the Day
NASA Earth Observtory
Copernicus Image of the Dat
European Space gency
MODIS Web Image of the Day
Richard Osborne
Copernicus Image of the Dat
NASA Earth Observatory
Copernicus Image of the Day
Copernicus Image of the Day
NASA Earth Observatory

www.geo-web.org.uk

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36
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39
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42

3

Russia’s Meteor M No 2-3 takes to the Skies
Les Hamilton

June 27, 2023 was the day that weather satellite
enthusiasts around the world had been anticipating foryears, when Russia’s Meteor M 2-3 satellite finallylaunched successfully. Built in 2016, the satellite wasoriginally slated for a late 2020 launch, but the datecontinually lapsed through lack of finance until activity at
the Vostochny Cosmodrone early this year indicated thatits launch might be imminent. As with earlier satellites inthe series, this three tonne craft was designed to observe
global weather, the ozone layer and ocean surface
temperatures, as well as ice conditions in order to facilitateshipping in the Arctic Ocean. Meteor M 2-3 differs from its
predecessors by the addition of a deployable phased-arrayradar antenna for all-weather scanning of the Earth.
Unlike previous satellites in this series, which did nottransmit imagery for several weeks following launch,
Meteor M 2-3 was disseminating RGB123 images onboth LRPT and HRPT frequencies within 24 hours of
attaining orbit. And as a two-day conflict with NOAA 19
was looming, the transmission frequency was initially137.90 MHz which avoided conflict. As is normal with a
new launch, there were no transmissions on the infrared
channels at this time as it takes several weeks before theradiometers cool down sufficiently to operate effectively.
Commissioning Phase
Because there is an initial commissioning phase, possibly
lasting up to six months, the transmission parametersof Meteor M 2-3 have been in a continued state of flux:
frequency has swapped between 137.10 MHz and137.90 MHz numerous times and the Symbol Rate hasdone likewise, oscillating periodically between 72 000 and
80 000 symbols per second (i.e. baud rate).
Following launch, initial images were encouraging andfigure 6 on the following page shows one of the earliest
images I acquired, on July 1, and is essentially flawless.

Figure 1
The payload section with the Fregat space tug,
Meteor-M2-3 satellite and secondary payload being
prepared for encapsulation under its payload fairing.
Image: Roscosmos

Figure 2
The Soyuz-2-1b launch vehicle on the launch pad,prior to take-off on the morning of June 24, 2023.
Image: Aerospace Capital

But it soon became apparent that all was not well asreports from around the globe indicated that the satellite’s
LRPT signal strength was unexpectedly low, only about
half that anticipated. Additionally, the images were
frequently ruined by the presence of randomly distributed
horizontal black bands, often considerably wider than the
intrusive black bands so characteristic of the now defunctMeteor 2M satellite, as illustrated the LRPT Decoder
window screenshot shown in figure 4. Frustratingly, thisimage dropout was not accompanied by signal loss as theacquisitions in SDRSharp maintained lock throughout thepasses (figure 5).
My station is located in Aberdeen, Northeast Scotland,
and while I obtained good coverage from at least as far
north as Tromsø in Norway, it was clear that the signal
from Meteor dropped off rapidly after the satellite passed
zenith on its southward track, and imaging rarely extended

Figure 3
The Soyuz-2-1b launch vehicle taking off from
Vostochny Cosmodrone at 14:34:49 Moscow Time on
the morning of June 24, 2023.
Image: Aerospace Capital

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4

Figure 4 - Problem bands during image acquisition

Figure 5 - Signal lock maintained despite image dropout

farther south than the English Channel. This was a patternreported by observers from around the globe and theconsensus seemed to be that, in all probability, the QFHtransmission antenna aboard Meteor M 2-3 had failed to
deploy fully. My best images always come from passes
where Meteor is west of the observing station,
Readers with long memories may recall a similar situation
when NOAA 15 was launched in May 1998: for the firstmonth or so, imagery was restricted, also attributed
to incomplete deployment of the APT antenna. Thensuddenly, several weeks later, the problem suddenly
resolved itself. It was posited that the repeat expansion
and contraction resulting from the heating/cooling cycle as
NOAA 15 orbited Earth between sunshine to darkness had
triggered the antenna’s full deployment.
On July 25, 2023, the testing of Meteor M 2-3’s
MSU‑MR (VIS/IR Imaging Radiometer) infrared sensors
commenced. Early images were confusing and showedalmost no deliniation between land and cloud. Not only did
the ‘black band problem’ seem to become worse by theday, there were now frequent unheralded switches of theFrequency and Symbol Rate, resulting in many passes
being missed altogether.
In theory, frequency switching between 137.10 MHz and137.90 MHz could be utilised to great effect if it were

Figure 6
This southbound Meteor M2-3 RGB123 image acquired on
July 1, 2023 shows excellent coverage to the north but isseriously curtailed at the English Channel to the south.

done to avoid the periods of conflict when the footprintof Meteor 2-3 overlaps with those of the NOAA 18 and
NOAA 19 satellites. But in practice, the very reverse
seems to be the case as a frequency change that could
have avoided such a conflict is often actioned a day or two
after said overlap has ended.
But of course, we must recognise that Meteor M2-3 isstill not fully commissioned and is still a work in progress.
Hopefully, better times may still lie ahead.
On a happier note, the operators restored the threevisible channels on August 12 to provide users with colour
composite imagery once more. And although the ‘blackband problem’ has not been totally resolved, there doseem to be more clean passes than hitherto (see theMeteor M2-3 image on page 40).
And now some good news. It has been reported that asister craft, Meteor M No 2-4, could well be orbited in
December this year.

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

The altered life of GOES-3
GOES-3: The Weather Satellite that Refused to Retire
Carl Reinemann - https://usradioguy.com/

GOES-3, which became NOAA’s third Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) after it wasplaced into orbit on June 16, 1978, made history when
it reached the end of its life and was decommissioned
on June 29, 2016. After 38 years, and a second life asa communications satellite, GOES-3 became one of theoldest continuously operating satellites ever.
GOES-3 was launched aboard a Delta 2914 carrier rocket,
and used a Visible/Infrared Spin Scan Radiometer (VISSR)
to provide day and night observations of cloud and surface
temperatures, cloud heights, and wind fields. Although thecraft was spin-stabilized, and consequently only actuallyviewing Earth less than 10% of the time, and providing
data in only two dimensions, GOES‑3 provided forecasters
with some of their first near real-time looks at atmosphericconditions from a fixed location.
Serving from the ‘GOES-West’ position until the late1980s, GOES-3 monitored and measured Earth’s weather
systems for a decade. The satellite’s most famous imagery
was captured on May 18, 1980, when the Mount St Helens
volcano erupted, spewing ash over Washington State.
NOAA relied on data and imagery from GOES-3 to trackthe dispersal of ash clouds from the eruption in orderto warn airline pilots flying in the area of the potentiallydeadly hazard.

GOES-C (GOES-3 once operational) awaiting launch
Credit: NASA

This NOAA GOES-3 Visible (0.65 μm) image shows thevolcanic cloud shortly after the explosive eruption of Mount
St Helens on May 18, 1980
CREDIT: https://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/satellite-blog/archives/

Although its imager could no longer capture weather
imagery, GOES‑3 still had the ability to send and receive
data from geostationary orbit. This realisation caught theattention of PEACESAT [1] (the Pan-Pacific Education andCommunications Experiments by Satellite Program), who
hatched a plan to repurpose GOES‑3 as a communications
satellite.

Once GOES-3 had outlived its useful life as a prime
weather satellite, the craft was used as a backup forother operational weather satellites in the GOES series,
specifically as a backup for GOES-4 at a time when it
experienced problems with its imager and was unable toprovide weather data. Eventually, in 1989, the weatherobservation instruments aboard GOES-3 failed completely,
but that was by no means the end of this satellite’s story.

From 1988 right until the early 1990s, GOES-3 served
as a communication lifeline to islands in the Pacific
Ocean region, utilising the S-Band to L-Band translator
aboard the satellite (originally used for the rebroadcastingof ground-processed GOES‑3 image products to end
users). This service established reliable internet andtelecommunications access to the Pacific Islands andprovided healthcare services, educational programs,

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6

disaster management, response aid and many other public
services.
By 1995, with the depletion of GOES‑3’s station-keeping
fuel, the satellite started straying from its original equatorial
location. As the inclination of GOES-3’s orbital plane withrespect to Earth’s equator drifted higher and higher, thisunique, high-inclination orbit allowed GOES-3 to makedirect radio connection between Earth’s polar regions
and the United States for up to 6.5 hours a day. This
rare capability caught the eye of the National Science
Foundation (NSF).
As a result, GOES‑3 changed hands to provide a new
critical communications link—this time, for the South Pole.
Through a series of agreements, NOAA permanently
transferred the satellite from PEACESAT to the NSF inorder that it be used for direct digital communications
between the continental USA and the Amundsen-Scott
South Pole Station.
Since 1995, GOES-3 has been one of the main satellites
used to communicate with, and provide internet service to,
the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station and a variety of
deep-field science locations in the Antarctic. So Facebook
posts, Tweets, emails and so on received in the USA fromthe south pole were achieved using an item of hardware
that’s over 30 years old.

The platform bearing the 9-metre South Pole Marisat-GOES
Terminal, photographed prior to its enclosure under a radome in
2002, along with the smaller GOES-3 backup antenna.
Photo: National Science Foundation

For over 20 years, the South Pole relied on the GOES-3
weather satellite for communication links with the outside
world, but in 2016, GOES-3 was finally decommissioned
after 38 years in operation. While the satellite had served
its purpose admirably, it was no longer capable of meetingthe demands of modern communication needs. It was
replaced by a newer satellite, which provided higher
bandwidth and more advanced capabilities.

Amundsen-Scott’s extreme latitude—90° degrees south,
directly over the pole—places it outwith the range ofequatorial geostationary communications satellites. But
GOES‑3’s oscillating orbit periodically shifted it far enoughsouth to communicate with the southernmost point of
the planet for around 6½ hours per day. The South Pole
Station relies on satellite links for communication withthe rest of the world and GOES-3, which could provide
approximately 1.5 MB/s, was sufficient for the station’s
needs at that time. The South Pole Station communicatedDecommissioning took 20 orbital manoeuvres over 14days during which the satellite was carefully nudged intoa ‘graveyard’ orbit, some 250 kilometres above current
operational geostationary satellites. Once there, andensuring that all fuel on-board had been depleted, all thesatellite’s systems were shut down.

Over the years, the South Pole has relied on a numberof different satellites for communication links. However,GOES-3 remained a key part of the station’s infrastructure
for more than two decades, providing a reliable andconsistent connection to the outside world, even in theharshest of conditions.

1 PEACESAT(http://peacesat.hawaii.edu/)

with GOES‑3 using the 9-metre South Pole Marisat-GOES
Terminal.

One researcher explained that, with only 1.5 megabitsof data link shared throughout the entire station—for
voice as well as data—traffic had to be prioritised: voicecommunications first, then higher priority data suchas scientific payloads, and finally normal web surfing.
The experience was definitely a bit frustrating to use,
but considering their spot down at the South Pole, it’sincredible that they were able to get anything at all. In
one case, downloading a PDF document for an arctic
tractor repair manual, took two days because of the
low bandwidth and limit of 6½ hours daily coverage. In
satellite reception terms, that’s like receiving data whenpointing the dish at about 1° to 3° in elevation!

The decommissioning phase ended on June 29, 2016,
placing GOES-3 in the history books as the ‘One of theOldest Continuously Operating Spacecraft in History’ aftera service life of 38 years and 13 days.
Reference

The antenna was enclosed under a protective radome, circa 2002
Photo: National Science Foundation

www.geo-web.org.uk

7

Storm Poly Ravages the Netherlands
Copernicus Image of the Day
https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery

Acquired on 5 July 2023, this Copernicus Sentinel-3
image reveals a wide view of Storm Poly raging
across the Netherlands. With wind gusts of
146 km/h, it was the strongest summer storm on
record for the country.
It caused widespread tree damage, prompting Dutch
authorities to issue warnings advising people toremain indoors. Air and train transportation weresignificantly disrupted, with more than 300 flights
being cancelled at Amsterdam Schiphol airport.
The Copernicus satellites provide a vast amount ofdata that enable the monitoring of extreme weather
events such as hurricanes, cyclones, and storms, aswell as their consequences.

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8

California Reservoir ReboundNASA Earth Observatory
Story by Lindsey Doermann

Shasta Lake, California’s largest
reservoir, filled to nearly 100%
capacity in May 2023, reachinglevels not seen for four years. Since
2019, a prolonged period of extreme
drought had resulted in dwindlingreservoir levels. In the early monthsof 2023, heavy rains and meltwaterfrom an above-average mountainsnowpack caused a notable
turnaround.
The rising water level is apparent
in the image pair opposite, whichshows Shasta Lake on November 18,
2022 and May 29, 2023. On
November 18, the lake stood at 31%
capacity, according to the California
Department of Water Resources(DWR). By May 29, it was 98% full,and the tan fringe, or ‘bathtub ring’,
around its perimeter had vanished.
The images were acquired by the
Operational Land Imager (OLI) on
the Landsat 8 (figure 1) and the
OLI-2 on Landsat 9 (figure 2).

Figure 1 - Shasta Lake imaged on November 18, 2022
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat datafrom the U.S. Geological Survey.

The series of images in figure 3(overleaf) shows the progression of
the lake’s rebound. A thin bathtub
ring was still visible on January 29,
2023, when the OLI-2 acquired thecentre image. On that day, the lakestood at 56% of capacity, or about
87% of the historical average for thattime of year.
The colour of the water in the centre
image probably appears greener
because of suspended sediment. In
the right-hand image, some portionsof the lake surface appear lighter due
to an optical phenomenon known assunglint, and suspended sediment
may also be present.
Lake Oroville, the state’s secondlargest reservoir, was also nearcapacity on May 29, at 97% full. BothLake Oroville and Shasta Lake are
critical, not only for water storage,
but also for flood control, recreation,
irrigating cropland in the Central
Valley, and preventing saltwater
intrusion into the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.

Figure 2 - Shasta Lake imaged on May 29, 2-23
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat datafrom the U.S. Geological Survey.

Full reservoirs do not ensure plentiful
water for years into the future. The
past four years have been a testament
as to how drastically reservoirs canchange over the course of one or
two years. In addition to the many
demands for water, lake levels needwww.geo-web.org.uk

to be drawn down to create capacity
for flood control in wetter seasons.
The California DWR is collaboratingwith other agencies to incorporate
better forecasting and observation
technologies in order to optimise water
releases.

9Plentiful surface water does notnecessarily equate to replenishedgroundwater stores. In California’sCentral Valley, groundwater may
account for two-thirds of agricultural
water use during drought years.
A recent study using data fromNASA’s Gravity Recovery andClimate Experiment (GRACE) and
GRACE Follow‑On satellite missions
found that groundwater depletionin the Central Valley has been
accelerating since 2003.
Officials in California are working
to leverage the recent influx ofwater. While some groundwater
recharge happens naturally,
resource managers can employ
other strategies to send water
underground, such as diverting it
into canals or ponds and injecting it
into the subsurface through wells.

Figure 3 - The filling progression of Shasta Lake
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat datafrom the U.S. Geological Survey.

EU’s Third Largest Suspension Bridge Inaugurated in Romania
Copernicus Image of the Day
This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites on 8 July 2023, shows the newly commissioned
Braila Bridge in Romania. At nearly 2 kilometres in length, it is the third longest suspension bridge in Europe. It will
reduce travel times, vehicle operating costs, exposure of residents to air and noise pollutants, and improve the quality oflife along the access routes to Danube crossing points in Braila and Galati. The construction of this bridge was funded by
the EU with €363 million from Cohesion Policy funds. The bridge was opened on 6 July 2023.

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

www.geo-web.org.uk

10El Niño Returns
NASA Earth Observatory
Story by Kathryn Hansen

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2023) processed by theEuropean Space Agency and further processed by Josh Willis, Severin Fournier, and Kevin Marlis/NASA/JPL-Caltech.

After three consecutive years of La
Niña, spring 2023 saw the return of El
Niño—a natural climate phenomenon
characterized by the presence of
warmer than normal sea surface
temperatures (and higher sea levels)in the central and eastern tropical
Pacific Ocean.
El Niño is associated with theweakening of easterly trade winds
and the movement of warm waterfrom the western Pacific toward thewestern coast of the Americas. The
phenomenon can have widespread
effects, often bringing cooler, wetter
conditions to the U.S. Southwest anddrought to countries in the western
Pacific, such as Indonesia andAustralia.
Satellite and ocean-based
measurements of sea surface
temperature are one way to detect thearrival of El Niño. Its signature also
shows up in satellite measurementsof sea surface height, which rises as
ocean temperatures warm up. That’s

because warmer water expands tofill more volume, while cooler water
contracts.
The map above depicts sea surface
height anomalies across the central
and eastern Pacific Ocean as
observed from June 1–10, 2023.
Shades of blue indicate sea levels
that were lower than average, normal
sea level conditions appear white andreds indicate areas where the oceanstood higher than normal.
Data for the map were acquired by
the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich andSentinel-3B satellites and processedby scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL). Note that signals
related to seasonal cycles and longterm trends have been removed
to highlight sea level anomalies
associated with El Niño and othershort-term natural phenomena.
In a report released on June 8, 2023,
the NOAA Climate Prediction Center
declared El Niño conditions to be

www.geo-web.org.uk

present. The report pointed to sea
surface temperatures in the Niño 3.4
region of the tropical Pacific (between
170° to 120° west longitude) that in
May 2023 were 0.8°C above the longterm average.
Forecasters expected El Niño
conditions to gradually strengthen into
the 2023–2024 Northern Hemisphere
winter, by which time they called for a
60% chance of a moderate strength El
Niño developing and a 56% chance ofa strong El Niño.
As of June 2023, however, El Niño
was not as far developed as past
El Niño events by the same timeof year, according to Josh Willis,
an oceanographer and Sentinel-6
Michael Freilich project scientist at
JPL.
“It’s still a bit too early to say whether
this will be a big one,” Willis said.
“It will probably have some global
impacts, but there’s still time for this El
Niño to underwhelm.”11This is a section from an RGB123 image received from the HRPT transmission of the newly orbited
Meteor MN 2-3 satellite at 07.50 UT on July 3, 2023 by Enrico Gobbetti. Note the fine detail of the Rivers
Danube and Dnipro as they course towards the Black Sea.

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12

The Cascades Range in Washington and Oregon
MODIS Web Image of the Day

Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

The Cascade Range, stretching 1,300 kilometres from
northern California, U.S.A, to southern British Columbia,
Canada, separates the moist, green coastal plain from thedry interior landscape. The peaks of the Cascades are
actually a volcanic chain created by the slow movement ofdense oceanic crust as it slides beneath North America.
The mountains contain towering volcanic peaks, manyof which are currently considered active even though
eruptions in recorded history have been rare. The
most recent was the eruption of Mount St. Helens on
May 18, 1980. Because of the risk that eruptions could
present to human life and property, the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) Cascades Volcano Observatory(CVO) monitors ten volcanoes in the Cascades. Five of
these are in Washington (Glacier Peak, Mount Adams,
Mount Baker, Mount Rainier, and Mount St. Helens),
while the remainder are in Oregon (Mount Hood, Mount
Jefferson, Newberry, Three Sisters, and Crater Lake).

Oh June 4, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua
satellite acquired a true-colour image of the Cascades
Range in part of the states of Washington (north) andOregon (south).
The boundary line between the states runs along theColumbia River, which flows from inland, westward to
the Pacific Ocean through a deep gorge between themountains. Snow caps the tallest volcanic peaks, while
lower elevations are green with summer vegetations.
The snow-capped volcanoes in this image are, from northto south, Mount Rainier, Mount St. Helens (west), Mount
Adams (east), Mount Hood, and Mount Jefferson. Snowalso sits atop the Goat Rocks Wilderness, located between
Mount Rainer and Mount Adams. The Goat Rocks areremnants of a large volcano, extinct for about two million
years.

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13

Canadian Smoke Reaches Europe
NASA Earth Observatory
Story by Kathryn Hansen

Figure 1 - This MODIS image from NASA’s Terra satellite shows smoke from Canada drifting over Portugal and Spain.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview

Smoke from wildland fires, which had been burningin the Canadian province of Quebec for weeks,
eventually crossed the Atlantic Ocean and darkened
skies over southwestern Europe.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired
figure 1 in the morning (11:10 Universal Time) ofJune 26, 2023. At that time, smoke was driftingover northern Portugal and Spain. The smoke alsoreached northward over other European countries
beyond the scope of this image.
The smoke’s widespread reach is apparent in themap opposite (figure2). It shows a plume of black
carbon particles—commonly called soot—spanning
eastward from North America and across more than
2,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. The black carbon
density data come from NASA’s GEOS forward
processing (GEOS-FP) model,
https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/GMAO_products/

which assimilates data from satellite, aircraft, andground-based observing systems. In addition to

Figure 2
A Map showing the track of the smoke across the
Atlantic Ocean during June 2023
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren
Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDISLANCE and GIBS/Worldview and GEOS-5 datafrom the Global Modelling and Assimilation Office atNASA GSFC.

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14

making use of satellite observations of aerosols andfires, GEOS-FP incorporates meteorological datalike air temperature, moisture, and winds to project
the plume’s behaviour.
Hazy skies in Europe were also observed bya global network of ground sensors called the
Aerosols Robotic Network, or AERONET. The
network contains more than 500 Sun photometer
instruments that measure aerosol optical depth(AOD) around the world. On the morning of June
26, AERONET sensors in northern Spain andFrance measured AODs greater than 0.5. The
AOD in these areas is typically close to 0.1. (Forreference, a perfectly clear sky would have an AODof less than 0.05, while an AOD of 3 would make it
difficult to see the Sun.)
Yet air quality in the smoke-covered parts of Europe
on June 26 remained mostly fair, compared tounhealthy and hazardous air quality in the smokeaffected parts of Canada and the United States.
That’s because most of the smoke that reached
Europe was higher in the atmosphere, where it isless likely to affect human health.
The smoke over Europe will probably be noticed bypeople. According to the UK Met Office, the smoke
aerosols could contribute to vivid sunrises andsunsets.

Climate Change threatens glaciers in the Himalayas
Copernicus Image of the Day

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

The Karakoram range in the Himalayas is renowned for its glaciers, some of which are among thelargest and longest outside the polar regions.
As a result of climate change, these glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate, leading to theformation of new glacial lakes in the Hunza River basin and in other valleys of the range, as seenin this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image of 15 April 2023.
A recent article published in the Nature scientific journal highlights the critical dependency of the
Hunza River basin on frozen water resources and warns that future changes in the hydrologicalregime in this area could have serious consequences for the water flow of the Indus River.
Copernicus provides satellite data and services that enable the monitoring of glaciers, including
their size, shape, and movement over time.

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NASA’s Suomi-NPP satellite captured this image of category-4 Pacific Hurricane Hilary as it approached California on
August 18, 2023. Two days later Hilary became the first tropical storm to make landfall in the south of California for 84 years, causing
flooding, mudslides, and power outages in its wake. Bringing 110 kph wind gusts that downed trees and power lines, the storm
produced the wettest August day on record for both Los Angeles and San Diego with 6.3 centimetres and 4.6 centimeters of rain,
respectively. Streets turned into rivers of mud in Palm Springs after the city received six months of rain over six hours. Some of themost severely affected places were the normally dry desert regions of Southern California, and Death Valley received 5.6 centimetresof rainfall, equivalent to it’s total mean annual precipitation, in just 24 hours.

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La Palma on Fire
NASA Earth Observatory
Story by Adam Voiland

In the early hours of July 15, 2023, a wildfire broke out on
La Palma, the most northwesterly of the Canary Islands.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this imageof smoke streaming south from the blaze that afternoon.
The bright areas near islands south of La Palma resemble
smoke, but they are actually the result of an opticalphenomenon caused by sunglint.
The fire burned through pine forests west of a large
caldera on the northern part of the island. At least 20
buildings were destroyed and 4,000 people evacuatedtheir homes, according to Reuters. On June 16, authorities
reported that the fire had charred at least 46.5 square
kilometres. Hot weather and strong winds accompanied
the intense burning. The same heatwave scorched partsof southern Europe and North Africa. The AssociatedPress reported that more favorable weather conditions on
July 16 helped firefighters slow the blaze. Satellite images
collected on July 16, 17, and 18 showed much less smoke
coming from the fire.
Fires on La Palma are common in summer due to theisland’s dry climate. One analysis of tree rings suggeststhat intense fires burn the island’s forests roughly every
seven years on average, with less intense fires burning
every 2-4 years.
In addition to fire, volcanic activity can also damage
infrastructure and alter La Palma’s landscape. A slowmoving eruption destroyed 1,600 homes on the island in
the latter part of 2021.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview.

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Himarawicast Imagery of Typhoon Doksuri
David Sale

This image of Typhoon Doksuri was captured by Himawari-9 on July 24, 2003
Credit: HimawariCast

Himawaricast is a DVB-S2 C-band re-transmission of
Himawari-9 data that can be received in the western
Pacific region. Full disk images are sent every 10 minuteswith one kilometre resolution for the visible spectrum (asin the image above), and 4 kilometres for the remaining
14 bands. Fortunately, the data is unencrypted andavailable to amateur users.
The image above is one that I received from Australia via
Himawaricast: Typhoon Doksuri (‘Eagle’ in Korean) on
July 24 as it was heading west towards China. The storm
caused considerable flooding in the Philippines and Taiwan
before wreaking havoc on the Chinese mainland.
Typhoon Doksuri proved to be the worst to hit China inover a decade, with Beijing experiencing its heaviest
rainfall in 140 years. At least 20 deaths were recorded
while hundreds of thousands of residents were displacedby widespread flooding and damage in a region the sizeof Great Britain. Beijing’s Changping district recorded

744.8 millimetres of rainfall during a four day period, far
exceeding the previous record of 609 mm set in 1891.
In the urban areas of Beijing, hundreds of roads were
flooded, forcing parks and tourist spots to shut. Hundredsof flights were either delayed or cancelled at the city’s two
major airports. Some subway lines and trains were also
suspended on account of flooding.
In Mentougou and Fangshan districts, raging water
coursed down roads, sweeping away dozens of cars.
Villages in mountainous areas were cut off, prompting
authorities to deploy helicopters to drop off food, waterand emergency supplies. Zhuozhou, a city with more than
600,000 inhabitants located southwest of Beijing was
half-submerged and over one sixth of it’s population was
evacuated.
You can read much more about this Typhoon athttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Doksuri_(2023)

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Shrinking Iceberg A-76A
NASA EArth Observatory
Story by Kathryn Hansen

NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using MODIS datafrom NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview

In May 2021, Iceberg A-76 broke from the Ronne Ice Shelf
in Antarctica. At the time, it was the largest iceberg floating
anywhere in the world. Two years later, only fragments ofthe former berg remain.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this image on
May 24, 2023. It shows Iceberg A-76A, which broke from
A-76 shortly after the initial calving and remains the event’s
largest surviving berg. But its size has dwindled during thepast month as pieces have splintered off in warmer, more
northern waters.
At the time of this image, Iceberg A-76A and several newly
separated pieces floated near the remote island of South
Georgia. They were about 2,400 kilometres north of the
berg’s origin near the Ronne Ice Shelf.
‘It is impressive to think it ‘sailed’ that far in about
two years,’ said Christopher Shuman, a Universityof Maryland, Baltimore County, glaciologist basedat NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. ‘That
obviously speaks to the force of powerful currents inthis part of the Southern Ocean.’By October 2022, Iceberg A-76A had most likely escaped
the clockwise circulation of the Weddell Gyre and entered
the Drake Passage—the turbulent body of water between
South America’s Cape Horn and Antarctica’s South
Shetland Islands. More than a year into its voyage, theberg’s size had not changed much. It still measured 135
kilometres long and 26 kilometers wide—a total area about
twice the size of London.
But the Drake Passage often marks a turning point for
icebergs. From there, they typically whip north toward theSouth Atlantic and quickly melt in the region’s warmer—
but still chilly—waters. Iceberg A-76A appears to beexperiencing this same fate as it nears South Georgia latein the austral autumn. Around the time of this image, A-76A
measured 78 kilometres long and 11 kilometers wide—anarea about the size of Austin, Texas.
Other major icebergs have met their demise in a similar
fashion. Notably, the Delaware-sized Iceberg A-68A thatbroke from Antarctica’s Larsen C Ice Shelf in July 2017,
and which finally splintered apart in the waters around
South Georgia in February 2021.

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Canals in Ukraine are Drying Up
A NASA Earth Observatory Feature
Story by Adam Voiland

When the Kakhovka Dam wasbreached on June 6, 2023, waterfrom the adjacent reservoir surged
into the Dnipro River toward thecity of Kherson and the BlackSea, causing severe flooding
downstream. Floodwaters began
to recede after a few weeks, but aslower-moving water problem has
unfolded in southern Ukraine as
networks of canals once fed by the
Kakhovka Reservoir run dry.
Scientists with NASA’s Harvest
Consortium have been monitoring
the situation closely, with a focus
on determining how the event isaffecting farmers. The research ispart of a broader effort to develop
analytical tools, based on satellite
observations, to quickly assess
how crop conditions and the war
in Ukraine are affecting global
food supplies.
‘The major challenge for farmers
now is lack of water,’ said Inbal
Becker-Reshef, NASA Harvest’s
director. ‘Networks of canals
that are normally fed by the
Kakhovka Reservoir have become
disconnected from the reservoir
and are drying out.’

Figure 1 - Kakhovka Reservoir and canals on May 17, 2023

Analysis by NASA Harvest showsthat all four of the major inlets
that supply the canal networks
have been disconnected. Whileabundant rainfall in spring andearly summer prevented thecanals from going completely dry(figure 1), satellite observations
show a narrowing of the canals
suggesting large reductions in theamount of water (figure 2).
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy
and Food of Ukraine noted thatthe loss of water for hundreds ofthousands of hectares could turn
farmland in this area into ‘deserts’by 2024. The lack of irrigation
could also have ripple effects thatcause farmers to produce fewer
crops on non-irrigated fields due
to loss of income, according to
the ministry. ‘A million and a

Figure 2 - Kakhovka Reservoir and canals on June 18, 2023

half hectares will not be used totheir full potential,’ stated Mykola
Solskyi, Ukraine’s minister ofagrarian policy.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Inlets to the North Crimean Canaland the Kakhovsky Canal—twoof the four major canal networks
fed by the Kakhovka Reservoir—
are visible in the images above.

20

Figure 3 - These images show a closer view of changes at the inlet of the NorthCrimean Canal
Planet Labs images courtesy of Inbal Becker-Reshef.

Figure 1 shows the inlets on May 17, 2023, when
they were full of water. Figure 2 shows the same
canals on June 18, after water levels in the reservoir
had dropped below what is required for water toenter the canals. Both images were acquired with
the Operational Land Imager-2 (OLI-2) on Landsat 9.
(Note that the apparent browning in the centrepivot fields is due to the normal harvest cycle, notlack of water. As winter wheat and other crops are
harvested and tilled, the fields appear brown before
the next crop is planted.)
The pair of images at the top of this page (figure 3),
from Planet Labs, shows a closer view of changes at
the inlet of the North Crimean Canal. The left image
shows the canal on June 3, 2023. The second image
shows the same area on July 19, 2023, as the inlet
and canal were drying up.
‘Many of the summer crops grown in Kherson—suchas corn, wheat, sunflower, tomatoes, and melons—are
heavily reliant on irrigation, and summer rains areunlikely to be sufficient to maintain crop health andaverage yields of irrigated crops,’ said Becker-Reshef.
The reason for the irrigation challenges is apparent
in the pair of satellite images in Figure 4. After thedam breach, the reservoir that once sustained the

Figure 4 - Kakhovka reservoir before and after the flood

canals mostly emptied, exposing broad expanses ofmud. The upper image was acquired by Landsat 8
on June 7, 2022, about one year before the dam

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21

Figure 5 - The flooded Dnipro River on June 9, 2023

was damaged. The lower image, acquired by
OLI-2 on Landsat 9, shows the same area thisJune 18, after roughly 75% of the water inthe reservoir had drained—a volume of waterroughly equivalent to Utah’s Great Salt Lake.
Satellite altimetry data provided by the U.S.
Foreign Agriculture Service and the Frenchdata services centre (Theia) confirmed thatwater levels dropped by several metres over a
few days soon after the dam failed. This cameafter water levels had climbed to a 30-year
high following a wet spring.
Figure 5 shows flooding along the Dnipro
River near the city of Kherson on June 9,2023, three days after the dam was breached,as acquired by the OLI-2 on Landsat 9. For
comparison, figure 6 shows the same area
on June 1, 2023, acquired by the OLI aboard
Landsat 8. The most severe flooding was on
the east side of the river, which is at an overalllower elevation and more flood prone than thewest side. During the worst of the flooding,several thousand homes were inundated, tensof thousands of people lost power, and morethan 40,000 were forced to evacuate.
The NASA Harvest Team—in partnershipwith Sertit (University of Strasbourg)—used
Planet and Sentinel-3 data to produce acomprehensive map of flooded croplands,
flooded villages, and open water that they
provided to the Ukrainian Ministry ofAgriculture as part of the humanitarian
response efforts following the dam breach.
They also continue to monitor the main canal
inlets from the Kakhovka Reservoir and aredeveloping methods to use satellites to track

Figure 6 - The Dnipro River on June 1, 2023, before the flood

how much irrigation water fields receive
throughout the summer.
NASA Harvest analysts will also be monitoring
the health of crops using tools such as the
GIMMS Global Agricultural Monitoring tooland the AGMET EO Indicator dashboard.
These tools had not yet shown a major drop in
the greenness of crops by early July 2023 due
to regular rains, though the loss of irrigationwater could begin to brown these crops in the
future.
The semi-arid steppe ecosystems found in the
Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk
oblasts generally receive 100 to 120
millimetres of rain during the summer growing
season—not typically enough for some crops
to thrive without irrigation. More than 12,000
kilometres of canals constructed since the1960s have provided irrigation water for up to
500,000 hectares (5,000 square kilometres) ofcroplands, turning the region into one of themost productive farming regions in Ukraine.
Canal water is also used for drinking water,industry, and other public uses.
The Ukrainian Grain Council has estimatedthat the flood could lead to a 14% reductionin the volume of Ukraine’s grain exports. Inlate June 2023, NASA Harvest estimated thatUkraine would produce 25 million tons ofwheat this year, about two million tons lower
than the five-year average. NASA Harvest
will continue to monitor the situation in the
coming months and will post updates in its
news feed.
NASA Earth Observatory images in thisarticle by Lauren Dauphin using
Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

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22

Large Phytoplankton Bloom in the Barents Sea
Copernicus Image of the Day
https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery

This image, acquired by one of the Copernicus
Sentinel-3 satellites on August 3, 2023, shows alarge phytoplankton bloom north of the Scandinavian
Peninsula, spanning over 200,000 square kilometres.

blooms are a relatively common phenomenon,
particularly during the summer months when theabundance of sunlight stimulates phytoplankton
growth.

Phytoplankton consists of microscopic plant-likeorganisms that float in seas and oceans, and whichplay a vital role in the marine ecosystem. In the
Barents Sea, an Arctic region subject to a delicate
equilibrium between temperature and salinity, these

Observation of these phenomena is crucial forunderstanding changes in marine ecosystems andpotential repercussions on fish resources and global
climate. Copernicus open data allow for monitoring
and analysing these phenomena in near real-time.

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23

Ebb and Flow in the Chausey Islands
NASA Earth Observatory
Story by Lindsey Doermann

France’s Chausey Islands at high tide (left) and low tide (right)
NASA Earth Observatory images by Allison Nussbaum, using Landsat
data from the U.S. Geological Survey

France’s Chausey Islands—Les Îles Chausey—
located in the English Channel, are subject to someof the largest tidal ranges on Earth. As a result,when tides are low, the islands number 365; whentides are high, only 52 remain above water.

of Fundy, where they can reach a maximum ofsome 16 metres, the tidal swings at Chausey still
rank among the world’s largest. While the mean
tidal range at the islands is 8.2 metres, during aspring tide it can exceed 14 metres .

These images show the archipelago at opposite
tidal extremes: a low-tide view from July 22,2018 (left), and a high-tide view from April 19,
2019 (right). Both images were acquired by the
Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8
satellite.

Many factors, including the shape of coastlines,
size of the ocean basin, and position of the Sun
and Moon, govern the height of tides. At higher
latitudes in the northern hemisphere, the relative
closeness of the continents plays a large rolein producing greater tidal ranges in the way it
effectively constricts the oceans.

Chausey lies approximately 18 kilometres off thecoast of Normandy. The only inhabited island in
the group is Grande Île, which is reachable via ashort ferry ride. At low tide, it is possible to walk
between some of the granite isles on sandy tidal
flats. The area provides habitat for abundantseabirds and marine life and is protected as aEuropean Environment Agency Natura 2000 site.
While the planet’s most extreme tidal swings arefound across the Atlantic Ocean, in Canada’s Bay

The English Channel’s energetic tides have been
considered for tidal power schemes dating back to
at least the 1960s. While no tidal generators wereever installed at the Chausey Islands, the world’s
first tidal power plant in the nearby estuary of theRance River came online in 1966 and continues togenerate electricity today. With a capacity of 240
megawatts, it was the largest operating tidal power
plant in the world until the Sihwa Lake Tidal Power
Station in South Korea opened in 2011.

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24

Wildfire in Portugal
Copernicus Image of the Day
https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery

On 5 August, a blaze erupted near Odemira, in the
Alentejo region, prompting a massive response withmore than 800 firefighters and 202 vehicles to control the
flames. The severity of the fire resulted in the evacuationof four communities in Odemira (Vale dos Alhos, Valede Água, Choça dos Vales, and Relva Grande) anda rural tourism area. The fire also encroached upon
two protected areas, the Parque Natural do Sudoeste

Alentejano e Costa Vicentina and Zonas de Protecção
Especial de Monchique, putting unique ecosystems andwildlife at significant risk.
This image, captured by one of the Copernicus
Sentinel-2 satellites on 7 August, shows the hotspots
and the massive smoke cloud generated by the wildfire
reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

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25

This segment from an RGB123 image received from the HRPT transmission of the newly
orbited Meteor MN 2-3 satellite at 09.31 UT on July 3, 2023 by Enrico Gobbetti provides a
striking rendition of Spain and the Strait of Gibraltar.

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26

Joachim Scharrer submitted this Meteor M 2-3 channel-4 infrared image clearly showing Italy, on August 10, 2023.

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27

Cook Strait, New Zealand
European Space Agency

Image contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2021), processed by ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

The Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission takes us over
Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand’s Northand South Islands.
Named after James Cook, who was the first
European to sail through it, the Cook Strait is just
23 kilometres wide at its narrowest point so, ona clear day, it is possible to see across the strait.
However, it is also renowned as one of the roughest
and most unpredictable stretches of water in theworld, owing to strong winds, conflicting currents
and variable tides.
This dynamic environment is depicted here by thevarious shades of blue in the water and swirls. Bothshores feature steep cliffs which, in the image, resultin the white colour caused by the big waves crashingagainst the rocky coast.
New Zealand comprises many islands, though theNorth and South Islands are the largest. North
Island, visible on the right, is home to Wellington,
New Zealand’s capital city, which lies on the hills

and shore around the bay in the extreme south of
the island.
South Island is connected to North Island by a ferry
service from Wellington to Picton, a port town near
the head of Queen Charlotte Sound. The sound is a
deep inlet visible in dark blue in the upper part ofSouth Island. Numerous ferries can be spotted as
white dots in the sound.
Moving south, a patchwork of agricultural fields
cover the Wairau Plain and surround the town ofBlenheim, visible in grey.
Several rivers cross the plain. The biggest in theimage, the Wairau River, is one of the longest in
New Zealand. It can be seen meandering throughthe fields and splitting into separate arms which
eventually enter Cloudy Bay in Cook Strait. The
southernmost arm of the river forms an estuary,which feeds a network of ponds, marshes andlagoons, sheltered from the Pacific Ocean by an eight
kilometre long boulder bank.

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Cloud Streets over the Labrador Sea
MODIS Web Image of the Day

Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

On March 23, 2023, the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terrasatellite captured yhis true-color image of a spectacular
cloud formation above the Labrador Sea.

In this image, the sheets of fast ice clinging to theLabrador Peninsula are edged with delicate filigrees.
These delicate patterns are created by the interaction ofthin ice floating over moving currents and waves.

The Labrador Sea is flanked by Canada’s Labrador
Peninsula in the southwest and Greenland in thenortheast. It is part of the North Atlantic Ocean andconnects to the Arctic Ocean via various straits and bays
to the north. Springtime brings big changes to the region,
as fast ice—ice which clings to shore—and floating sea
ice begin to melt as daylight lengthens. Despite warming
air temperature, strong winds often blow from the north,carrying bitterly frigid air. Both the melting ice and frigid air
can create beautiful patterns when viewed from space.

The predominant pattern, however, is the long, parallel
bands of white that stretch across the Labrador Sea.
Called ‘cloud streets’, this type of cumulus cloud iscommon during the spring, when cold, dry air blows overcomparatively warmer water. The clouds form at the topof parallel cylinders of rotating air, created by rising warm,
moist air. On the upward side of the cylinders (rising air),water vapour condenses and forms clouds. Along thedownward side (descending air), skies remain clear. The
streets form along the direction of the prevailing wind.

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29

Experiments with EUMETCast BUFR Data
Richard Osborne

Background
The EUMETCast-Europe datastream provides files
in many different formats. According to the Product
Navigator [1], there are in excess of thirty different
types. Why there are so many I have no idea but themost common types as noted by EUMETSAT on theirformats webpage [2] include netCDF, HDF, BUFR
and GRIB.
In edition 72 of the GEO Newsletter, I describedvarious ways to visualise EUMETCast SAF products
and established that the four formats listed above
are those used across the multiple SAF providers.
However, whereas there is a choice of viewers fornetCDF, HDF and GRIB files that can be classified
as ready to use ‘out of the box’ (I am not including
those which require the user to run a script), BUFR
files appear to be poorly served. I know of only twoviewers for BUFR that fall into this category and thisis despite the fact that BUFR is the second mostcommon format after netCDF on EUMETCast-Europe
according to the Product Navigator.
1 BUFRdisplay produced by Francis Breame which
is a generic BUFR Viewer displaying data overcountry outlines
2 BUFR Viewer produced by David Taylor which
is dedicated to generating a vector display overcountry outlines for wind products which haveboth a speed and a direction.
I wished to use BUFR Viewer to visualise thePolar Winds products that are derived from the
METOP series of polar orbiters, but was unable
to this. There was a problem as EUMETSAT had
altered the format subtly and had not updated
their documentation. Somewhat annoyed with this,I resolved to find a method that would allow the
BUFR Viewer to interpret the BUFR data correctly
and so began a period of research.
What is the BUFR Format?
BUFR is short for Binary Universal Form for the
Representation of meteorological data. It is stored asa continuous bit-stream that does not depend on any
particular hardware or software but it does dependon the availability of external data tables to fully
decode the data.
I think that it is a complicated format and Francis
is forthright in his dislike of BUFR, commenting
on its perceived drawbacks. As a result, I am notdescribing the detailed format and refer the reader
to external sources which may be found on aninternet search for BUFR. The user guides produced
by Francis on the website [3] provide a good
introduction.

Looking at the Product Navigator for EUMETCastEurope, products encoded with the BUFR format
tend to fall into the following categories although thisis not exhaustive:
1 Wind data derived from active radar
scatterometers and cloud motion images
2 Soil moisture derived from active radar
scatterometers
3 Atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles
and trace gases derived from microwave andinfrared sounders
Visualising Buffer Data
Because a BUFR file can hold any form of data, you
first need to determine if it holds information thatcan be visualised in some form, and if so, how?
Where every datapoint has a value, latitude andlongitude associated with it, the chances are that it
can be viewed in some manner.
I found that the best place to start was the
EUMETSAT Product Navigator with EUMETCASTEurope and BUFR filters applied so that only
the relevant products were listed. From there I
would select a product of interest and then select
EUMETCast-Europe to reveal the typical file name.
Further down the page under ‘Resources’, there
should be links to documents that (hopefully)
describe the format of the data. They may also
show representative visualisations indicating thata particular product is suitable for this form ofinterpretation.
BUFRdisplay
Having established that visualisation was feasible,
the next step was to try using BUFRdisplay tovisualise the data. As BUFRdisplay is a genericviewer, some effort is required from a user to locate
the relevant data and optimise the display after
loading a file and decoding the data. Note that
I am not attempting to provide a user guide for
BUFRdisplay (see the official guide for this) but tohighlight my experiences.
First, the Data Selection Panel towards the bottomof the BUFRdisplay window lists all the variables
contained within the BUFR file, the majority ofwhich tend to be metadata containing information
about satellite status and data quality. The trick
is to locate and select the data field that contains
the information to be visualised with the help of
the documents identified by the Product Navigator.
However, just because the data field exists does notmean that it contains any valid data and this must
be bourne in mind. BUFRdisplay will inform you

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30

if a field has no usable data. Sometimes the samedata description appears more than once and closer
scrutiny of the documentation and value fields at thebottom of the Data Selection panel may be required
to determine the precise nature of the data. As I
said, BUFR can be complicated.

than trying to parse and modify the intermediate text
table, I decided to try and derive this directly fromthe BUFR data as this would give greater flexibility.
but how, as Python was the only language withwhich I stood a chance and not a very good one atthat!

As a generic viewer, BUFRDisplay has a number ofdrawbacks in my opinion for ease of use.

The EUMETSAT website gave a few suggestions
that included ecCodes, pybufrkit, wreport, trollbufr
and BUFRextract. I quickly eliminated the middle
three due to lack of documentation and knowledge
on my behalf. BUFRextract looked feasible but it
dumped all the variables into a table and would needadditional post-processing which I did not want.
This left ecCodes provided by the European Centre
for Medium Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

1 Although the general configuration of the viewer
can be stored as presets for various products,
the data field within the Data Selection window
cannot be stored and must be selected everytime.
2 The data cannot be filtered by quality flags toremove extraneous values from display. This isparticularly relevant for scatterometer data (moreabout this later).
3 For vector displays of wind data, the data cannot
be thinned to avoid overcrowding where thedata density is particularly high. I do appreciatethat without an intimate knowledge of the data
structure of a given BUFR file, thinning evenly in
two dimensions is not really possible.
4 The map is not interactive once generated. I
know that an interactive map is something of aluxury and requires a lot of effort to provide but I
do like it as a casual viewer.
5 On zoom levels of 2 or above, the colour bar
that provides the visual calibration typicallydisappears from view when examining areas ofinterest because it remains located in the bottom
left of the unzoomed image.
BUFR Viewer
For vector displays of wind products, I much prefer
BUFR Viewer as the map display is interactive, data
can be thinned and scatterometer data is subject
to filtering. Interestingly, BUFR Viewer borrows the
BUFRextract decoding engine that also underpins
BUFRdisplay. I use BUFR Viewer for scatterometer
winds from LEO satellites and Atmospheric Motion
Vectors from MSG.
As mentioned at the start of this article,
BUFR Viewer was unable to display Polar Winds
from the LEO METOP satellites because of a formatchange, so I set about trying to rectify the situation.
Decoding BUFR Data
I noted that the internal interface between the
BUFRextract engine and the main BUFR Viewer
application was via an ASCII text columnar table.
Although the BUFRextract decoding engine was able
to decode the new Polar Winds format without error,
the order of columns had changed which was why
the BUFR Viewer was not able to display the data. I
reasoned that if I could reproduce the original text
format, BUFR Viewer would work correctly. Rather

The ecCodes software is actually a library forencoding/decoding BUFR data with the majority
written in the C and C++ languages which was of
no use to me. Fortunately, this library is available
with Python bindings, or links which allow thedecoding functions to be called directly fromPython. To simplify installation, the ecCodes/Python
combination is available as a Conda package [4]for Windows along with good documentation andworking examples on the ECMWF website.
If using the ecCodes/Python software for decoding,individual variables within a BUFR files are identified
by so called keys and these must be identified sothat they can be referenced in the Python Code.
In addition, the structure of the BUFR file needs
to be determined. BUFRdisplay has the ability
to generate a text file detailing the structure andcontents of the file but unfortunately, this does not
relate to the ECMWF key names. However, ECMWF
has another software package called ‘codes-ui’ thatallows the structure of a BUFR file to be examinedinteractively and also provides the names of thekeys. Fortunately, it is also available as a Conda
package [5] for Windows with details on the ECMWF
website. One point to note is that the Windows is nota native platform for ECMWF so a Windows version
may only be provided on a ‘best effort’ basis. My
own experience is that the Linux version of codesui works perfectly but that the Windows version
has a few rough edges. However, it proved to beadequate for my purposes. Figure 1 (overleaf) shows
the structure of a scatterometer BUFR files revealedby codes-ui with the key names. Figure 2 provides aworld map showing the location of the observations.
The original images have been cropped to focus on
the core details.
Once I had established all the key names, I wasable to prepare a Python script which extracted
all the wanted variables from the BUFR file using
the Python API calls provided by ECMWF. Single
variables are returned as numeric Python variables.
Some BUFR data arew stored in a compressed form
and this is extracted in the form of one dimensional

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Figure 1 – Partial structure of BUFR scatterometer file as revealed by Codes-UI

Figure 2 – Observation location map for BUFR scatterometer file produced by Codes-UI

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Numpy arrays (Numpy is a Python library used forprocessing datasets in one or more dimensions).
Having extracted the data, I wrote it as a text filewith columns to match the format and filename
expected by BUFR Viewer. I then prepared a dummy
BUFR file with the same name as the text file ( butwithout the .txt extension) so that BUFR Viewer
would use this text file instead of trying to decodethe BUFR file again.
Viewer Enhancements
With BUFR Viewer, only one BUFR file can beselected at a time. However, by using Python, I
have been able to combine multiple BUFR files fromthe scatterometer data of LEO satellite to greatly
increase the area coverage available on the map
display. In addition, I can also add a colour codedwindspeed background to the vector display bymaking use of the background facility provided by
BUFR Viewer.
For ease of use, I prepared a ‘radio button’ data
selector using the Python Tkinter library so that
I could select the satellite(s) of interest and theresolution. By default, the data selector uses all files
in the reception folder that match the requirement.
Figure 3 shows the data selector which allows
different combinations of satellites. Figure 4 shows
the result of combining multiple METOP B & C files
to produce a composite image and Figure 5 shows
the same result but with a coloured windspeed
overlay.
Viewing Sounder Data
I have access to data from the 22 channel Advanced
Technology Microwave Sounder carried on JPSS
satellites (currently Suomi NPP, NOAA-20 and
NOAA-21) which is transmitted as a BUFR fileover EUMETCast-Europe. Whilst this data can bevisualised using BUFRdisplay using a lot of manual
selectionATMS to access the wanted channel, I
decided to try an alternative method using the VISAN
tool which I described in Geo Newsletter 74. This
provides an interactive 3D globe representation.

Figure 3 – Selection box for scatterometer observations
from METOP and HY-2 LEO satellites

Figure 4 – BUFR Viewer display of multiple scatterometer files
from METOP B & C

Figure 5 - BUFR Viewer display of multiple scatterometer files
from METOP B & C with wind speed overlay

The data is stored in compressed form within the
BUFR file and is extracted as a 1D Numpy array by
the ECMWF Python code. As a happy coincidence,
this format is exactly matches the requirement of the
VISAN tool making display of the data a relatively
easy task. To simplify the selection of the channel,
I constructed a ‘radio button’ selection window
as shown in Figure 6. Following the selection, thePython script automatically opens Windows Explorer
to show all available files and then invokes the
VISAN Tool. An example of an image for channel 16
is shown in Figure 7. Interpretation of the images isanother matter….
Meteorological Observations
I use the DWDSAT channel to provide Met Officeweather charts as an overlay on visible and infra-

Figure 6 – Selection box for ATMS channel to be displayed.
Channel purpose may not be entirely accurate

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33

red images. However, DWDSAT also provides
meteorological land surface, sea and upper air
observation data from meteorological stations world
wide. The Product Navigator for EUMETCast-Europe
only identifies DWDSAT as a provider with no detailof the products that it disseminates. For that, it isnecessary to interrogate the DWD website directly.
The observational data is provided in two forms
which are defined in the World MeterologicalOrganisation (WMO) document No. 306 as follows:1 Volume I.1 Part A- Alphanumeric Codes
2 Volume I.2 Part B –Binary Codes (this covers
BUFR and GRIB formats)
3 Volume I.3 Part C – Common Features to Binary
and Alphanumeric Codes
Some readers may be familiar with the alphanumericcodes which are presented in blocks of five digits andneed to be decoded to provide the raw observational
data.
DWDSAT transmits the observation data in bothformats for some reason, but the majority is in BUFR
format and covers land (surface), ship and upper
air origins. Unlike satellite observations, the raw
data for these transmissions comes from multiple
sources so it is provided in the form of BUFR files
with uncompressed data as each BUFR message
can be different. As noted by Francis Breame, thisinformation is of no use to BUFRdisplay is it will
only decode the first message. It can be decoded by
BUFRextract and produced as a text CSV file but thiswill need additional post processing to extract therelevant data.
Now, decoding the data is all very well but there
is little point unless it can be analysed and/or displayed in a meaningful manner, but there
are some potential solutions within reach of theamateur.
Alphanumeric Codes
For alphanumeric codes which need no decoding,there appears to be remarkably little softwarethat can handle land, sea and upper air formats.
However, one package is able to cope is the venerable
Digital Atmosphere [6]. Having said that, I find thatits quality control is open to question and featuresthat should work (according to the documentation)
do not. For example, I cannot make it display upper
air graphs but it does work well for surface andship observations producing results that will be befamiliar to users of this software package. Othersoftware packages are capable of displaying point
observations but the alphanumeric codes require
decoding first. I have not pursued this path.
Binary Codes
The majority of the metrological observations aretransmitted by DWDSAT in BUFR format and I

Figure 7 – ATMS Channel 16 data displayed using VISAN

reasoned that it should be possible to produce a text
CSV file in a format that Digital Atmosphere could
understand using Python and the ecCodes librarywith a single script. Research revealed that Digital
Atmosphere recognises observations in a text format
provided by the Australian Meteorological bureauxand I set about reproducing this format from the
BUFR data. Eventually, I was successful and able
to use Digital Atmosphere to plot surface and shipobservations in the normal matter. Oddly, the mostdifficult part was dealing with missing data as
this could occur at any point and in any message,
seemingly at random. Whilst upper air observation
data was recognised by Digital Atmosphere, it
stubbornly refused to plot it but I was determined tofind a solution that would.
Upper Air Observations
Typically, upper air observation are plotted in theform of a Tephigram diagram (primary used by the
UK Met Office) or a Skew-T diagram which is used
elsewhere. These plots show temperature, humidity
and wind speed/direction in the atmosphere plottedagainst atmospheric pressure. I am not describing
the format of these plots or their interpretation inthis article but I will refer interested readers to Met
Office Factsheets [7] and No. 13 in particular.
As I have not found a way to plot the alphanumeric
upper air observations, primarily through thelack of decoding software, I have ignored them.
For the binary format, as I could use Python andthe ecCodes library to produce a text output inany required format, the hunt was on for suitablesoftware to produce the graphs with the minimum ofprogramming.
Eventually, I identified three possible solutions.
The first two were SHARPPy and MetPy. As thenames suggest, these are both Python libraries
only requiring a steep learning curve and notinconsiderable Python knowledge to implement.
This did not appear to be a viable solution for me.
Eventually, I realised that McIDAS-V had a builtin function to generate Skew-T diagrams with thewww.geo-web.org.uk

34

added bonus of plotting the station
locations on a world map—it
merely required data in a format
that it could recognise.
Even this proved to be a challenge
as the only alphanumericformat available was that usedby the China Meteorological
Administration and I had to ask
the providers of the software
directly for the relevant details.
Once I had this information, I wasable to produce the diagrams.
Figure 8 shows the interactive
map of upper air sounding station
locations. Clicking on station
3808 in Cornwall produced theinteractive Skew-T diagram shownin Figure 9 and also the interactive
Hodograph shown in Figure 10.
Once again, interpretation of theimages is another matter.
Conclusion
I appreciate that most readers
are interested in the direct
observations produced by visible
and infra-red sensors on thevarious polar and geostationary
satellites. However, I find decoding
and visualisation of the multiple
formats, typically from derived
products, as a challenge in
itself and hence my go at BUFR
this time round. I have also
demonstrated that a small amountof additional software can prevent
existing applications from being
rendered obsolete because of achange of data format.

Figure 8 – McIDAS-V interactive map showing upper air observation locations

Figure 9 – McIDAS-V Skew-T diagram of upper air measurement from Cornwall

References
1 Product Navigator
https://navigator.eumetsat.int/
2 EUMETSAT formats webpage
https://www.eumetsat.int/formats
3 Francis Breame user guides
https://www.elnath.org.uk/
4 ecCodes Conda package
https://anaconda.org/conda-forge/python-eccodes
5 ‘codes-ui’ Conda package
https://anaconda.org/search?q=codes-ui
6 Digital Atmosphere
http://www.weathergraphics.com
7 Met Office Factsheets
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/library-andarchive/publications/factsheets

Figure 10 – McIDAS-V Hodograph of upper air measurement from Cornwall

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35

Windpark Fryslân in Lake IJssel, Netherlands
Copernicus Image of the Dayw

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-1 imagery

This image, acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel‑1A
satellite, shows Windpark Fryslân, the largest
freshwater wind farm in the world. The windturbines were installed in Lake IJssel in the
Netherlands, and started running at the end of 2021.
Fryslân has a total power capacity of 382.7 MW. It
consists of 89 wind turbines, each with a capacityof 4.3 MW. It is expected to produce approximately
1.5 TWh per year, equivalent to about 1.2% of theelectricity consumption in the Netherlands, or the
power needs of 500,000 households. This will resultin a reduction of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions
annually.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service supports thewind energy sector by providing accurate, open datathat allows for wind energy stakeholders to makeinformed decisions in the operation and maintenanceof their wind farms in Europe.

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3636

July 2023 was the Hottest Month on Record
NASA Earth Observatory
Story by Emily Cassidy

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, based on data fromthe NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

July 2023 was hotter than any other month in the
global temperature record, according to an analysis
by scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for SpaceStudies (GISS).
‘This July was massively warmer than any
previous July and any previous month on record,
which goes back to 1880,’ said GISS Director
Gavin Schmidt. ‘This continues the long-term
trend in dramatic warming that we have seen
over the past four decades.’The map above depicts global temperature anomalies
for July 2023. It shows how much warmer or cooler
the Earth was compared to the baseline average from1951 to 1980. Note that the deepest reds are at least
4° Celsius above the monthly mean.
Parts of South America, North Africa, North America,
and the Antarctic Peninsula were especially hot andexperienced temperature anomalies around 4°C. But
it was not unusually warm everywhere. Parts of the
U.S. Midwest and northern Europe saw closer toaverage temperatures. Overall, July 2023 was 1.18°C
warmer than the average July between 1951 and1980.

The warmer-than-usual July continues a long-term
trend of warming, driven primarily by humancaused greenhouse gas emissions. July 2023 was
0.24°C warmer than any previous July in NASA’s
record. And according to GISS temperature anomaly
data, the top-five hottest Julys since 1880 have all
occurred in the past five years.
Extreme heat contributed to devastating wildfires
and blistering heat waves in the Northern
Hemisphere.
‘These changes that we’re seeing in global
temperatures are being reflected in real heat
extremes that people are experiencing locally,’
stated Schmidt. ‘We can say with someconfidence now that the heat waves we areseeing in North Africa, the Middle East, the U.S.
Southwest, China, and southern Europe are being
directly impacted by the fact that the whole planet
is warming.’
The GISS team assembles its temperature analysis
from surface air temperature data from tens of
thousands of metrological stations and sea surface
temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based

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37

NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, based on data fromthe NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

instruments. This raw data is analysedusing methods that account for the varied
spacing of temperature stations around theglobe and for urban heating effects that
could skew the calculations.
High sea surface temperatures contributed
to July’s record warmth. The map shows
especially warm ocean temperatures inthe eastern tropical Pacific, evidence of
the El Niño that began developing in May
2023. Phenomena such as El Niño or La
Niña, which warm or cool the tropical
Pacific Ocean, can contribute a small
amount of year-to-year variability in global
temperatures. But these contributions
are not typically felt when El Niño
starts developing during the Northern
Hemisphere’s summer.
‘One of the reasons this record isconcerning is that the effects of El
Niño on global temperatures normally
have a several month lag and are felt
in the winter and spring,’ maintained
Schmidt. ‘Even though we have an El
Niño developing now, the record warmth
we are seeing is not yet related to thatin a significant way. We expect to see
the biggest impacts of the developing
El Niño in February, March, and April
2024.’
NASA’s full temperature data set andthe complete methodology used forthe temperature calculation and its
uncertainties are available from:https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/

Lake Garda continues to bethreatened by drought
Copernicus Image of the Day

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

Italy’s longest river, the Po, reached its lowest level ever recorded
this April, when water levels in Lake Garda, Italy’s largest
lake, shown in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from April 16,
plummeted to their lowest point since 1953. This drop puts waterin Lake Garda only 45.8 cm above the hydrometric zero, comparedto the 70-year average of 109 cm. As a crucial freshwater reservoir,
the current capacity of Lake Garda puts at risk its ability to sustain
agriculture, local communities, tourism and navigation.
The Copernicus European Drought Observatory enables accuratemonitoring of drought conditions, providing key data for informed
decision-making and effective resource management.

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38
38

Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Volcano Erupts
Copernicus Image of the Day
https://www.copernicus.eu/en/media/image-day

This Copernicus Sentinel-2 image from July 11, 2023
shows the lava flows and the plume emitted by the
Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland. The eruption began on
the same day that this image was acquired, following an
intense seismic swarm in the region.
The eruption site is an uninhabited valley near the
Litli‑Hrútur mountain, approximately 30 kilometres

southwest of the capital, Reykjavik. Icelandic authorities
have warned tourists and citizens, urging them to stayaway from the erupting volcano due to the toxic gas
emissions.
Copernicus satellites facilitate the monitoring of volcanic
activity worldwide, which is essential for taking action to
mitigate the risks and hazards stemming from eruptions.

Credit: European Union, Copernicus Sentinel-2 imagery

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39

Meteor M 2-3 Image acquired on August 22, 2023
Ref: article on page 4This is a slightly cropped image received in Aberdeen, Scotland at 10.53 UT, from Meteor M 2-3, and at the time, the best so far.
But problems still abound, and the following image, received at 12.34 UT, was totally wrecked by three wide black bands!

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40

Wildfires Rage in Greece
NASA Earth Observatory
Text by Kathryn Hansen

NASA Earth Observatory image by Wanmei Liang, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE,
GIBS/Worldview, and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership.

A month after fires tore across parts of Greece inJuly 2023, dozens more fires ignited within 24 hours
across the country in late August.
A fire in the country’s northeast, near
Alexandroupolis, produced a plume of smoke thatstretched hundreds of miles southwest toward
Italy. The plume is visible in this image, acquiredin the afternoon on August 22, 2023, by the Visible
Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the
NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite.
Smaller plumes are visible from other fires burning
elsewhere across the nation. According to news

reports, fires near Athens burned homes and cars,
and sent smoke wafting over the capital city.
Forecasts called for extreme fire weather—hot, dry,
and windy—to continue on August 23. By thatday, smoke was detected over Italy and across theMediterranean Sea in northern Africa.
Fires are not unusual in Greece, but heat-stoked fire
weather is projected to become more common as theplanet warms. According to data from the European
Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the areaburned in Greece so far in 2023 has surpassed thatof the destructive 2021 fire season.

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41

Currently Active Satellites and Freqencies
Polar APT Satellites
Satellite

Frequency

StatusFormatImage Quality

NOAA 15

137.6200 MHz

On

APT

Intermittent sync problem

NOAA 18

137.9125 MHz

On

APT

Good

NOAA 19137.1000 MHz

On

APT

Good

Meteor M N2

137.1000 MHz

On

LRPT

FailedMeteor M N2-3

137.9000 MHz

Oﬀ

LRPT

Variable [1]Satellite

Frequency

Mode

FormatImage Quality

NOAA 151702.5 MHz

Omni

HRPT

sync problem

NOAA 18

1707.0 MHz

RHCP

HRPT

Good

NOAA 19

1698.0 MHz

RHCP

HRPT

Good

Feng Yun 3C

1701.4 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

Inactive [2]Feng Yun 3D

7820.0 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

Active {2}Feng Yun 3E

7860.0 Mz

RHCP

AHRPT

Commissioning

Metop B

1701.3 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

Good

Metop C

1701.3 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

Good

Meteor M N2-2

1700.0 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

Active [8]Meteor M N2-3

1700.0 MHz

RHCP

AHRPT

ActivePolar HRPT/AHRPT Satellites

Geostationary Satellites
Satellite
Meteosat 9

Transmission Mode(s)HRIT (digital)

Position

Status

45.5°EIODC - On

Meteosat 10

HRIT (digital)

LRIT (digital)

9.5 E

Oﬀ [4]

Meteosat 11

HRIT (digital)

LRIT (digital)

0°W

On [3]

GOES-13GVAR 1685.7 MHz

LRIT 1691.0 MHz

61.6°W[5]

GOES-14GVAR 1685.7 MHz

LRIT 1691.0 MHz

105°W

Standby

GOES-15 (W)GVAR 1685.7 MHz

LRIT 1691.0 MHz

128°W

On [6]

GOES-16 (E)GRB 1686.6 MHz

HRIT 1694.1 MHz

75.2°W

On [7]

GOES-17

GRB 1686.6 MHz

HRIT 1694.1 MHz

137.3°W

On [7]

GOES 18

GRB 1686.6 MHz

HRIT 1694.1 MHz

137.0°W

On [7]

Himawari-8

No direct download

140.7°E

Onw

Himawari-9

No direct download

Data is only available
via the HimawariCast
service1450.7°E

On

Feng Yun 2E

SVISSR (digital)

LRIT (digital)

86.5°EOn

Feng Yun 2F

SVISSR (digital)

LRIT (digital)

112.5°E

Standby

Feng Yun 2G

SVISSR (digital)

LRIT (digital)

99.5°EOn

Feng Yun 2H

SVISSR (digital)

LRIT (digital)

79.0°EOn

Feng Yun 4A

HRIT (digital)

LRIT (digital)

99.5°EOn

Feng Yun 4B

HRIT (digital)

LRIT (digital)

Just

Launched

Notes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Currently under commissioning, M2-3 regularly swaps both frequency between 137.1 MHz and 137.9 MHz.
There are also regular switches in Symbol Rate between 72,000 and 80,000.
These satellites employ a non-standard AHRPT format and cannot be received with conventional receiving
equipment.
Meteosat prime Full Earth Scan (FES) satellite
Meteosat prime Rapid Scanning Service (RSS) satellite.
Repurposed by US Space Force
GOES 15 also transmits EMWIN on 1692.700 MHz GOES 16 also transmits EMWIN on 1694.100 MHz GOES 17
also transmits EMWIN
GOES Rebroadcast (GRB) provides the primary relay of full resolution, calibrated, near-real-time direct broadcast
space relay of Level lb data from each instrument and Level 2 data from the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM).
GRB replaces the GOES VARiable (GVAR) service.
Following a collision with a micrometeorite, the power system aboard Meteor M2-2 has been compromised. AHRPTis still being transmitted when the solar panels are sunlit, but there is insufficient battery power to enable the LRPT
stream.
Japanese satellits MTSAT-1R (Himawari-6) and MTSAT-2 (Himawari-7) are no longer active and are probably retired.
Current Japanese operational geostationary satellites are Himawari-8 and Himawari-9).

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