Group for Earth Observation

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

Number 22
June 2009
Inside this issue . . .
Ed Murashie recently
visited Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station’s LaunchComplex 37B, from where
the new GOES-O satellite
is due for launch; he now
shares his experienceswith you.
After western Europe’s
longest, coldest winter foralmost two decades, wehave several snow and ice
related topics this quarter.
Rob Alblas describes theskating tours over frozen
canals in the Netherlands
while John Tellick
describes how to monitor
snow by means of colour
composite AVHRR images
created by special
algorithms.
For the MSG enthusiast,
Mike Stevens describes
some of his latest
experiments designed to
streamline reception.
David Taylor outlines the
new SAF data streams
that are becoming
available via EUMETCastand provides anillustrated overview of
their usage.
Following recent debate,
Rob Alblas reveals his
latest software, WeView,
designed to make it easierfor newcomers to access
Meteosat imagery.

Plus much more ...

An example of the new Land Surface Temperature data now available via EUMETCast
Douglas Deans (page 42) and David Taylor (page 28) provide information on this new SAF data type

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kept up-to-date with the Society’s forthcoming
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Telephone: 01189 568 500

The GEO Quarterly

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Copyright GEO © 2009
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
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June 2009

Editorial: Les HamiltonI’m sure you were more than a little surprised when this copy of GEO Quarterly
dropped through your letter box. Has GEO suddenly added Winter Sports to its
portfolio? Not at all! But following the coldest and snowiest winter for a very longtime, it is hardly surprising that several of our authors have chosen to write
about it. The Netherlands experienced an extended spell of very cold weather
that froze many canals and prompted skaters to take to the ice in their hundredsof thousands: Rob Alblas was one of them, and his photo diary starting on
page 16 allows us to share his experiences. John Tellick spent the winterapplying snow-detection software to some of his EUMETCast AVHRR images andillustrates what can be achieved with a page of false-colour images (page 37).
ompleting this particular GEO Quarterly has been tough going, with adecided shortage of timeous articles from you, our readers. Indeed, it’s only
thanks to Ed Murashie that you have received your Quarterly as ‘soon’ as this.
In early May, Ed paid visits to the Astrotech facility in Titusville Florida, where theGOES-O satellite is currently in storage and to Cape Canaveral from where it will belaunched, and offered to rush up an account of his experiences to complete thisissue.
eaders are the lifeblood of this publication. We want, indeed need, articles from you
to keep the Quarterly alive. Check the ‘Copy Deadline’ panel on centrefold-iii for alist of topics on which you can contribute to your Quarterly.
bout a year ago there was considerable discussion amongst several readers
about the perceived complexity of the imaging software then available fordecoding MSG and AVHRR EUMETCast data. Rob Alblas has now come to the‘rescue’ with his latest software creation, WeView. This program, which isdesigned with the casual user in mind, is described in an illustrated article on
page 34. If you try this program, please let Rob know what you think of it.

C
R

A

A

fter five years at the National Space Centre, Leicester, this year’s GEO
Symposium will be held at a new venue, the Royal High School, Guildford, on
Saturday, July 18. Although Leicester is a superb venue, GEO are mindful that ahigh proportion of its UK membership comes from the south of England; this new
location will, hopefully, make it easier for members who have not been able to attend
in the past to join us for the first time. GEO Symposia are always extremely social
events, providing a blend of keynote speakers and workshops with the opportunity tochat to like-minded enthusiasts. If you have not been to a GEO Symposium before, doconsider coming along to Guildford on July 18. Full details appear on page 4 and any
updates to this information will appear on the GEO website at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/sym09.html

Contents
GEO Report
Cover and Full Page Image Details
GEO Symposium 2009 - Latest Information
Experiments with MSG and Metop Reception
System Scheduler
GEO at the 2009 BROHP Conference
Arctic ComparisonsSpectacular Cloud Streets
Skating Tours on the Dutch Canals
Adding a GPS Receiver to my Weather Station
Unusual Contrails Spotted over the North Sea
New Twist on Antenna Rotors
It’s Fine to Fail
Feng Yun-2C Image FlareFrancis Bell
Francis Bell
Mike Stevens
Fred van den Bosch
Francis Bell
Keith Fraser
Rob Alblas
Fred van den Bosch
Duncan McLean
Ed Murashie
Ben Ramsden
David Taylor

2
3
4
5
8
10
12
14
16
18
19
21
22
22

GEO Shop
NOAA Satellite Predictions for the UK and Western Europe
Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
Copy Deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterly
GEO Membership Renewal Form

i
ii
iii
iii
iv

A Close-Up Look at Launching GOES-O
Data from EUMETSAT’s Land Surface Analysis SAF
The Meteor M Series of Russian Polar Satellites
WeView: A new, easy to use EUMETCast program
Applying Snow Detection Software
Mountains of Snow
Computer Corner
DWDSAT

24
28
33
34
37
40
42
44

Ed Murashie
David Taylor
Peter Wakelin
Rob Alblas
John Tellick
Francis Bell
Douglas Deans
Angus Crawford

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Francis BellMy usual and sincere welcome to any reader who is a newmember of GEO and a thank you to those of you who haverenewed your membership without an additional reminder. I
often write for leaflets and display stand literature. On
GEO’s publicity leaflets, which we distribute at public
events, I sometimes include in the text a renewal reminder
letter. We often stress the importance of maintaining a large
membership, not just for the sake of numbers, but because
it enables experiences relating to technical skills—such as
using different hardware and software for weather satellite
reception—to be shared within the group.
With membership and influence in mind, GEO has been
busy promoting our group at a number of events recently.
Since the NOAA conference in Miami last December, we
attended a Royal Meteorological Society meeting in London
in January and the BROHP Godalming conference inFebruary. There is a report relating to the BROHP
conference on pages 10 and 11 of this issue.

advice and technical background information, both for APT
and EUMETCast, to encourage newcomers to the hobby toexperiment for themselves at home.
This Kempton show was particularly rewarding because ofits geographical location in southwest London. This year’s
GEO symposium is planned for Guildford and some of thepeople I spoke to said they might come to it because
Guildford is quite close to London and travel should not be
a problem. Although I didn’t try counting, I feel anotherfeature of this Kempton show was the number of ladies,families and children attending. I have no idea why thisshould be but it was delightful to see them mixing with what
I reluctantly perceive as a male dominated hobby.

KemptonApril saw GEO at the West London Radio and Electronics
Show at Kempton. This show is usually intensely busy forjust a few hours and we had to be well organised to provide
a faultless display live satellite images to the public: there islittle time to tinker about or adjust equipment once thedoors are open. As usual, our stand was near the emergency
doors allowing us cable access to an outside dish. We ran
live EUMETCast signals and displayed recorded NOAA APT
images. We had many visitors to the stand and much of theliterature supplied by EUMETSAT, together with our own
GEO materials, were taken by them.

If you recall, the previous Quarterly Question related to theexact altitude above the Earth’s surface of a geostationary
satellite orbit. I took as the reference answer the figure
quoted twice in a NOAA publication as 35790 km. Just to
confirm that the orbit is not actually a ‘stationary’ one, thesatellites in this orbit are actually moving around the Earthat a speed of 3.07 km/s. My thanks to Rob Denton, Ian
Leitch and Andreas Lubnow who all submitted correct
answers. Each of them, or their nominees, receive a freeentry into our Guildford symposium this July.
The Quarterly Question this time is posed in the paragraphin bold type on page 40, and relates to how satellite
receiving dishes are protected from snow. Answers directly
to me atfrancis@geo-web.org.uk

or, in anticipation of publishing the information respond, via
our editor.
GB4FUN
Readers may remember my comments in our previous
Quarterly about my disappointment on learning that theRadio Society of Great Britain’s (RSGB) mobile exhibition
vehicle, GB4FUN, no longer had weather satellite receiving
equipment. The invitation / request was for any GEO
member to donate a spare satellite radio receiver for thisvery high profile special event station, which travels thecountry and often promotes radio communication withschools. I am grateful to three members who donatedreceivers and a turnstile antenna. At this time of writing I
don’t know if anything has been installed in GB4FUN but I
will keep the membership informed.
Kempton: a young visitor pictured with a bundleof literature from the GEO standI overheard one visitor saying, of a EUMETSAT poster
showing the whole Earth: ‘That would look nice on my study
wall’. I hope it did. As usual, the standard question asked
by visitors viewing the live displays was: ‘Oh, how can I dothat at home?’ I think we provided people with enough2

A Cautionary Note
Readers may have noticed my occasional reports relating to
APT reception around the world when I’m away from home. I
have reduced the size of one of my APT station to the point
where it quite conveniently fits into a suitcase along withclothes and other items. Its weight is about 3 kg and mostof that is the steel case of the receiver. I have recently

www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2009

returned from Cuba where, over a
period of two weeks, Nadine and I
travelled most of the length of theisland. Initially I thought I would takemy APT station with me but listening
to advice from others I thought itwould avoid complications if I just left
it at home. I think this was a gooddecision.
The tropical island of Cuba isdelightful and during our travels I
noted its history, geology, agriculture,
its picturesque coast with coral reefs
and the delightful people. However, inthe background there was a sinister
political system which would not haveunderstood my innocent and casual
reception of weather satellite images of
their island. It was a good decision not
to be provocative.
I guess weather forecasts and images
can have strategic value. Unexpected
weather storms defeated the Spanish
Armada in 1588 (thank you weather)and importantly affected the timing of
the D Day landings in June 1944,
commencing the liberation of Europe;
this operation was delayed on the basis
of weather forecasts.
I know GEO has a member in an east
Asian country where his satellite
receiver has not been released to him
by local customs. I will continue withmy travels but will be circumspect
about APT reception and potential local
sensitivities. Turkey next—but I’mgoing to take my APT kit there! My
ambition will be the live reception of
NOAA satellite images covering the Red
Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Caspian Sea
and the Aral Sea, all assuming I canfind a suitable location for theantenna. I will submit them to theeditor if they look interesting.
Monitoring Monthly
Just before we went to press, I was
most disappointed to receive a letterfrom Kevin Nice, editor of the magazine
Monitoring Monthly (MM). The
substance of his letter was that the
production of MM has ended and 'allactivities have ceased': so no further
issues should be expected. Kevinquoted the 'current economic
circumstances which, in 2009, have
proved to be very disappointing'. He
offered his apologies to regularsubscribers.
Readers of GEO Quarterly will be awarethat our magazine carried a regular
advertisement for MM, who, on areciprocal basis, carried anadvertisement for GEO. There was anoverlap of interest areas, with MM
often carrying regular articles relating
to weather satellite reception, until
recently written by Lawrence Harris.
More occasionally David Taylor and I
have contributed material.

Group for Earth Observation

I will miss MM, having subscribedsince its initial launch in 2005.
Although I did not read every issue
from cover to cover, there was always
something of interest for me. I neverdiscarded back issues but put them on
the GEO stand at exhibitions andrallies for visitors to take if they
wished. Quite by chance, there is aphotograph on page 2 of a girl taking
posters and a back issue of MM fromour recent stand at Kempton.
I have no ideas relating to theeconomics of producing a publication
like MM except that my jaw sags alittle when I walk into a High Street
newsagent and see the abundance ofmonthly publications for sale on
almost any subject: the competition
must be severe to say the least.
However, this experience has
sensitised me to the precious nature of
our own publication, which, I will risk
reminding you, is the single biggest
cost in GEO's budget, followed bypostage: it is essential we maintain our
membership numbers to guarantee
continued production.
And just a final reminder that neither
contributors to GEO Quarterly nor the
Editor are paid for their time andskills. It's up to our membership toremain supportive of these efforts andcontribute material where possible. I
know the value I place in
GEO Quarterly and I hope our general
membership feel the same affection
and respect for it.
Forthcoming Events
July 25-26 The annual AMSAT-UK colloquium
will be held in the Holiday Inn,
Guildford, where GEO will bedemonstrating live weather
satellite images. Visit AMSAT-UK
at www.uk.amsat.org. for further
details of this event.
July 18

GEO Symposium at Guildford.
Also see the advert in RadCom(May 2009 page 100) and our own
web site.

Sept 13

Telford Hamfest at the Enginuity
Technology Centre,
Coalbrookdale, Telford. Also, see
their advert in RadCom. GEO may
be giving presentations at thisevent in support of newcomers to
direct weather satellite home
reception.

Sept 4-5

The Leicester radio rally (LARS)
takes place at Donington and
GEO hope to be there.

Sept 21-5 EUMETSAT conference in Bath,England. This is EUMETSAT’s
annual international conference
and GEO will do its best to be
represented.

GEO Quarterly No 22

Cover and Full Page Images
Front CoverThis photograph was provided by Rob
Alblas and shows skaters taking to
the Dutch canals during last winter’s
freeze (see article on page 16).
Inside Front CoverThis Land Surface Temperature SAF
image was provided by Douglas
Deans, who describes this new
EUMETCast product in Computer
Corner (page 42).
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Inside Back CoverAngus Crawford downloads HRPT
images via the DWDSAT EUMETCast
stream and spotted this unusuallyclear image featuring Britain andmuch of western Europe. The image
was acquired by NOAA-16 at
16:34 UT on March 9 this year, atwhich time a huge high pressure
region was located over the North
Sea. A number of aircraft contrails
shoe clearly off the coasts of Norway
and Denmark.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Back CoverJohn Tellick received this MTSAT-1R
image via EUMETCast on March 9,2009 and processed it with David
Taylor's GeoSatSignal-7 software. For
several days during early March,tropical cyclone Hamish had tracked
down the coast of NE Australia,
developing winds up to 240 kph.
Fortunately, this storm never madelandfall.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Page 20
An unusual set of spiral aircraft trails
is evident off the coast of northeast
England in this Metop-A channel-4
AVHRR image acquired during thesatellite’s morning overpass on
March 20, 2009. Numerous contrails
are visible over southeast Englandand the Aberdeen-Stavanger flight
has left a prominent trail right acrossthe North Sea.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Page 23
Frozen Netherlands, a channel-2
image from NOAA-17 on January 10,
2009.
Image: NOAA CLASS Archive (www.class.noaa.gov)

Werkgroep Kunstmanen
Our friends in The Netherlands, Werkgroep
Kunstmanen, have meetings in Utrecht on
September 12 and November 16. Note thereport in RadCom (May 2009, pages 76-7)
relating to their constructional skills insatellite tracking.

3

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Francis Bell
Plans for GEO's 2009
Symposium are progressing
satisfactorily. The basic details
were published in
GEO Quarterly 21 (April 2009)
but, for anybody who does nothave this issue to handcurrently, the plans are as
follows.
The symposium will be a one
day event on Saturday, July18, 2009, from 9.00 am to
5.00 pm. The venue is theRoyal Grammar School, HighStreet, Guildford.
The broad plan for the day is tohave a number of speakers
presenting brief papers but justas importantly, the opportunity
for individuals to run workshops
and to give personal
demonstrations for beginners
and experienced weather
satellite users alike. It is hopedthat there will be plenty of time
for members to interact in an
informal way. Facilities exist at
the school which will allow
satellite dishes to be placed on
the paved surface just outside
our meeting rooms. This willallow for live satellite reception
and lots of experimentation.

and perhaps do some tests
positioning dishes and checking
cable routes. In the evening,
there is a planned social
evening for those staying in the
Guildford area overnight.
Saturday July 18
If you wish to give a
presentation at the symposium,
please contact Francis Bell by
email
francis@geo-web.org.uk

as soon as possible. It is hopedthat time can still be madeavailable for you.
The AGM
This should be straightforwardwith reports and accounts fromthe management team. As
usual there will be time for 'anyother business' and a general
discussion. If you would like a
topic placed on the agenda, orthere is any matter you would
like raised in discussion, pleaseemail details tofrancis@geo-web.org.uk

This year, the audio
proceedings of the day will berecorded by one of ourmembers who is the director of'Alton Community Radio'.

closed. However, the school isin the centre of Guildford andwithin a few minutes walk aremany places to buy snacks,
drinks and full meals; there arealso 'fast food' outlets andnearby pubs. You will have tobe resourceful or just bring apacked lunch with you.
Location
The school is close to Guildford
town centre and within walking
distance of the bus and train
stations. A detailed map ofGuildford showing the school
may be found at the following
URL (Guildford Tourist
Information Centre)
www.guildford.gov.uk/

Click the link to ‘Maps andDirections’ in the left-handpanel, then click the link ‘Click
Maps on Line’. Click the link at
the top of the following page
‘Click to accept Terms andConditions’ . Finally, Click'Guildford Guildhall' in the sidepanel.

Provisional Symposium ProgrammeThis will give you a map of thetown centre with the school
shown in the right-hand upper
corner. You can now scroll andzoom around at leisure andprint whatever map you want.
Note: the map is Crown
Copyright hence youracceptance of terms andconditions. You could also try
www.maps.google.com. Theremay well be other Internet sites
providing maps of Guildford.

9.00 amArrive at the school and set up stands andequipment

Access and Parking.

9.00-10.30

Delegate registration, members workshops,
demonstrations and experiments and time for
personal interactions

10.30-11.15

A presentation from our guest speaker fromEUMETSAT, who has been asked to bring us upto-date with EUMETCast data streams

11.15-11.55

Ferdinand Valk presents a talk: ‘Antarctica, a hot
issue’, a discussion of changes that become
apparent both from space and on the ground,more related to climate than to weather. The talkwill also incorporate some shots/footage of wildlife
and breaking ice.

The programme for the day has
still has to be finalised but
provisionally is shown below.
Friday July 17
In the afternoon there should bea chance to inspect the venue

Domestic Arrangements
On the day we will try to havetea, coffee and soft drinks
available but not food. Because
the school will be on holiday,
the school's kitchens will be

11.15-12.15

Cecilia and David Taylor will add theirexperiences on a recent trip to the Antarctic.

12.15-2.30

Lunch, plus time for workshops, demonstrations
and experiments

2.30 pm

Further speakers to be confirmed

4.00 pm

GEO AGM

5.00 pm

We must be clear of the school by 5 pm

4

For those delegates bringing
equipment and display
materials there is car access tothe school via 'Pannells Court',
which has a one-way accessfrom 'North Street'. There isvery limited car parking on theschool site so, for the majority
of delegates, the use of a local
multi-story car park in the town
is recommended: York Road
and Sydenham Road car parks
are about 200 yards from theschool but others are still withinwalking distance. There arealso 'Park and Ride' systems
which will bring you into thetown centre.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Overnight HotelFor those staying overnight at
the local Travel Lodge Hotel, it
has its own limited car parking
and is within walking distance ofthe school. When their prices
were last checked they were
offering rooms for £39 a night
but the Travel Lodge Group arein the middle of a promotion andit may be possible to secure aroom at a reduced rate. The firsthalf of a walk to the school isalong a commercial/residential
road but the second half of thewalk takes you through thedelightful town centre. There areother hotels in Guildford which
may be equally suitable for abrief stay. A way of checking forthese is via the Guildford Tourist
Information web sitewww.guildford.gov.uk

and go to ‘Tourist Information’.
Registration
Although you can just turn up on
the day, preregistration would beappreciated; it helps withplanning and administration on
the day. Please register yourname(s) with Peter Greeninternational@geo-web.org.uk

The fee for registration is £5.00,
payable on the day.
Social Evening
For those staying in Guildford on
the Friday night (and weather
permitting), a evening social
event is being planned in a
nearby village. This is planned
as an alternative to manydelegates going into town andfinding a restaurant. If you think
you will be interested in thissocial evening email
francis@geo-web.org.uk

and you will be sent details.
The Raffle
If you have something that cancontribute as a prize for ourraffle that will be appreciated.
WebsiteTo keep up-to-date with thesymposium's detailed
programme keep visiting the geo
web site.

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Mike Stevens
I thought it was about time that I put finger to keyboard
again as so much seems to have happened since my lastarticle [1,2] on this subject.
One thing that particularly interested me was the article byLaurence Holderness on Basic Satellite Decoding. I think thisstruck a cord with many readers, and I do take his point on
peoples’ ability to understand the workings of the homecomputer, especially with the different skill levels that
individuals possess; so I hope this article will not confuse
anybody. It is a description of the experiments that I havecarried out to improve my reception system without using a
RAMdisk—so here goes.
It all started just after I wrote the article on how I was
receiving all the satellite information without using a
RAMdisk. This did cause some debate but it also set minds
thinking—which has to be good for the hobby. However,there where some very constructive points made which I
took on board, so the experimentation began. How could thereception of MSG and Metop be improved so that it was
simple but effective? Should I use two PCs or three PCs?
This is where it became interesting and more difficult.
My first experiment began using three PCs, two desktop
models and one laptop. Connection to a network was not a
problem as I had just obtained Broadband with a Netgear
modem and router which has five connection points forincoming signals and one for outgoing signals. I connected
the three PCs to the incoming points with the outgoing pointconnecting to the modem. This provided network
connectivity between all the PCs as well as providing eachwith Broadband. This system used cable connections, notwireless, but it could be modified in the future, if required.
Having connected all the computers through this system, I
then proceeded to divide up the satellite software so that noone computer was taking all the load. I decided to use theAcer laptop as my reception PC while the other two
computers had the satellite programs divided between them.
Big mistake! The poor old laptop buckled under the load ofincoming data. It just could not keep up with it at all, so a
rethink was required.
The next approach was to revert back to using the Lacie
external hard drive to carry all the reception again andrevert back to two computers, but dividing the programs
equally around the system. At the same time I sent thelaptop for a clean-up and was told to fit more memory. We
live and learn!
So I was back where I had started in the previous article,
which was fine but not perfect. Even I have to admit to that:
so what next?
I then decided to look into various alternatives. Out came all
the computer books and instruction manuals to see what
options were available to me, and it was during thisinvestigation that I discovered that my E-Machine computer
was designed to accommodate a second hard drive. This
looked interesting.

Upon further investigation it looked relatively easy to fit asecond hard drive as all the fittings were contained within
the PC. All that remained was to decide which size of drive I
would require. I considered that an 80 Gb one would bequite enough especially as I could access the ‘Compress
drive to save disk space’ in the properties box. So off I went
to my local computer shop and purchased a new 80Gb drive
for around £35.
Let me stress one point here before going any
further. If you have never worked on a computer,or been inside one, or perhaps never even tried totake the cover off, this is not for you. Any work ofthis kind should be entrusted to someone who has
the knowledge and expertise to carry out tasks
within your PC.
If any reader has tried repairing, or inserting replacement
parts into a PC, there is one thing you know you have to becareful about—static electricity. This is deadly for some of
the components within the system, and unless you have ananti-static wrist band that safely conducts your static
charge to earth, be careful. Otherwise, the best advice is totouch the water main pipe as it enters the property, (checkits not plastic) or a heating radiator before you touch any
items in the PC. This will help to remove any body static as
most water pipes are bonded to ground.
So having obtained the hard drive and fitted my anti-static
wrist band, I set about fitting the new drive. The PC was
disconnected from the network and its outer cover removed.
The hard drive bay was located at the front of the PC andwas easy to remove as only one screw secured it. Afterdisconnecting the power and multi-braid connectors thewhole assembly could be lifted out.
Before fitting a second drive ensure that you have checkedwith the manual which connection type you require; on the
E-Machine it is ‘cable select’, so you have to check the
jumper connector to see where it is and reset it accordingly.
This is quite easy to spot: it is located on the end of thehard drive alongside the multi-braid connector and it ismarked out with all the options. If this is not done the new
hard drive may not be recognised by the operating system.
Having removed the drive bay and reset my jumper lead I
proceeded to fit the new unit along side the existing hard
drive. It fitted a treat. All the screw holes matched and I
secured the new unit into the bay, then fitted the wholeassembly back into the PC. All the multi-braid connections
and power leads were connected, the holding screw replaced
and outer cover fitted again. Job done! I now had two hard
drives fitted into the one PC.
On booting up, everything behaved normally and when I
opened up the system to Start, Windows Explorer etc. there
was the new drive. There remains the option to rename thedrive and I called mine drive F:.
Now I had to place programs on the new drive and decided
to load the latest EUMETCast software on it0—EKU

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009This full Earth Meteosat-9 image was downloaded via EUMETCast at 12:15 UT on March 13, 2009
Image © EUMETSAT 2009software, EUMETCast Client and Skystar.
Everything loaded perfectly with no problems at allso, once I had reset all the parameters and placed
the PIDs into the system, it was time to start up.
Immediately, information and data started to flowin, certainly faster than before. When I opened
MSG Data Manager. I found that he pictures
started building up immediately with no loss ofsegments.
On the second PC I started up AVHRR Manager,
MSG-RSS and Metop Manager with NOAA GAC
running as well. All these programs running
together previously would have shown somesegments missing; but not now—there was not one
segment missing on any of the programs. It wasamazing, and all without use of a RAMDisk.

This image segment showing the Great Lakes comes froma Metop-A pass dating from 15:04 UT on March 12, 2009
Image © EUMETSAT 20096www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Metop-A imaged this scene during its 18:25 pass on on March 12, 2009. Most of Vancouver island shows clearly as do the snow-clad
mountains of the Coast Range to its north. At upper right in the image, the infant Missouri snakes across snow-covered Montana.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Conclusions
I now have two PCs. The E-Machine with its second hard
drive is running all the EUMETCast software on drive F: andMSG Data Manager on drive C: (the original drive). I haveremoved the external hard drive (which, incidentally was
still working) from the system.
On the second PC I am running AVHRR Manager, MSG
Rapid Scanning Service, Metop Manager and NOAA GAC as
well as collecting DWDSAT data.
I find that the transfer of data from one drive to the other ismuch faster because its now an internal link and notconnected by a USB port and lead; also, keeping the twoparts of the system separate allows drive F: to concentratesolely on data collection as the receiving part of the system.
This configuration is working very well for me and all the
programs are providing excellent pictures. If I need to, I can
add the laptop into the system to take in any other data.
Incidentally the new drive runs at 7200 rpm, the same asboth the original drive and the Lacie external drive.
I hope this has not been too complicated to follow, but I
have an inquisitive mind and a determination to get perfectsatellite weather pictures. I think I have now achieved justthat. The accompanying picture shows you my results.
Happy weather watch from Portland.

There are snow-covered mountains galore in this Metop-A segment datingfrom 04:34 UT on March 13, 2009. From Kyrgyatan in the far north, where
Issyk Kul, the 9th largest lake in the world, occupies an amphitheatre in the
Tien Shan mountains, the scene includes the Pamirs, Hindu Kush,
Karakoram and Himalya before the Indus valley takes centre stage,
sweeping south through Pakistan towards the Arabian Sea.
Image © EUMETSAT 2009

Acknowledgement
I would like to thank David Taylor for his help during thisproject by providing me with registration codes to enable me
to move programs around my developing system.
Reference
1 EUMETCast without a RAM Disk - GEOQ 14, June 2007, page 11
2 EUMETCast without a RAM Disk - GEOQ 16, Dec 2007, page 30.

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Fred van den BoschAs I have written in earlier articles [1], my satellite reception is, asmuch as possible, automated. Every quarter of an hour, for example,
I make, automatically with GeoSatSignal, a series of images ofEurope and Africa. Also, every hour, I make a series of images ofother parts of the world. For starting up all these jobs I used a task
manager program that I had obtained from a colleague long ago.
However, recently when this task manager was run it made somepermanent changes to the tasks all by itself! Reinstalling didn’t help,
and because the program was in fact only written to run underWindows 98 and NT it was time to seek something else.
Windows built-in task manager does not offer sufficient possibilities. I
started with the easiest option, the site for tested freeware programs[2]. There I found as best tested ‘System Scheduler’ [3]. I found thisprogram to be available in two versions, freeware and professional($30).
Freeware Version
After downloading, System Scheduler was installed and started up.
First, the program shows us an overview of all events (naturally
empty at the first start-up) as in figure 1. Starting up a program is
known as an event. An event consists of the name of the newly
started program, a possible parameter and a schedule (stating at
which time and how frequently the event must be executed).

Figure 3 - Event Time Parameters

Professional Version
On starting up, all the events made in the freeware version
appeared, fortunately, still to be present. The advantage of thisversion is that you can add events into a sequence and, as aresult, output them all together. I have, for example, under thename ‘Europe’ images of Europe, Netherlands, France etc. Thus I
made events for all these images, coupled them together, and thenran the sequence.
Unfortunately, this meant in practice that all 8 events of this sequence
started at the same time and my system froze. After some questions on
the forum [4] it became evident that this is what happens. An adjustment,
where an event only starts when the previous event has ended, is on
the ‘to-do’ list but without the planned data.

Solution
Because I did not want to wait, I invented another solution. I have madea number of batch-files. This batch file contains the 8 different
commands for Europe. I now need only to start the batch-file eachquarter-hour. An additional advantage is that this is very easily donewith the freeware version. Also, you can again install this over the
professional version.

Figure 1 - Startup Screen

Figure 2 gives an example of an event: starting up GeoSatSignal
and making an image of Europe. Figure 3 (schedule) shows that
this event must run each quarter-hour and on which minute.

Writing a batch-file is very easy. Open Notepad and type in thecommands, one after the other: one line to each. Next, save the file as‘xxxxxxx.cmd’, where ‘xxxxxxx’ is the name of the batch-file, e.g.
‘Europe’. The complete address of this file is incorporated under‘Application’ in the event. The field parameter can remain empty here.

Here is an example of a batch file with two command lines“C:\Program Files\David J Taylor\GeoSatSignal\GeoSatSignal.exe”
D:\products\data\HRIT\*ch12ne.jpg -j49 gsj:d:\Products\Data\Jobs\Europa.gsj remap:D:\products\MSG\Europa\%%YY%%MM%%DD%%HH%%NN.bmp -min“C:\Program Files\David J Taylor\GeoSatSignal\GeoSatSignal.exe”
D:\products\data\HRIT\*ch12ne.jpg -j49 gsj:d:\Products\Data\Jobs\Nederland.gsj remap:D:\products\MSG\Nederland\%%YY%%MM%%DD%%HH%%
NN.bmp –minPlease note••••

Figure 2 - Starting up GeoSatSignal

Very soon, the great disadvantage of the freeware version became
apparent: you cannot start a series of programs one after the other.
This can only be done by starting them all at different times, andon a whole minute. This proved a considerable waste of time aseach program only ran for about 15 seconds. Therefore I tried out
the professional version. This can be installed over the freeware
version.

8

These are two continuous lines without a blank line between!
There is a space character following ‘GeoSatSignal.exe’
There is a space character before each ‘-’
There is no space character following each ‘-‘.

For details of all the commands, see the GeoSatSignal help file.

References
1 POVIM, Fred van den Bosch,
GEO Quarterly. December 2005, page 38
2 http://www.freewaremission.com/
2008/12/72-programs-for-a-freeware-only-pc/
3 http://www.splinterware.com/download/index.htm
4 http://www.splinterware.com/forum/

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June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Fred Piering sent in this NOAA-19 image acquired on March 10 this year, drawing attention to what appeared to be aweak front stretching south from New Orleans in the general direction of Cuba and terminating in an unusual ‘cloud ring’.

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Francis Bell
This was the third year that GEO had been invited to the
British Rocketry Oral History Programme (BROHP) annual
conference in Godalming, Surrey. This year, the conference
was spread over five days, from April 2-6. Our particular
invitation was to be there for the first day, when many
school children and their teachers were expected to attend.
For the background to BROHP you should visit their web
site
www.spaceconference.org.uk or www.space.co.uk

which now contains some of the conference proceedings.
Our GEO stand was established in the main exhibition hall
together with other national and international organisations
such as Serco, the Science and Technical Facilities Council,
EADS Astrium as well as others who had contributed to thesponsorship of the conference. The exhibition hall was also
used for general presentations, with seating for about 180
people supported by the usual audio-visual technicalhardware.
The GEO stand consisted of our ‘stand up’ display boards
plus tables with our literature and materials supplied
specially for the event by EUMETSAT. There were also two
laptop computers running continuously, showing our grouppresentation with its background and history plus one
showing examples of APT imaging.
On the first day I estimated that there were about 250
school children together with their teachers. They were split
into groups of about 20 and during the day each groupengaged in a number of space related workshops. I visited
some of these and was impressed with the resources andpreparation which had gone into each activity. As best I
could judge the children were interested in what waspresented to them and the opportunity to engage inpractical activities related to space. For myself, I was mostinterested in the solar observations which were available via
a number of telescopes outside the main building, viewing
the sun directly using hydrogen alpha filters. With exquisite
care, the sun could be viewed both directly or by using acamera and screen. The convective surface of the sun could
be seen together with prominences, but unfortunately nosun spots.

Astronaut Richard Garriott’s signed photograph

During the day many of the children visited the GEO stand,some of them taking a genuine interest with others just‘doing the rounds’.
For me, the high spot of the day was the opportunity tomeet Richard Garriott. Richard was an astronaut on board
the International Space Station (ISS) last year. He gave two
enthusiastic presentations to the visiting children about his
experiences in preparation for his flight and then while onboard the ISS. In between his presentations Richard visited
GEO’s stand. I think he was genuinely impressed with ourgroup and within a few minutes he not only said he would
like to join but that he would also like to write material for
GEO Quarterly. Of course I accepted his offer on bothcounts. He took some of our literature and thenenthusiastically gave me some of his own public relationshipmaterials. He personally signed his official photographwhich he then gave to me. All I could do in return was totake his photograph with the GEO stand in the background.
A nearby student took a photograph of Richard and myself
together. I told Richard about my own amateur radio

10

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Astronaut Richard Garriott at the GEO StandJune 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

The Exhibition Hall at the BROHP Conference

experiences and radio contacts with Helen Sharman
onboard MIR space station, and with the the NASA Shuttles
Discovery and Atlantis. I also told him of the friendship
which I developed with Helen Sharman. He was interested tolearn that some of the SSTV images he sent from the ISS
were recorded by a number of GEO members. I promised totry to have some of these images published in
GEO Quarterly. We promised to keep in touch with eachother and Richard signed our visitors book, leaving his
personal contact details.

Another of Astronaut Richard Garriott’s Mission Badges

During other days of the conference, Richard was away
visiting local schools but did return to chair one of thetechnical sessions. The remaining days of the conference
provided sessions on many aspects of space science
including the study of Mars, black holes, cosmic
background radiation, interstellar space flight among others.

One of Astronaut Richard Garriott’s Mission Badges

From my perspective, the high spots of the conference weremeeting enthusiastic school children and meeting Richard
Garriott. I have promised to keep in touch with Richard andlook forward to his potential contributions to our group.

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11

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Keith Fraser

Figure 1 - Ice in Davis Strait - 2009 (NOAA 19)

Figure 2 - Ice in Davis Strait - 2001 (Meteor 3-05)

Figure 3 - Russia’s Meteor 3-05 acquired this image on April 1, 2001, showing much of theNorthwest Passage beset by ice. Victoria Island in particular is totally ‘ice-locked’

I have just been re-reading the article Arctic Meltdown in GEO
Quarterly 17’. Figure 1 is an image from NOAA-9, dating fromMarch 6 this year, showing that the pack ice in the Davis Strait isalready starting to break up. This is quite early. The Meteor 3-05
image from April 1, 2001, almost a month later, illustrates thedifference well (figure 2).

Figure 4 (opposite page) came from NOAA-19 on March 11 thisyear. Captured and processed with WXtoImg, using the program’s‘vegetation’ setting for channels 1 and 2, it includes an interesting
view of lake effect snow from Lake Superior down the length ofLake Michigan, closing down Chicago and continuing south down
to Kentucky.

Figure 3 is another Meteor 3-05 image, acquired in July 1998,
which shows the Northwest Passage still quite blocked past
Somerset Island. I expect that it will be wide open this year.

I have been using WXtoImg with very good results recently. After I
bought a new HP computer with 64-bit engine, WXSat and some of
my other old programs no longer worked properly. I did like WXSat.

12

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

There have been a number of interesting occurrences ofcloud streets over the Arctic this spring and two examples
are shown here. On this page appears an APT image
submitted by Anders Höök from Vallentuna, Sweden, whocommented:‘Last April, I received this fine image, with cloud streets runningfrom the ice masses between Svalbard and Frans Josef Landover the Barents Sea and stretching as far as the lowlands
south of the Kanin peninsula. The Barents Sea is apparently
open; it is only parts of the White Sea that are ice covered. The
NOAA-15 image, captured with an R2FX receiver and a QFH
antenna made after Paul Hayes design, was acquired at
13:22 UT on April 7, with maximum elevation 35 degrees. The
image was decoded and processed with Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder software.’14

June 2009

The channel-2 Metop-A image on the facing page, captured
with Metop Manager software and processed using HRPT
Reader, dates from April 5 and was submitted by David
Taylor following comments on the Internet Forums about an
unusual ‘cloudburst’ feature north of Norway in an Envisat
image [1]. John Say provided the following explanation:‘Cloud streets are produced when a strong but shallow cold air
current advecting from the ice becomes warmed from below by
the sea. The airflow warms and loses its impetus as it moves
farther south. Around the north of Norway, a pulse of warmer
air has risen up over the arctic outflow, producing theunusually symmetrical cirrus pattern as moisture freezes out at
the higher level. A similar effect can often be seen to the northof vigorous depressions, usually as a succession of cirrus arcs.’
Reference
1 http://www.esa.int/esaEO/SEMQVQEH1TF_index_0.html

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June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

Metop Image © EUMETSAT 2009

GEO Quarterly No 22

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

Photo 1 - The River Vlist, near Gouda

Photo 2 - Koek & zopie, near Giethoorn

Photo 4 - On the frozen canal at Kinderdijk

June 2009

Photo 3 - A local Ice Club

Photo 5 - A low bridge at Kinderdijk

Photo 6 - Walking on skates

Photo 7 - The River Alblas in Oud Alblas village

Photo 8 - In the centre of Giethoorn

Photo 9 - Skaters form a queue on the ice

Photo 10 - Skating on a small lake near Hilversum

Photo 11 - Giethoorn

Photo 12 - An atmospheric scene as more skaters take to the frozen canal at Kinderdijk

16

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June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Rob Alblas
Winters in the Netherlands are mostly not really cold,
averaging around +5°C because of westerly winds and thewarm Gulf Stream. Colder days do occur now and then if
the wind heads northeast, but mostly this lasts for just a
few days.
Longer periods of freezing weather have become more andmore rare, but sometimes high pressure areas get ‘lockedup’ in the right places. If that happens, and the water getsfrozen, a lot of people get excited and a little nervous:
wanting to skate they have to choose between skating there
and then and taking the risk of falling through the ice, or
waiting and taking the risk that temperatures rise again.
There are places where grassland is deliberately flooded
during winter so that you can skate safely after a only few
days of freezing weather and there is now even a 5-kilometre
artificial ice track in Flevoland; but nothing can beat goingover lakes, canals and small rivers, through nature andfrom city to village.
A week of freezing weather is enough to go skating but theice may still be too thin in places, e.g. under bridges andwhere two flows of water crosseach other. That doesn’t stopskaters though! The photographon the front cover, taken at
Ankeveen, 20 km east of
Amsterdam, shows skaters out
in force despite the presence ofa warning banner on therailings stating: ‘ice unreliable’.
‘Unreliable Ice’
People come to ‘local famousplaces’, put on their skates and leave their shoes in a plastic
bag at the waterside. Skating in this period is not without
danger: drowning happens now and then.
After a full week of frost, the ice becomes more or lessreliable and local skating clubs get active. The ice gets
prepared and places where it is too thin, or where there is
no ice at all, are marked (photo 1). In places where a roadneeds to be crossed, carpets are laid down to protect yourskates while walking from one stretch of ice to the other.
And, of course, ‘koek en zopie’ (cake and something to drink)places pop up, both on the ice (photo 2) and in disused
stables etc. (photo 3).
There is enough ice now to do real trips, such as a 40 km
round trip through Alblasserwaard, an area south-east toRotterdam which includes Kinderdijk with its numerous
windmills (photos 6,12). Sometimes a barrier has to be
overcome: passing a closed bridge (photo 5) or a short walkthrough a village (photo 6) in order to reach another canal(photo 7).
If the ice is thick enough to be really safe, official trips areorganised. Lots of people buy a card to collect stamps along
the route. This is to prove that the tour was really
undertaken; after finishing, the reward is a medal.
Now, if the weather is nice, the weekends get really crowded(photos 8,9). On January 10 and 11 this year, 100,000
skaters were registered each day; and that’s not counting
another estimated 100,000 non-registered skaters likemyself, who weren’t worrying about getting a medal.

Figure 12 - Skating on a canal in Giethoorn
Giethoorn is a ‘water village’ with canals instead of roads

Unfortunately, there are not many winters cold enough to do
skating tours like this. This year the period lasted just two
weeks with really reliable ice, allowing tours to be organised,on only three days. Temperatures were not really low,
mostly -5°C to -8°C at night and just below zero during theday. The previous occasion this happened was in the winterof 2002/2003, but no tours were organised then.
During longer freezing periods, more than a hundred tours
may be organised, with distances ranging between ten and ahundred kilometres, mainly in the west and north of thecountry. But for the ‘real’ thing, a period of about three
weeks of freezing weather is necessary. Then, the biggest
skating tour of all is organised, the Elfstedentocht (Eleven
Cities Tour). This is a 200 km trip through eleven cities in
Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. There are actually
two events on one day: speed skaters racing to see who
finishes first and ‘normal’ skaters just trying to finish any
way they can.
This year is the 100th anniversary of this tour, but up till
now it has been held only 15 times, most recently in 1997.
This is where people get really ‘crazy’, with supporters on
the waterside and 15 000 skaters trying to do
the trip to get the ‘smallest but also mostsought-after skating medal ever’. The event
takes place in a single day and finishing has tobe done before midnight. For most skaters, a
big part of the tour has to be done in the dark,which can be tricky; cracks in the ice areinvisible and there is the danger of bumping
A skatingagainst low bridges. This is where the lonely
medal fromskater suffers: falling a thousand times, frozen
my first tour,
eyes ... and then, after lots of suffering, to arrivein 1996at one minute past midnight and be told: ‘Sorry,no medal, you are too late’. For some skaters the day ends
in drama.
With it being the 100th anniversary, several skaters wereinterviewed, and their stories are quite impressive. It’s a realadventure, doing this trip. A movie is now being produced
about the memorable 11-city tour of 1963; that winter was
exceptionally long and cold, and only a very few skaters
were able to complete the course.
My skating skills are far too poor to do such a trip in one
day, but if the occasion arises I’ll try to do it in two or threedays. Spring is in the air now and I am looking forward to along and cold 2009/2010 winter!

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Fred van den Bosch
Enthused by the article from Rob Denton [1], I have also
tried using my GPS. I have a Garmin Etrex Vista HCx model.
I connected the unit to my laptop and then tried starting up
WxtoImg, APTDecoder and Wxtrack. Nothing!
Already somewhat discouraged, I asked for a solution on acouple of forums. And there I found the answer—all my
programs operated under the NMEA protocol. The Garmin
has its own—naturally different—protocol. It seems thatsome types are switchable but mine—again, naturally—did
not fall into this category. The most often heard opinion
about this is that this is true for all new USB types.
After more 'Googling' I came upon two solutions. There is afreeware program called Spanner [2] that you can downloadfrom the official Garmin website. This can be used to change
the Garmin protocol to NMEA. I tested it, and did it work?
Not a bit of it! My connected GPS unit was not detected, andnow I hear, on various forums, that my GPS is notsupported. This in itself is rather strange, that not all theirown models are supported, but Garmin is not renowned fortheir excellent service and products. It seems that it is theUSB products that give this problem.
The second option is GPSGate [3]. You have to pay for thissoftware but there is a free trial period of 14 days, so I
tested it. The program is easy to install and searches for aconnected GPS.
Next comes the selection of 'NMEA out' and the COM port towhich the export must be made. After this, the two
programs that I use myself (WxTrack and WXtoImg) wereboth able to contact the GPS via the selected COM port. I
couldn't get APTDecoder to talk with the GPS but I have notspent much time on this.
The price of a standard registration for a single PC isapproximately 30 euros, not expensive. But because theGPS will mainly be used during my holiday (I do less with
APT at home), I'm not going to buy it yet because you pay
for a complete package but only make use of one of its
options. Nevertheless, it is an excellent solution. While still
during the trial period, I received an offer to buy the
package at 20% discount. I don't know if this is a standard
offer but anyone who wants to obtain the package is best to
wait till the end of the trial period.
Arne van Belle gave the following suggestion on anothermatter which I had also been trying out. David Taylor uses a
separate GPS mouse. On his website [4] is a comprehensive
description, complete with connection instructions and tips
on everything you need to know to synchronise the PC clockusing a GPS receiver. Separate GPS mice (figure 1) areavailable for around 60 euros at, among others, the
PDAshop [5] and on Marktplaats.nl. I have already seen themsecond-hand for 30 euros. Because you can use these on
several systems, they are in my opinion a better choice than
GPSGate.
To examine how direct export with NMEA works I have also
tested with a GPS receiver lent by Arne with a free antenna.

18

Figure 1 - GPS mouse

The aforementioned programs worked immediately.
Moreover, I have also tested this GPS with the program
VisualGPSXP [6]. With this you can monitor the output froma GPS: things like elevation and azimuth of the satellites,
altitude and signal quality, plus—not unimportant—thelocation of the receiver (figure 2).
The combination naturally works as well. Connect the GPS,then run GPSGate followed by VisualGPSXP. Lastly, set the
COM port to the value established by GPSGate.
If you (still) have no GPS, you can stipulate time and placewith reasonable accuracy. With the programme DXAtlas [7]
you can stipulate the geographical location. If you require
greater accuracy the easiest way is to use Google Maps
Dishpointer, as described elsewhere by Arne for anotherpurpose [8]. For synchronising the time there are countless
programs to be found on the Internet. I myself have had
good experiences with Chronos [9]. This synchronises the PC
clock on the basis of the average of a large number of time
servers.
Conclusions
Which GPS will you want to buy for navigation and forsatellites? Check in advance if the GPS can be readjusted to
NMEA. If you need it exclusively for satellites and for timesetting, the best choice is a GPS mouse.
1 GPS in weather satellite stations,
Rob Denton, Geo Quarterly, June 2008, page 38
2 Spanner
http://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=1627
3 GPSGate - http://gpsgate.com/
4 David Taylor - http://www.satsignal.eu/ntp/FreeBSD-GPS-PPS.htm
5 PDAshop
http://www.pdashop.nl/
product/25898/haicom-hi-204-iii-usb-gps-ontvanger.html
6 VisualGPSXP - http://www.visualgps.net/VisualGPSXP/
7 DXAtlas - http://www.dxatlas.com/
8 Google Maps Dishpointer: ‘Rotating the Eumetcast Dish’
Arne van Belle, De Kunstmaan, September 2008, page 92.
9 Chronos: http://chronos-atomic-clock-synchronizer.chronosatomic.qarchive.org/

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June 2009

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Figure 2 - The VisualGPSXP display

Duncan McLean
I don’t get much time to check many of theimages processed by my EUMETCAST
system so, encouraged by the clear
weather over the UK on March 20, I quickly
checked out the UK passes in Metop
Manager. I was both surprised and pleased
when I noticed a set of unusual contrails off
the coast of northeast England after
processing in HRPT Reader. The channel-4
image is reproduced on page 36.
As a comparative novice, the cause of
these contrails was a mystery (to me atleast), so I posted the image on my website
and asked for advice from the Metop
Group. Several replies suggested that they
may well have been caused by an Airborne
Warning and Control System (AWACS)
aircraft or an in flight refuelling mission.
I was quite happy to leave it there, but I
was quickly contacted by David Taylor, whosuggested I submit this image to GEO
Quarterly for publication and by Eric deJong who offered to find out if the aircraftthat created the trails could be identified. It
didn’t take Eric long however, and I soon
had an image of the actual aircraft inquestion. It is a Boeing E3A Sentry which
had been spotted doing circuits, each ofabout 15 minutes in duration, and aircraft
communications enthusiasts confirmed it as
LX-N90453 by its tail number (above).
As a final touch, I thought it would be nice if
I could also post the aircraft image to mywebsite to complete the puzzle, so I quickly

www.geo-web.org.uk

scoured the web for the image supplied by
Eric, and found it on the Airnet website. I
contacted the author for his permission topost it, and the rest so they say, is history.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to David Taylor for suggesting I
submit this article, Eric de Jong for his
efforts in identifying the aircraft, and Andre
Oferta for his permission to use his imageof LX-N90453.
Metop-A image overleaf © EUMETSAT 200919

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Ed Murashie
I recently reassembled my HRPT station but, instead of using myoriginal homebrew rotor system, I used a conventional
Yaesu G5400B rotor obtained on eBay. Being amazed at how
noisy the azimuth motor was, I dismantled, cleaned and lubricatedit, but to no avail as it was still noisy. I took it to the Yaesu factory
repair depot where they tested it and said it sounded better thanmost new ones. I needed a better rotor solution since I live in anapartment and I was sure the neighbours would complain.

mounted on one end of a PVC pipe and the other end glued to thecap. The total weight for the 40-inch mesh antenna, feed andpavers was thirty eight pounds.

I had seen commercial HRPT rotors that looked like security
camera pan-tilt mechanisms. Again I turned to eBay and found aused Pelco PT680-24P/PP medium duty unit for under $100. The
PT680-24P/PP is a 24-volt ac unit that has feedback
potentiometers and which can drive a fifty pound load; the larger
PT1250P-PP, which runs on 120-volt ac can drive a hundred
pound load. The benefit using Pelco is that the service manuals
are on-line. I received the unit, cleaned and lubricated it, applied
power and found it to be less than half as noisy as the G5400B.
Mounting the Pelco was simple. The Yaesu vertical pipe mounting
clamps worked perfectly and matched the mounting holes in thebase of the PT680. One big advantage of the pan-tilt mechanism isthat the dish can be mounted to the camera plate with only screws.
First a U-shaped metal plate was mounted on to the dish andmatching holes drilled in the camera mounting plate. Cement paver
counter-weights were secured to the ends of the metal plate and,while balancing the junction of the dish and metal plate on a broom
handle, the weights were moved until the assembly was balanced.
Holes were drilled through the pavers and metal plate.

The HRPT Antenna

Wiring the Pelco was also thought to be simple since the Yaesu
drives 24-volt ac motors. The PT680 leads were connected to theG5400B controller unit and C34, the 100 µF azimuth motor phaseshift capacitor in the controller, was removed. The pan-and-tilt
motor phase-shift capacitors for both axes are installed inside thePT680 unlike the G5400B which has the elevation capacitor in therotator and the azimuth capacitor in the controller. The G5400
manual can be found at
http://home.comcast.net/~aa4df02/radiootr.htm

and the Pelco manuals at
http://www.pelco.com/products/default.aspx?id=44.

My first attempt showed that the position feedback was not linearwith azimuth position. The problem turned out to be the 5 kilo-ohm
potentiometers in the PT680. The G5400B uses 500 ohm
potentiometers, which are low enough in resistance not to cause
linearity issues when connected to 15 k controller input
impedances, but this is not the case with the 5 k Pelco
potentiometers. I decided to add an external unity gain rail-to-rail
input and output operational amplifiers to buffer the controller
inputs. I could have changed the Pelco 10 turn 5 k precisionpotentiometers for 500 ohm versions instead

The PT680

The dish and metal plate were then secured to the top of the pantilt camera plate with stainless screws. Next, the pavers wereattached to the ends of the metal plate with galvanised hardware. A
PVC cap was sanded flat and mounted, with a single screw,
through the dish, metal plate and camera plate. The feed was

For an antenna controller to computer interface I use the Fox Delta
ST3 board, designed by Goetz Romahn, and David Taylor’s
WXTrack program. Had I not had the Yaesu controller, I would
have bought a Pelco controller on eBay and modified it. As forsurvivability, it has been through a few 40 mph Santa Ana windstorms without any damage or adjustments. So if you want an
inexpensive rotor that’s as easy to mount as a dish, consider a pantilt mechanism.
In the next article I will show how I use an amateur radio EME feed
to receive both right-hand circular and left-hand circular HRPT
signals.

www.geo-web.org.uk

21

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Ben RamsdenYour correspondent has been a follower of weather satellite activity for wellover ten years now, but during that time has failed to achieve the quality ofimaging results routinely published in GEO Quarterly. In this article hediscusses the practical challenges of this hobby.
Sad I know, but I have probably
read every RIG Journal and GEO
Quarterly, and Lawrence Harris’
Shortwave Magazine and Monitoring
Monthly columns for the last decadeor more. As a result, I am very
familiar with the theory of remoteimaging: unfortunately, I have notbeen able to translate this depth ofknowledge into quality results. Oflate I have started to find GEO
Quarterly quite intimidating
because it contains page after pageof quality material from masters of
their craft. This has motivated me
to put finger to keyboard topromote my belief that it's fine to
fail with weather satellite
reception—so long as you haveplenty of fun on the way!
First a bit of history. As a student, I
could afford to read about remoteimaging but not invest in thenecessary hardware. Upon starting
work and finding permanentaccommodation, I purchased asecond-hand framestore andantenna. I am sure most readers
will remember the thrill of receiving
their first images—it really works!
The novelty soon wore off as thepracticalities of being at home at
precisely the right time to ‘capture apass’ became real.
As a result of periodic house moves
and frequent travelling I began toexperiment with portable reception
systems both in the UK andoverseas, initially by capturing theaudio on standard cassette tapes,
and latterly on minidisc, thendecoding on a computer. Some
results were very pleasing, but once
again the practicalities of being in
the right place at the right time
restricted activity. After a lull and a
few house moves later I establisheda WEFAX system with nearcontinuous imagery. The signal
strength from my loft- mounted yagi
was rarely strong enough to provide
noise free images and external
mounting never happened before
another housemove to an overseas
apartment curtailed activity for
another few years.
Upon return to the UK, WEFAX wasbeing decommissioned and my APT
receiver wasn't programmed for the
new NOAA-18 frequency, so my

22

remote imaging equipment was
destined to stay in the box. I wason the brink of investigating the
new EUMETCast system via Hot
Bird when an opportunity arose toreceive HRPT—the ultimate inquality imagery. I temporarily
mounted and aligned a steerable
dish in the garden one weekend
and managed to receive an HRPT
pass without too many signal dropouts. This bench test was sufficientto get me planning a proper
concrete base and cable runs, butalas another house moveintervened!
Upon arrival at the new home inAustralia, I tried another garden
bench test, but discovered that thecritical 1.6 GHz feedpointconnection had been damaged intransit. All attempts to repair have,so far, introduced too muchattenuation into the signal andresulted in very poor quality
imagery. Undeterred, I dusted down
the APT system but the extensive
local high voltage distribution
network in the neighbourhood
seems to introduce too much noise
to produce clean images. I've also
been unable to get the EPROM with
the new NOAA-18 frequencies towork in my Dartcom APT receiver,
although workarounds andoccasional changes in the NOAA-18
frequency mean that this hasn't
been a show stopper.
When I started my quest for remote
imagery, direct reception was the
only method. Since then Google
Earth, EUMETCast and a plethora ofInternet sources allow me to accessimagery far superior to anythingthat I could expect to receive fromhome. These alternatives don't
really interest me though; it's doing
it myself that counts. And if otherprojects are anything to go by, once
I've been successful I lose interest.
So perhaps my lack of complete
success to date is actually
maintaining my interest! Regardlessof results, this endless tinkeringwith weather satellites has beenhighly enjoyable. I understand that
NOAA-19 is the last of the TIROS
satellites. I had better make themost of my APT and HRPT
hardware before it becomesobsolete.

www.geo-web.org.uk

David Taylor
The unusual image shown here came fromFeng Yun-2C on February 20, 2009, just prior
to it being closed down for the eclipse season.
When this 17:00 UT visible channel image was
acquired, at local midnight, the sun was juststarting to become visible to the satellite.

Flare from the sun in an FY-2C visible image

As the sun’s path across the heavens moves
northwards during the northern hemispherespring, and crosses the equator, there comes aperiod during which the satellite is looking
directly towards the sun at local midnight,
when the Earth is directly between thesatellite and the sun.
The FY-2C satellite has a slightly wider field ofview than the Earth’s disc alone, so will ‘see’
the sun directly behind the south pole of the
Earth its apparent orbit moves north. FY-2C islocated at 105 degrees east where local
midnight is seven hours ahead of GMT, andtherefore at 17:00 UT.
Normally, the satellite will have one or more ofits sensor channels closed down around thistime to avoid damage or overheating, but it ispossible for some of the sun’s radiation to leakaround the optics (much as your camera lens
may show flare). The image above is the resultof that leakage.
Within a couple of days of this image being
received, the imager had been shut down at
17:00 for the eclipse period, which typicallylasts about six weeks—until the sun had
passed sufficiently north of the North Pole asseen from the satellite. In the autumn, as thesun progresses south past the equator, similareffects will occur.

June 2009

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GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Ed Murashie
Do you ever wonder what it takes to get those nightly
television weather pictures? What it takes is a satellite in anorbit 22,000 miles away, where it moves at the same speed
as the Earth’s rotation so it appears stationary. This special
orbit is called a geostationary orbit. That orbit lets thesatellite take a steady picture of the earth every 15 minutes.
The weatherman then animates or shows each picture insequence so the clouds move but the Earth does not. But
wait—we are getting ahead of ourselves! How does thesatellite reach orbit? Seeing the rockets and satellites up
close is more fascinating than the pictures they transmit.
Let’s walk through the process as Brian Bauerlin takes us
on a tour of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s LaunchComplex 37B (LC37B) in Florida, where the United Launch
Alliance (ULA) Delta-IV rocket is launched. The tour will also
include the Astrotech facility in nearby Titusville Florida,
where the GOES-O satellite resides before being placed on
top of its Delta-IV rocket. Brian is highly qualified in
explaining the launch process, from planning stages throughlift-off; he is the Mission Integration Manager for GOES-O.
Brian led this tour, giving behind-the-scene facts andhumourous stories. He is very passionate about his job andfor him, every launch is a thrill.
The tour begins at the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF)
which is just south of LC37B. GOES-O will be launchedusing a ULA Delta-IV Medium Plus (4,2). A ULA what? And
who is ULA?
United Launch Alliance [1] is a joint venture, formed in
December 2006, between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. In
order to compete with Russia, Europe, China and others in
the world satellite launch market, Lockheed Martin (withtheir Atlas rockets) and Boeing (with their Delta rockets)
combined their Space Divisions to form ULA. Since thecapabilities of the Delta and Atlas overlap, what determines
which rocket is used? Heavy payloads are launched on
Delta-IVs and the rest are decided by customer
requirements and preferences.
Boeing developed the Delta-II, Delta-III and Delta-IV rockets,
each one more capable than its predecessor in lifting heavier
loads into higher orbits. The Delta-II is used to launch thepolar orbiting NOAA weather satellites into lower orbits. The
Delta III was discontinued in favour of the Delta-IV, whichcomes in Medium, Medium-Plus and Heavy versions. The
Delta-II and Delta-IV rockets will be around for theforeseeable future.
All Delta-IVs [2] start with a Common Booster Core (CBC)first stage. The Medium-Plus adds two or four solid fuelstrap-on rockets—like the Space Shuttle—and either a
4 meter or 5 meter second stage and fairing. So a
Delta IV Medium-Plus (4,2) has one CBC first stage, a
4 meter diameter second stage and fairing plus two solid
rocket strap-on motors. Simple!
All ULA rockets, including the Delta IV, are manufactured at
the Decatur, Alabama factory, in a building so large that‘you can fit approximately 18 Wal-Mart stores’ into thefactory; and ‘if you stretched all of the runs end-to-end you
would be looking along about 22 miles’, explains Brian. The
factory can process five complete rockets at one time, up to

24

The GOES-O Delta-IV on its Launchpad

40 CBCs per year and employs approximately 700 people. It
starts the build process for a launch five or six years inadvance. When complete, It takes 14 days to float the CBC,
payload attach fitting, and fairing down the Tennessee River,through the Gulf of Mexico, around the Florida peninsula toCape Canaveral. A one-of-a-kind ship named the Delta
Mariner [3,4] is up to the task. It has a draft of only eight feetto navigate the waterways and then fills it ballast tanks withwater, increasing its draft to fourteen feet for stability in theocean. It has the capacity to carry three CBCs and a crew offourteen (including one outstanding chef). It takes from 2428 days to go though the Panama Canal and reach
Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where Deltas arealso launched.
Once the rocket and other components arrive at the dockthey are moved to the Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF).
Some rockets are stacked vertically, one stage after another,at the launch pad, like the Delta-II. Not so the Delta-IV. It is
assembled horizontally in the HIF building, trucked to thelaunch pad then rotated into place. ‘The floor you arestanding on is North America’s levelest floor’, explains Brian.
It requires this level of precision to join and laser-align thestages. Without the second stage being perfectly aligned tothe interstage and the interstage being perfectly aligned to
the first stage, the second stage would oscillate too muchduring separation. An excellent video onboard a Delta-IV
Heavy, showing the staging, can be found on YouTube [5].

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June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

The HIF building contains offices andthree bays for processing the rockets.
It is temperature-controlled and has
been designed to withstand hurricane
strength winds of 140 mph. The doors
are made of strong durable fabric sothat they give with the wind better
than metal doors and can be replacedeasier. At the time of this tour, GPSrocket GPS2F1 and the WGS3 rocket
are being processed. These rockets arehuge, from the RS68 single engine, theengine compartment, up through theorange long hydrogen tank, the whiteinterstage with the equipment shelfand avionics and past the orange
oxygen tank, the interstage and second
stage. The CBC alone is 5 metres indiameter and 40.8 meters long. It takes
the team up to 60 days to complete themating and testing. Part of the launchpad, the Launch Mate Unit, LMU, isalso attached using bolts and frangible
nuts in the HIF building. NASA images
inside the HIF are available [6].
A frangible nut is a nut that has two
explosive charges on each side. Whenthe rocket is up to 100% thrust and all
readings are good, the computer gives
the command and the explosives split
the nut in two: the bolt slips down andthe rocket is released. The nuts andbolts are in heavy metal boxes so thatnone of the flying metal pieces
penetrate the rocket. A video andpictures of a Space Shuttle frangible
nut are available [7].

Mating the GOES-O Delta-IV 2nd stage to CBC
Image: NASA

The elevating platform transporter(EPT), built by the German company
Kamag, carries the Delta rocket to thelaunch pad. This is the same vehicle
that transported the CBC from thedock to the HIF and will also convey
the payload from Astrotech to thelaunch pad. The EPT has a push pullcab, independent wheel axial control,
sensors and hydraulics. The hydraulics
keep the rocket aligned vertically,horizontally and axially. Brian pointed
out how all of the road signs between
the HIF and the launch pad are short.
‘When you run a Heavy up there it
hangs over the road and you can’t
have any signs there. It was a design
item’, jokes Brian, ‘We had to stop,
pick up the signs, and take them
down’.

The rocket is moved into place where
the LMU engages the Launch Table andFixed Pad Erector and then two
hydraulic cylinders rotate the rocket
into place in twenty minutes. Next, two
60-inch solid rocket GEM-60 motors,
manufactured by Alliant Techsystems,
are delivered to the launch pad. They
are hoisted on the side opposite therocket, moved over the second stage,
lowered into place and secured.
Pictures of GOES-O’s Delta-IV beingtransported to the pad and the Fixed
Pad Erector can be viewed [8].

The author (left), pictured with Brian Bauerlinin front of the Astrotech Building

The launch pad’s two largest
components are the stationary grayFixed Umbilical Tower (FUT) with its
three swing arms and the moveable
white Mobile Service Tower (MST). The
MST is over 330 feet high and weighsover 4000 tonnes just before launch.
160 mph hurricane rated locks release,
the tower lifts up 3 to 4 inches andthen rolls back 300 yards on rails.
‘This is one of the largest moveable
structure in the world!’, exclaims
Brian. Next to the launch pad are twolightning towers to protect the pad andworkers. Before lightning towers were
installed, everyone had to stop working
during a Phase-1 alert, which is whenlightning is expected within 5 nautical
miles in approximately 30 minutes.
Today they can work through a
Phase-1 alert and only have to stop
lifting and ordinance operations duringa Phase-2, when lightning is imminentor occurring within 5 nm, saving time.
Riding the elevator to the 8th floor andstepping out, puts you at eye level withthe top of the second stage and aremovable protective dome. This iswhere the satellite payload will bemated to the second stage. The view isincredible with plenty of room aroundthe rocket to work. There is so muchwork-space that a temporary clean
room can be installed next to the
payload to allow the access panels tobe removed and work on the satellite
to be performed. Each level has
platforms that drop down allowing
technicians to work around the entire
rocket and satellite. Just before launchwww.geo-web.org.uk

GEO Quarterly No 22

these platforms lift, allowing the tower
to roll back. Floors 8, 9 and 10 are airtemperature controlled. Brian points
out the tape running down the second
stage and explains that there areshaped charges on the rocket that arepart of the range protection system. If
the rocket veers off course, a commandis sent to detonate the charges causing
the rocket to explode. NASA won’t
settle for less than a high reliability
factor when it comes to range safety,
especially since this Delta-IV is more
powerful than the Saturn-1B rockets
formerly launched from the previous
launch pad at this same site. That is
why even the Saturn-1B blockhousenext to the pad is no longer manned
during a launch—in case of an
explosion.
When the satellite is brought to thelaunch pad, it will be raised by a 50
tonne crane from the side of the MST
tower opposite the rocket. It is raised
above the 8th level and lowered on to
the second stage, leaving the top of the
GOES rocket at the 11th floor. Briantakes us to the best view on the entire
cape. Down one floor and through a
red door marked ‘NOT AN EXIT’, is a 15
foot long 6 foot wide observation gantry
with nothing but the floor grating
between you and the ground sevenfloors down. From there we see thebeach, the Atlas V launch pad, the two
space shuttle pads, Vertical Assembly
Building and surrounding area formiles around. Looking down we see
remnants of the original Saturn-1B
launch pad, the hydrogen and oxygen
spheres used to fuel the rockets andthe theodolite building. What’s atheodolite you might ask? It is an
instrument to precisely measure therocket’s location on the Earth and isused in the rocket’s trajectory
calculations.
Not only does this tour take us fromthe top of the second stage, to beneaththe first stage engine, it takes us below

Lifting the GOES-O Delta-IV onto the launch pad
Image: NASA25

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

the launch pad. Below the launch padis the flame duct, which is flooded withfresh water during the launch for pad
protection. Another layer of protectionis the ablative material which coats theconcrete walls of the flame duct and isrepaired after each launch. The flame
duct is so large that, if the middle
supporting wall were removed, a 767
airplane could be parked in it. ‘Itwould make for a great skateboard
area’ remarks Brian. During the Titan
years there was a ritual where workers
would line up Barney, Teletubby andother stuffed dolls at the edge of theflame duct and try to find them after
the launch. You can view an
outstanding movie of the launch padand photos of the GOES-O and
Delta-IV [9] as well as photos of thelaunch pad [10].
As we leave the pad we’re looking for a
non-official member of the launchteam, Henry. Henry is the nine-footalligator that sometimes roams thearea. To keep Henry out of certain
areas, the chain-link fences are curved
at the top because alligators can climb
regular chain link fences.
It takes as
few asthirteen dayson thelaunch padto prepare
the rocket
and satellite
for a launch.
It can thenstay on thepad with
littlesupport. If
limited life
items thathavecalibrationor use-bydates areclose toexpiring,
The 8th level on PAD37 with
ULA will try
the solid rocket and the top of
to get a
the 2nd stage visible
waiver. If a
Credit: NASAwaiver is notgranted, then the component must be
replaced.
Approximately six hours before launch,
the pad is cleared and no one isallowed closer than the Delta
Operations Centre (DOC) where ourtour takes us next. The DOC is where
the second stage is processed before
moving it to the HIF building. On the
4th floor is the Mission Directors
Centre (MDC). The back row of the
MDC is where the broadcast
commentator sits. ULA, the launch
director, flight director, flight
operations director and chief engineer
sit in the next row, closer to the large

26

June 2009

launch, yet they need to know how to
respond to the anomaly.
The Launch Conductor and all of thepropellant, hydraulic, electrical,
mechanical, and other engineers andtechnicians sit in the Launch Control
Centre (LCC) located on the 3rd floor.
It’s the Launch Conductor you hearcalling out the entire launch steps. The
engineers who show up 10-12 hours
prior to launch are looking at large
DLPS computer monitors displaying allof the rocket and satellite sensor
readings, which are colour coded toquickly point out the out-of-limit
readings. As the countdown
progresses, the computer takes over at
T-1.5 seconds. So at T-10 seconds you
might as well look out the LCC room
window because there is nothing you
can do; only the computer is quick
enough to review all sensor readings
and either launch or scrub.
What will Brian be doing during thelaunch? He will be acting as the

Encapsulating GOES-O
Image: NASA

screen monitors and clocks; thesatellite customer and NASA sit in thefront row. This is the room where all
main milestones and events areobserved. Off to the right is a large
window with a view of the launch pad.
Not only is this room used during
launch day, but also during wet dress
rehearsals. This room is also usedduring inter-crew exercises (ICE). The
full crew is brought in and run
through simulated launches withanomalous events. One of Brian's
former jobs as a Rehearsal Director,
was to create those anomalies andgauge the customer’s response. This
could even be the customer’s first

Brian inspecting the temperature andhumidity readings inside the fairing.

www.geo-web.org.uk

The author in the Astrotech Encapulation Bay next
to the encapsulated GOES-O satellite.

Spacecraft Coordinator and will bemonitoring the temperature andhumidity readings in the payload
fairing. He needs to ensure thetemperature is 18-19°C, optimal forbatteries and other components, andthe relative humidity lies between 3555%, optimal to prevent static
electricity and dew point issues. Brianis also the coordinator between ULA
and the customer. If any issues arise it
is his job to communicate between the
two. The next room contained thecomputers to monitor and launch therocket. ‘The old Saturn had four suchrooms’, mentions Brian. The next room
was for the customer, ECS and HVAC
engineers.
The final stop of the tour is at the
Astrotech Corporation in Titusville
Florida, just outside the Kennedy
Spaceflight Centre which is just northof the Air Force Station. Astrotech [11]is a commercial space company
founded in 1984 with a history datingback to Northrop Grumman. Astrotech
is the first private company formed tomeet the growing demand forcommercial satellite processing; they
provide the facilities commodities,

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

processing support and safety officers
to oversee the hazardous operations.
Operations like final assembly, testing,fuelling and encapsulation are
performed by the contracting customer
at Astrotech's facility. There are four
satellite processing buildings on the 62
acres with Building 9 currently storing
GOES-O. It also housed Kepler (therecently launched NASA Space
Telescope mission to discover Earthlike planets) before it was launched.
Astrotech is also currently processing
or storing LCROSS, WGS3 andGPS2F1.
After getting through several levels of
security, we enter the changing room,clean our shoes and don our cleanroom attire. We pass through the air
scrubber which cleans and removes
static electricity and can finally enter
the encapsulation bay where GOES-O
is stored. The first two things we notice
are that the satellite is surrounded bya scaffold, and the completely whiteroom with black ruler markings, infeet, on the walling.
The GOES-O satellite is encapsulated
in the fairing and sitting on the
Payload Adapter Fitting (PAF) which is
supported on an air bearing platformthat can be moved easily. Around thefairing are two eight-level scaffolds,
pushed together to allow access to the
47 foot tall fairing in a room large
enough to accommodate an 86 footfairing. There is a line exit through thebottom of the platform for battery
charging; an access cover with ports
which connect to nitrogen purge lines,
relative humidity and temperatureprobes; and a dedicated nitrogen flyaway purge line attached to theinternal spatial orientation navigation
unit. The current temperature inside
the fairing is 18°C at 3% relative
humidity. A cross-hair with the letters‘RF’ on the fairing marks an RF
window which allows communications
through an external loop Yagi.
Emergency breathing bottles remind
you that the satellite is fuelled withstation-keeping gas.
Brian points out thelight gray taperunning from the top
to the bottom on twoside of the fairing.
Under this tape are
rivets and a linear
explosive assembly
that, at approximately
2 minutes and 42
seconds into flight,
will detonate,separating the fairing
Wall-E, the security
instantaneously.
camera/mascot
Every four days thesatellite gets a health check andBoeing Space and Intelligence Systems,
the satellite manufacturer, has statedthat the satellite can stay in the

The fairing, showing tape running down its side.
Explosive charges to release the fairing lie
beneath this tape.

fairing, with periodic charging of theGOES-O flight batteries, until August.
As we leave the encapsulation room,
we notice a mascot, Wall-E, a security
camera on a roll-around stand.
The next room is the air-lockseparating the outside world from theEast and West Processing Bays. GOESO arrived from the Boeing
manufacturing plant in El Segundo
California on a C-17 military transportplane on March 3, 2009 and passed
through this air lock. It was in the
East Processing Bay where GOES-O
was processed, fuelled and had the
PAF attached before being moved into
the Encapsulation Bay. The Processing
Bays are large clean-rooms, capable of
10,000 class—which means that there
can be no more than 10,000 air
particles per cubic foot (compared withroom air, which contains about amillion air particles per cubic foot). The
adjacent room is the Payload Faring
Processing Bay where the fairings are
first cleaned and have the logos
applied before being moved into the
Encapsulation Bay.
After the Delta-IV rocket is ready andpasses all tests, and approximately
thirteen days prior to launch, thepayload will be moved from the
Astrotech facility on the EPTtransporter. The EPT maintains a level
environment during its 5 mph, 8 hour
drive to the launch pad. The drive
starts around 8 pm, to prevent a trafficjam, and arrives at the pad between
5 am and 6 am. When the new shift
arrives at 7 am, the payload is loaded
on top of the Delta-IV second stage,
similar to the solid rocket motors.
GOES-O is the second in the newgeneration of Geostationary

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GEO Quarterly No 22

T-5 hr 15 min
T-5 hrTimeline
Terminal count starts
Start loading 1st stage oxygen

T-4 hr
T-3 hr 20 min
T-3 hr 10 min
T-1 hr 40 min
T-1 hr
T-15 min
T-4 minT-5.5 sec
T-0
T+1 min 40 sec
T+4 min 27 sec
T+4 min 47 sec
T+4 min 57 sec
T+23 min 05 sec
T+27 min 08 sec
T+4 hr 10 min 01 sec
T+4 hr 10 min 57 sec

Start loading 1st stage hydrogen
Start loading 2nd stage oxygenStart loading 2nd stage hydrogen
All fuel loading complete
Engine slewing test started
Switch satellite to internal batteries
Switch Delta-IV to internal batteries
1st stage solid engine start
Launch!
Jettison the solid engines
Main engine cutoff and jettison
2nd stage engine ignition
Fairing jettison
2nd stage engine cutoff
2nd stage engine ignition
2nd stage engine ignition
2nd stage engine cutoff

T+4 hr 21 min 27 sec

Satellite separation into a
41 555 km x 13 000 km orbit

Apogee motor burns

Five more burns to insert into a
42 175 km geostationary orbit

Operational Environmental Satellites.
The first, GOES-N as it was calledprior to a successful on-orbit checkout,
is now called GOES-13 and is instandby mode at 105° west longitude.
It may soon replace GOES-12 (which
has a leaking thruster), or a major
failure of GOES-11. GOES-11 is theactive satellite covering the western
portion of the United States at 134°
west longitude and GOES-12 is theactive satellite covering the eastern
portion of the United States at 75°
west longitude. GOES-O will probably
be checked out at 90°W and, if
successful, will be renamed GOES-14
and become an on-orbit spare. GOES-P
has been manufactured and is instorage at at the Boeing Space andIntelligence Systems facility in
California.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank Brian Bauerlin for theoutstanding tour, Tom Coussens,
GOES OP Launch IPT Lead andRaymond McGlynn, NASA GOES-O/P
Launch Services Manager, for bothmaking the tour possible, and theCape Canaveral Air Force Station.
References
1 http://www.ulalaunch.com/
2 http://www.ulalaunch.com/
index_products_services.html
3 http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/
launches/delta_mariner_010705-1.html
4 http://www.flickr.com/photos/
toastforbrekkie/sets/72157600216259987/
5 http://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=wzggL0eDf8U
6http://www.nasaimages.org/luna/
servlet/view/search?q=GOES-O
7 http://www.collectspace.com/collection/
artifacts_sts_sts31fnut.html
8 http://spaceflightnow.com/
news/n0902/27goeso/
9 http://www.osd.noaa.gov/
GOES/goes_o.htm
10 http://www.boeing.com/
companyoffices/gallery/images/space/delta_iv/delta_iv_1st_flight_2.htm
11 http://www.astrotech.com/

27

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009David Taylor
Introducing the Satellite Applications Facilities (SAFs)
Apart from pretty pictures, what use can be made of all the data
coming down from weather satellites? Who understands all thepossibilities, and knows the best algorithms for extracting
information about the environment from the raw radiance data
provided by instruments such as those on board the polar orbiting
and geostationary satellites operated by EUMETSAT; and what
about validating those algorithms against actual measurements on
the ground or in the oceans?
Fortunately, EUMETSAT has anticipated these issues and set up a
number of SAFs, each of which comprises a group of experts who
provide the knowledge and algorithms to extract the data, theresources to check this data on the ground and software to provide
data which users can download. EUMETSAT also broadcasts
these data to users of the EUMETCast system. The research, dataand services provided by the SAFs complement the meteorologicalproducts delivered by EUMETSAT.
Currently, operational data are provided by six SAFs:• SAF on Support to Nowcasting and Very Short Range
Forecasting• Ocean and Sea Ice SAF• Climate Monitoring SAF• Numerical Weather Prediction SAF• Land Surface Analysis SAF• Ozone and Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring SAF.

Activities performed within the framework of the Land SAF
involve the development of products that are especiallyrelevant in the following fields of application:• Weather forecasting and climate modelling, which requiredetailed information on the nature and properties of land.
Highest Land SAF priority should be towards themeteorological community and, within that community,
Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) has been alreadyidentified as the one that has the greatest potential of fully
exploit the products• Environmental management and land use, which require
information on land cover type and land cover changes (e.g.
provided by biophysical parameters or thermal characteristics)• Natural hazards management, which requires frequent
observations of terrestrial surfaces in both the solar andthermal bands• Climatological applications and climate change detection
What does all this mean in terms of the data available to us? The
table below illustrates how data from the geostationary MSG
satellites have been processed by the LSA SAF into a quite
remarkable list of products, all of which have abbreviations to makeit more easy (or more difficult!) to refer to them.

The GRAS Meteorology SAF is just starting to provide data, and an
Operational Hydrology and Water management SAF is currently
under development.
EUMETSAT’s Land Surface Analysis Satellite Applications Facility(LSA SAF) consists of a number of facilities, each with a team ofexperts dedicated to extracting useful information from the raw
data provided by their geostationary and polar orbiting satellites.
Important facets of this activity includes the calibration of satellite
sensors in terms of physical sources (converting measured
radiances into temperatures, for example) and the validation ofdata derived from these physical measurements. A typical example
would be understanding what a vegetation index—derived fromalbedo data at two or more different wavelengths—means in termsof ground data.
Overview
Perhaps the best overview is this summary extracted from the
LSA-SAF Web site:
Although directly designed to improve the observation of
weather systems, the spectral characteristics, time resolution
and global coverage offered by MSG (Meteosat Second
Generation geostationary satellites) and EPS (the polar
orbiting satellites) allow for their use in a broad spectrum ofother applications, namely within the scope of landbiophysical applications.
The Land SAF aims to develop techniques, products andalgorithms which will allow a more effective use of data fromboth the geostationary and the polar orbiting satellites run by
EUMETSAT. Hence the benefits of the data can be increased
in relation to land, land-atmosphere interactions andbiophysical applications.

28

LST

Land Surface Temperature

DSSF

Downwelling Surface Shortwave Radiation Flux

DSLF

Downwelling Surface Longwave Radiation Flux

ALBEDO

Surface Albedo

SC

Snow CoverET

Evapotranspiration

FVC

Fraction of Vegetation Cover

LAI

Leaf Area Index

fAPAR

Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetic Active Radiation

FRPPIXEL Fire Radiative Power (PIXEL)FRPGRID

Fire Radiative Power (GRID)MTAL

MSG Ten Day Surface Albedo

As of early April 2009, the LST, DSSF and DSLF are listed as
operational products; all the rest are preoperational with the
exception of FRPGRID which is shown as ‘Development’.
More recently, data from the Metop-A satellite have started to beprocessed, and although these data are only available once or
twice a day for a given location, they do have the advantage of amuch higher spatial resolution.
The following two products as shown as preoperational.
EPS_LST
EPS_DSLF

EPS - Land Surface Temperature
Downwelling Surface Longwave Radiation Flux

Summary of Products
The following is a run-through of the various products, derived fromthe LSA SAF website.
LST:

www.geo-web.org.uk

Land Surface Temperature is the radiative skin temperature
over land and is determined from the long wavelength
10.8 µm and 12.0 µm channel IR sensors on the MSG
satellites. Where cloud is blocking the view of the land, no
LST can be generated. By using two channels rather than

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

one, certain effects can be compensated for. An algorithm
like this is known as a split-window algorithm. The best LST
values are accurate to about 1K (equivalent to 1 Celsius
degree).
DSSF:

DSLF:

Albedo:The Downwelling Surface Shortwave radiation Flux refers to
the radiative energy in the wavelength interval between
0.3 µm and 4.0 µm that reaches the Earth's surface pertime and surface unit. This flux depends on the solar
radiation at the top of the atmosphere, the solar zenith
angle and the fraction of radiation absorbed by clouds etc.
The Downwelling Surface Longwave radiation Flux is theresult of atmospheric absorption, emission and scattering
within the entire atmospheric column and may be definedas the thermal irradiance reaching the surface in thethermal infrared spectrum (4-100 µm). In clear-sky
situations, DSLF depends on the vertical profiles oftemperature and gaseous absorbers, primarily water vapour
and CO2, along with others of lesser importance like ozone,
methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs.

Fractional Vegetation Cover defines an important structuralproperty of a plant canopy, which corresponds to thecomplement to unity of the gap fraction at nadir direction,
counting for the amount of vegetation distributed in ahorizontal perspective. FVC is related with the partition
between soil and vegetation contribution for emissivity andtemperature. The FVC product is currently generated daily
at the full spatial resolution of the MSG/SEVIRI instrument,
and will be later provided on a 10-day and monthly basis.
This product is also based on the three short-wave
channels, 0.6 µm (VIS), 0.8 µm (NIR) and 1.6 µm (SWIR).
Accuracy is about 10%.

LAI:

However, DSLF is determined by the radiation thatoriginates from a shallow layer close to the surface (about
one third being emitted by the lowest 10 meters of theatmosphere and 80% by the 500-metre layer). The cloudcontribution mainly occurs in the atmospheric window
between 8 µm and 13 µm and depends primarily on cloudbase properties (altitude, temperature and emissivity).
DSLF is directly related to the greenhouse effect and its
monitoring has an important role in climate change studies.
Other applications include meteorology (land applications)and hydrology. The nominal accuracy is 5-10%.

Leaf Area Index is a dimensionless variable which defines
an important structural property of a plant canopy. LAI is
defined as one half of the total leaf area per unit groundarea. It provides complementary information to the FVC,
accounting for the surface of leaves contained in a verticalcolumn normalised by its cross-sectional area. It defines
thus the area of green vegetation that interacts with solar
radiation to determine the remote sensing signal, andrepresents the size of the interface between the vegetation
canopy and the atmosphere for energy and mass
exchanges.

fAPAR:

Land surface albedo is a key variable for characterising theenergy balance in the coupled soil-vegetation-atmospheresystem. The albedo quantifies the part of the energy that isabsorbed and transformed into heat and latent fluxes.
Owing to strong feedback effects, the knowledge of albedo
is important for determining weather conditions at theatmospheric boundary layer.

Fraction of Absorbed Photosynthetically Active Radiation
defines the fraction of PAR (400-700 nm) absorbed by thegreen parts of the canopy, and thus expresses the canopy's
energy absorption capacity. fAPAR depends both on canopy
structure, leaf and soil optical properties and irradianceconditions. fAPAR is generally well correlated with the LAI,
the more for healthy fully developed vegetation canopies.

FRP:

The Fire Radiative Power product (in MW) provides
information on the measured radiant heat output of detectedfires. Therefore, measuring this FRP and integrating it overthe lifetime of the fire provides an estimate of the total Fire
Radiative Energy (FRE) which, for wildfires, should be
proportional to the total mass of fuel biomass combusted.

Albedos come in both ‘white sky’ and ‘black sky’ variants,
where the ‘black sky’ refers to reflectance under direct
illumination with no diffuse component, and ‘white sky’ isthe reflectance of a surface under pure diffuse illumination,with no direct component.

ET:

30

(LE), a key link between the energy and water cycles. In
other words, LE represents the energy needed for the ET
process. Evaluating energy fluxes at the Earth surface is ofgreat importance in many disciplines like weather
forecasting, global climate monitoring, water management,
agriculture and ecology.
FVC:

The Albedo product is generated each day at the full spatial
resolution of the MSG/SEVIRI instrument. An iterative
scheme allows the composition of the information with acharacteristic time scale of five days. The product is basedon the three short-wave channels, 0.6 µm (VIS), 0.8 µm(NIR) and 1.6 µm (SWIR).

SC:

June 2009

Snow Cover is the presence of snow over land. SC plays
an important role in the physics of land surface as it isinvolved in the processes of energy and water exchangewith the atmosphere. SC is useful for the scientificcommunity, namely for those dealing with meteorologicaland climate models. Accurate detection of snow in a pixel isalso important for a wide range of areas related to land
surface processes, including meteorology, hydrology,
climatology and environmental studies. The retrieval of SC
is based on detection of cloudy, snow free and snow
covered pixels in the cloud mask generated by the
nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting Satellite
Application Facility (NWC SAF) software.
Evapotranspiration accounts for the flux of water
evaporated at the Earth-atmosphere interface (from soil,
water bodies and interception) and transpired by vegetation
through photosynthesis. ET is an important component of
the water cycle and is associated with the latent heat flux

FRPGRID: The FRPGRID product contains an hourly estimation of the
FRP at one degree resolution and includes several
correction factors.
MTAL:

As Albedo (above). In addition to the corresponding
narrowband estimates, broadband albedo is derived for thevisible, near-infrared and total shortwave wavelength
ranges. Information on cloud cover is obtained from theoutput of the Nowcasting and Very Short Range
Forecasting Satellite Application Facility (NWC SAF)
software.

Many of the products are split into regions to make them easier todownload and use. The regions are: Europe, North Africa, South
Africa, and South America.
There is a display of some much-reduced illustrations of the datatypes, taken from the LSA-SAF Web site, on page 29. Full sizedversions can be accessed from the LSA-SAF website (address inthe ‘References’ section at the end of this article).
Accessing the SAF Data
Now that your appetite has been whetted, you will doubtless beanxious to get your hands on one or more products from thissplendid choice! Most of the data described above are available tousers of EUMETCast—you simply need to ask for the data on your
EUMETCast registration form. Please note that special

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June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

arrangements were made for existing users. You may also be able
to get access to the data by joining the LSA SAF on their Web site,and downloading the data by FTP, and you could probably
automate such downloads with Francis Breame's getCharts
software.

the Pass Overview tab. Figure 7 is a detailed LST false-colour
image showing parts of England and northern France while figure 8
displays Svalbard. Moving the mouse cursor over these images
allows the temperatures or DSLF at a particular location to beread-off.

Here is the EUMETSAT notice:

Acknowledgements
Much of the content of this article, and the illustrations on page 29,
have been derived from the Land Surface Analysis SAF website.
All images opposite are copyright © EUMETSAT 2009.

‘On 31 March 2009 EUMETSAT introduced a registration
requirement for EUMETCast access to all level 2 satellite
products generated by EUMETSAT and the Satellite
Application Facilities (SAFs). After this date, only registeredusers will continue to receive level 2 products through
EUMETCast. The registration requirement is being introduced
to allow EUMETSAT and its SAFs greater visibility of productusage.
‘New EUMETCast users will be able to select their choice oflevel 2 product sets (Meteosat, Metop/NOAA, Ocean Sea Ice,
Land Analysis and Ozone & Atmospheric Chemistry) via theon-line registration form. Existing EUMETCast user may
request a continuation of access to these products by sending
an email to the User Helpdesk via ops@eumetsat.int’.

References
The programs HDF Viewer and Metop LSA Viewer, which include afull-function 30-day trial licence, can be downloaded from the‘Satellite Tools’ section of my website at
http://www.satsignal.eu/

You can read more about the EUMETSAT SAFs at
http://www.eumetsat.int/HOME/Main/What_We_Do/SAFs/index.htm

and the LSA-SAF Web site at
http://landsaf.meteo.pt/

Francis Breame's getCharts software can be downloaded fromYou should really have already e-mailed EUMETSAT as an existinguser of the data by the time this article is published, so please bepatient if EUMETSAT ask you to update your user registration form
instead.

http://www.vf0123.btinternet.co.uk/

The NCSA HDF Viewer Software is available fromhttp://www.hdfgroup.org/hdf-java-html/hdfview/

If you have the MSG Data Manager, you will already be capable ofmanaging this data by automating the copying of the data into the\Images\SAF\ directories, using the standard \year\month\day\structure.
Viewing the data
Most of the data from the LSA SAF is in HDF5 format, and this canbe interpreted by the free NCSA HDF Viewer. However, you may
find it more convenient to use one of the two viewers developed by
SatSignal Software to visualise these products. There are two
programs because the polar orbiter data are sent in a different
format from the geostationary data.
With the geostationary data, the map projections are standardised
into well-defined regions, either full-disk, Europe, North and South
Africa, and South America. The polar-orbiting data comes in theformat of a data file, plus two rather large files with the latitude andlongitude of each data point.

Rob Alblas
Removing Tellicast from the ‘start-at-boot’ list
Installation of Tellicast software is done in such a way that it will
start as soon as you log on (or after booting). For a 24/7 usage thisis OK, but if your PC is used for other tasks, and if receiving
EUMETCast is not always wanted, it is best is to remove Tellicast
from the ‘start-at-boot’ list and start it manually, when desired.
Under Windows XP this can be done in the following way. Navigate
to the folder

Viewing Geostationary data
Data from the geostationary satellites is available at a maximum
resolution of 3-km at the sub-satellite point, decreasing toapproximately 5-km resolution over Europe. Some data are sentout full-disk but other data are sent as regions, which makes it
easy to handle.
The program I have developed to handle this HDF data is called
the HDF Viewer, it is designed specifically for the LSA-SAF data
sent over EUMETCast.
Figures 1 and 2 on the previous page show the two different
wavebands of the downwelling flux, the shortwave (mainly sun
dependant) and the longwave. To show some of the more unusual
products, I have selected a region around the Nile delta to show
the LAI, FVC and fAPAR data (figures 3, 4 and 5) derived from theMSG-2 satellite during April 2009. These data are cropped from thefull north Africa image.
Viewing Polar Orbiter data
At the time of writing, there are just two products available at thehigher 1-km resolution possible from the AVHRR instrument aboard
the Metop-A satellite. These are the land surface temperature anddownwelling surface longwave flux data. My Metop LSA Viewer
software can handle this data, and figures 6 shows how the six
segments comprising one particular pass have been combined on• l Documents and Settings\<user>\Start Menu\Programs\Startup(replacing <user> by your own user name).
At this location, the following link should be found:• l BusinessTV-IP.lnk

Now create a new folder on the current location; you can call it
something like ‘not_started’.
Finally, move l BusinessTV-IP.lnk into this new folder.
Note - as filename extensions are generally hidden by
Windows, you may find it easier to identify this link bymeans of its well-known purple ‘T’ icon with an arrow inthe bottom left-hand corner.
That's all. Note that a real restart is necessary, going into 'sleep'
mode is not enough! To restore 'auto-start', just move the link backto the original location.
To Start Tellicast Manually
If you use WeView, then this program will take care ofstarting/stopping Tellicast. Otherwise it can be started via the Startmenu, for XP: under 'All programs', item 'T-Systems'.

www.geo-web.org.uk

31

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

Figure 1 - The shortwave downwelling (DSSF) product for Europe

Figure 3 - Leaf Area Index (LAI) for the Nile Delta

June 2009

Figure 2 - The longwave downwelling (DLSF) product for Europe

Figure 4 - Fraction of Vegetation Cover (FVC)

Figure 5 - fAPAR for the Nile Delta Region

Figure 6 - The LSA Viewer pass overview tab

Figure 7 - Land Surface Temperature (LST) false colour image of England and France

32

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Figure 8 - LST false colour image of Svalbard

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Peter Wakelin
As stipulated in the Federal Space Programme of Russia to 2015,
three hydrometeorological and oceanographic satellites are to becreated within the framework of the Meteor-3M project.
Meteor M-N1 was originally due for launch on May 15 but, as we go
to press, the news is that this has now been delayed till July.
Meteor M-N2, a similar satellite, is to be put into orbit in 2010 withthe oceanographic Meteor M-N3 scheduled for 2012.
At their November 2007 meeting, the Coordination Group for
Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) reported that the 1.7 GHztransmission would be AHRPT but the more recent CGMS 36 report(just received) states HRPT, giving the data rate as 665 kb, thesame as for NOAA HRPT. I guess we just have to wait and see!
Here’s an extract from the relevant working paper.
Meteor M-N1 is now fully assembled and its integrated tests are in
progress. The satellite is to be placed into a 98.77° sunsynchronous orbit at an altitude of 835 kilometres with thedescending node equator crossing at approximately 09:30 local
time. The satellite’s information complex comprises:• Hydrometeorological 6-channel visible and infrared-bandscanner (MSU-MR)• System of three 3-channel visible-band medium-resolution
scanners• X-band sideways looking radar with 400-meter and 800-meter
resolution• Heliogeophysical hardware• Data acquisition and transmission system
Meteor M-N1 has three downlink radio lines:• 2-channel SHF-band radio line (8.192 GHz and 8.320 GHz)
with a 122.88 Mbaud data transmission rate
• UHF-band radio line (1700 MHz, which I suspect may not be
precise) with a 665.4 kbaud data transmission rate
• VHF-band radio line with an 80 kbps operating transmission
rate (LRPT format) at either 137.1 or 137.9 MHz.

Soyuz Fregat-1b Launcher
Credit: Starsem

Meteor 3M
Credit: ROSCOSMOS/ROSHYDROMET

Further Details
It is planned to launch Meteor M-N1 from the Baikonur
cosmodrome using a Soyuz-2-1b Fregat launch vehicle in a piggyback launch which will include five microsatellites.
Meteor M-N2 is planned as a duplicate of Meteor M-N1 but withsome of the service systems upgraded. Both satellites aredesigned using hermetically sealed (pressurised) containers.
Meteor M-N2 is currently at the stage of flight systems integration.
Meteor M-N3, currently still at the design stage, will be ahydrometeorological satellite of the next generation and will be

manufactured using non-hermetic technology. Its information
complex, aimed at providing water surface monitoring will include:• X-band multimode radar based on Active Phased Array
Antenna (APAA) technology, with spatial resolutions from
1 to 500 m and a horizontal swath width from 10 to 750 km• Ku-band scatterometer with a spatial resolution of 25 x 25 km
and swath width of 1800 km• A 4-channel coastal-zone scanner operating in the visible
band with 80 m resolution within its 800 km swath• An 8-channel ocean colour scanner operating in the visible
band with 1-km resolution within the 3000 km swath• Hardware for radio occultation measurements of Earth’s
atmospheric parameters.
The ground segment for receiving and processing the data from
Meteor-M satellites is based at the Roshydromet complex. The
major components are the three Regional Centres in Moscow(Scientific Research Centre Planeta), Novosibirsk, western Siberia
and Khabarovsk in the Far East. The ground segment also
includes the network of LRPT and HRPT receiving stations.
Roshydromet’s main satellite centre, Planeta, performs thescientific and methodological management and coordinates theactivities of the above mentioned acquisition centres and stations.
These centres cover the whole territory of Russia, neighbouring
countries, as well as a major part of Europe.

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33

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Rob Alblas
In GEO Quarterlies 18 and 20, Laurence Holderness addressed aneed for a simple program to handle data from the new generationof weather satellites, broadcast via EUMETCast. Whereas for APT
just one program was enough, for EUMETCast at least fiveprograms are necessary:• Receiver software• Tellicast, to get data from receiver on to the hard disk
• EKU software, necessary for decryption• Tqchansel, if a simple selection of received satellites isdesired• Processing software to translate received data into pictures

supported by WeView, like making a movie; both programs can beused simultaneously on the same set of received data.

For the last item there is a choice between xrit2pic, which canhandle both geostationary and polar satellites, and the programs ofDavid Taylor. In the latter case, to handle geostationary and polarsatellites, a number of extra ‘manager’ programs are needed (e.g.
GeoSatSignal and HRPT Reader).

By default Tellicast is installed in

Settings
An extra complexity with installing a multiple-program system isthat they have to ‘talk’ with each other in some way. To do this all
the programs need the right settings.
One of the objectives of WeView is to make this as simple aspossible. It ‘talks’ with Tellicast, so any settings which have to dowith that program especially, need to match.

\Program Files\T-Systems\BusinessTV

and the default settings of WeView conform to this installation.

For the Receive, Tellicast and EKU programs, it is mainly an ‘installand forget’ story. However, the programs used to create the actual
images (xrit2pic and David Taylor’s programs) have a learning
curve, making it sometimes too complex for people who only use
these programs now and then.
I have tried to construct a program for very simple handling of
EUMETCast data. The objectives are:• Everything that is needed is provided in one program• Built-in satellite selection• A Tellicast start/stop button• Viewing of recorded data, both black-white and coloured• Translation into JPEG format, for external use• Easy to install, and reporting clearly if something isn’t installed
correctly.
• Just one window (no pop-ups), and a very limited number of
buttons/menus
The program is a combination of a greatly simplified xrit2pic [1] andtqchansel [2].

Figure 1 - The WeView ‘Settings’ Page

Program nameFinding a name is one of the challenges of making a new program.
I started with ‘wview, but this appears to be an existing program
name, also dealing with weather related data. So I added the ‘e’ of
EUMETCast, and we have ‘WeView’: ‘Weathersatellite
EUMETCast View’.
Installation
Installation of software for the receiver, Tellicast and EKU remains
unchanged. Step-by-step installation instructions for these
programs by Arne van Belle are provided on the GEO CD supplied
when you purchase your USB DVB satellite receiver from the
GEO Shop. David Taylor has also described how to set up thereceiver software in a previous issue of GEO Quarterly [3].
Installation of WeView is easy. There are two self-installing
executable files, one containing libraries and help files, the otherthe program WeView itself. Normally, only the latter one needs tobe reinstalled to update to a newer version.
Weview will be installed under \Program Files\xrit, the same
location as for xrit2pic. The reason is that both programs use thesame libraries. If desired, xrit2pic may be used for tasks not

34

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Figure 2 - The WeView ‘Record’ Page

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Figure 3 - Viewing previously recorded data in WeView

Figure 4 - The World Map Page

www.geo-web.org.uk

35

GEO Quarterly No 22

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June 2009

Figure 1 shows the <Settings> page of WeView. For each item thestatus is shown, and in case anything is wrong a ‘Solve’ button
becomes active.

The picture will be a coloured composite one, but clicking on the‘+’ sign beside an item will show the individual channels, which you
can select to display in black and white.

Figure 1 shows the situation after a first install. Green status lights
at the left of the screen (beside ‘recv.ini’ etc) say that the Tellicast
program has been found, as well as the file ‘recv.ini’. This file wasinstalled together with Tellicast. It should contain your user nameand code but it also holds the location of the file recv-channels.ini.
This file, which deals with channel selection, is used by WeView.
Figure 1 shows that this file has been recognised too.

For MSG, ticking the ‘Hires’ box at the foot of the screen will give ahigh resolution colour picture. This gives very attractive colour
pictures when zoomed into a small section (this method was
described in GEO Q10: High resolution MSG images in Colour).

The recv-channels.ini.sav file initially has a red status light,
meaning it isn’t present yet. This should be a copy of the original
recv-channels.ini file. Pressing the appropriate ‘Solve’ button to theright of this item will generate the missing file and the status lightwill change to green.
There are two more red status lights because the ‘Received’
directory and ‘Destination’ directory don’t exist yet. Just push the
buttons in the ‘Solve’ column and these directories will be created.
The locations shown above are the WeView defaults, but they may
be changed using one of the Settings sub-pages if desired.
Now, all the status lights are ‘green’ and initialisation is complete.
RecordingFigure 2 shows the <Record> page. In the left part the satellites
from which you wish to receive data can be selected.
In the ‘Rec’ column, one or more sources may be activated: somegeostationary as well as some polar satellites are selectable. In the‘Show’ column, you can select one of the received satellites forwhich data will be shown ‘live’ in the right hand panel. The channel
number used for this ‘Live view’ may be set under the ‘Chan’column. The actual name of the chosen channel is shown below
the selection buttons. Choosing channel 0 (zero) means that acolour picture will be made by using a combination of several
channels.
Note that all channels of the selected satellites are recorded; thechoice here is solely which one is to be shown ‘live’.
To start actual recording, the button ‘Start receiving’ at the top of
the window needs to be clicked. This will start Tellicast and data will
stream into the hard disk. Also, WeView starts to look at new files
as they come in and will draw the selected picture on to the canvasin the right-hand frame. This window also allows a few simple tasks
like zooming and panning using the buttons at the top of the image
window. They may look a bit cryptic, but moving the mouse cursor
over a button gives a more elaborate explanation about what it
does, together with keyboard shortcut information.
Pressing the ‘Start receiving’ button a second time will stop
recording. Tellicast will stop and no further data will flow into thehard disk until the ‘Start receiving’ button is clicked yet again.
Polar satellites will also be shown live. Each time a new segment
arrives the previous segments will shift upwards to make space forthe new one.
Note that a change in satellite selection will take immediate effect:
there is no need to stop/start Tellicast.
Viewing Recorded Data
After (or during) recording, the data can be shown in a moresophisticated window. For this go to the <View> page (figure 3).
This will show a list of all recorded items; if recording is still runningthen this list will be updated ‘live’.
Each line represents a set of channels belonging to one satellite
and for a particular time. Select a line and press ‘Preview’; thepicture will be shown in the right hand panel.

36

The canvas in the right-hand side of the window has some more
possibilities than the one in the <Record> page. Apart fromzooming and panning, it is also possible to adjust the luminance.
Furthermore, infrared channels may be shown as temperaturemaps and there is a button to add coastlines.
Saving the currently shown picture as a standard JPEG format fileneeds just a click on the ‘Export’ button. Zooming and luminancesettings will be taken into account.
Removing items is possible by selecting one or more lines and thenhitting ‘Delete’.
Handling polar satellite data, especially Metop and NOAA GAC, is a
bit more complex because these pictures have no defined
beginning or end. The <World map> page (figure 4) shows theavailable segments; from here the sections to show may be
selected. For the rest, it is the same as for geostationary satellites.
Conclusions
With WeView, just one or two mouse clicks is enough to start
recording or to view prerecorded data. Generating standard JPEG
images needs just one extra click.
All received files not supported by WeView, like the BUFR files, will
be deleted immediately, to keep the ‘received’ folder as clean as
possible.
A RAMDisk isn’t necessary, except perhaps if Metop data needs tobe received without losing any segments. Instead, the lower
resolution NOAA GAC data may be used: these also give worldwide coverage and don’t need a RAMDisk.
There is one important point to note about Tellicast. The default
installation is such that it will start as soon as the PC is booted, so
data will be recorded immediately. For 24/7 usage this is OK but inother cases this may be a disadvantage. If the PC is started andused for another task, you might not be aware that the hard disk isfilling with data you don’t want. As described, WeView will take careof starting and stopping Tellicast. It is also possible to disable thisauto-start option—see note on page 31.
New features will only be added if this doesn’t increase thecomplexity for users. The most important objective remains to keep
the program simple. Suggestions are welcome, by email, tosat@alblas.demon.nl

You can download WeView and its DLLs fromhttp://www.alblas.demon.nl/wsat/software/winsoft_wev.html

where you can also find a manual.
Note that there is a Yahoo xrit2pic mailing list, which you may also
use to discuss WeView items:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/xrit2pic/

References
1 Xrit2Pic
Rob Alblas: GEO Q5, page 28, March 2005
2 TqChanSel
Rob Alblas: GEO Q14, page 34, June 2007
3 Trialling the Dexatek USB Box for EUMETCast
David Taylor: GEO Q17, page 25, March 2008

www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

John Tellick
I have commented before about the usual mild winters weexperience in southeast England owing to our
predominantly westerly winds off the Atlantic. This winterwas rather different though: most of December was very cold
with frost at night and below average daytime temperatures.
And though it turned milder for a while over Christmas,
prolonged cold conditions returned for New Year and lasted
well into January. The UK was not alone in experiencing theprolonged cold weather which also allowed a period of much
loved skating on the frozen canals of the Netherlands—thebest for many years.
But, nobody was prepared for what was to follow.
In January, the UK Met. Office were monitoring an 'event' in
the Arctic. The temperature above the North Pole is normallyaround -70°C but an area of dense air had suddenly
penetrated the stratosphere some 50 km above the Arctic,
causing a rapid rise in temperature. By mid January thetemperature in this region of the stratosphere had increased
by some 50°C.
Such an event happens every few years and throws thewhole Arctic system out of balance, causing freezing easterly
winds to descend through the atmosphere and head towards
Britain, in place of the more usual westerlies. Southeast
England has experienced this icy blast before but it usually
results in just a period of strong easterly winds and somesevere frost.
At this time the Met. Office were also monitoring a mass ofwarm, moist air moving up through France and heading
towards Britain. Their job was now to predict when the two
air masses would collide and how much snow would be
produced. Their conclusion: an event which happens only
every 20 - 30 years and which would create 'the perfect
winter storm.' The forecast, issued several days in advance,
proved very accurate.
It started snowing in London on the evening of Sunday,
February 1 and kept going all night—bad news for the
Monday morning rush-hour. Also, with very little wind, trees
and bushes were groaning under the accumulated snow.
Monday morning revealed a changed landscape—a winterwonderland, with the heaviest fall of snow I've seen in
London for 30 years or more. This, inevitably, brought chaos
to the capitol: no busses, most tube trains not running, very
few overland trains, Heathrow airport closed and motorways
and side-roads blocked, either due to deep snow or stranded
traffic.
Some mobile phone networks in the southeast became
overloaded as commuters tried to phone their work to say
they couldn't make it. Also some SatNavs failed and gave
wrong directions because heavy snow was disrupting thesatellite signals. Southeast England and London were
almost at a standstill.
The storm moved on to the West Country then north toaffect the whole of the UK. Another pulse of snow moved up
into the Midlands and north later that week.

For the first time in many years, during that first week ofFebruary, the entire United Kingdom was covered by snow.
Further stories of road and rail chaos were reported frommany other parts of Britain and on the Friday both the
Severn bridge crossings into Wales had to be closed after
metre-wide blocks of ice had fallen from the support cables
and smashed into cars.
If you could enjoy the snow (and many of all ages did), it
was quite a sight for several days with the nights here in
suburbia very light as an eerie orange glow from the street
lighting reflected from snow was again reflected by low
cloud.
It was all fairly short lived though, as by the middle of thefollowing week most of lowland UK was snow free as the restof February returned to more normal, milder temperatures.
Although very brief compared with previous severe winterssuch as 1947, 1963 (Britain’s coldest since 1740, lastingfrom early January to late March) and 1991, this week ofsnowy disruption is estimated to have cost the UK economy£1.2 billion.
Snow detection with HRPT Reader
The events of early February led to me using more of theprocessing tabs of David Taylor's HRPT Reader software todifferentiate better between low cloud and snow.
As most readers will know, HRPT Reader presents manytabs along the top of the frame, each providing a different
approach to processing an AVHRR image at full resolution.
Options include the individual greyscale channels-1 to -5
plus several false colour options. In the past, many readers
have successfully made use of the RGB tab for snow
detection, using the colour combination R3G2B1 (i.e. red is
assigned to channel-3, green to channel-2 and blue tochannel-1). This gives good snow highlighting using datafrom Metop-A and NOAA-17 (figures 1,3 overleaf) but resultsfor NOAA-18 are poor by comparison. Notice the summit ofEtna, on the island of Sicily, covered with snow.
This difference arises from the fact that NOAA satellites havethe capability to transmit two different frequencies onchannel-3, denoted as Channel-3A and channel-3B. Thishas been discussed in detail in a previous issue [1]. In short,channel-3A is used for daytime detection of snow and ice,
imaging in the 1.6 micrometre range; channel-3B is used forfire detection and night time detection of cloud, using afrequency of 3.75 micrometres.
However, only one NOAA satellite, NOAA-17, makes thechannel 3B/3A switch, doing so when it crosses theterminator between the night and illuminatedhemispheres of Earth. Metop-A also makes this switch,
but none of the other current NOAA satellites does.
The NOAA Tab in HRPT Reader
HRPT Reader has an additional tab devoted to a series ofalgorithms devised by NOAA for helping to interpret theirsatellite imagery. One of these, labelled ‘Snow(3a)’, assigns
continued on page 43

www.geo-web.org.uk

37

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Figure 1 - Snow on the Alps
Metop-A, February 28, 2009 - RGB321 colour scheme - snow shows cyan

Figure 2 - Snow on the AlpsAs left but processed with the ‘Snow-3a’ colour scheme - snow shows white

Figure 3 - Snow over England and parts of France
NOAA-17, February 3, 2009 - RGB321 colour scheme - snow shows cyan

Figure 4 - Snow over England and parts of France
As left but processed with the ‘Snow-3a’ colour scheme - snow shows white38

All images on this page © EUMETSAT 2009

Readers’ APT Images

Peter Edwards used WxtoImg software to create this ‘msa mode’ montage of three NOAA-18 APT images hereceived on March 24, 2009 using an EMGO receiver and home-built QFH antenna.

Anthony Lowe sent in this splendid NOAA-18 APT image from 13:06 UT on April 2, 2009, showing fog from the North Sea encroaching over eastern England

www.geo-web.org.uk

39

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Francis Bell

Although well forecasted by the UK Met. Office, the unusual
weather in the early hours of February 2, 2009 still took me bysurprise. Together with most of England I awoke to find there had
been a considerable snowfall during the night. Over the past 18
years there has been almost no winter snow where I live insouthwest Surrey: either none at all or just an ephemeral dusting ofa few millimetres. This year I measured a depth of 25 cm on mygarden lawn but, interestingly, no significant drifting of snow.
Because my garden scene was so unusual, and just for my own
record, I took some photographs of it.

My experience prompted me to think about commercial,professional and research satellite receiving stations and how they
cope with snow. I know, of course, that in some cases receiving
dishes are enclosed within a protective dome: but how is the dome
itself kept snow free? The EUMETSAT ground station at Svalbard,
well within the Arctic Circle, is an example which springs to mind
and their Usingen ground station (where the dishes are notenclosed in domes) must also be subject to snow at some times.
Perhaps someone experienced in these matters
could write to the editor and explain how this snow
cover protection is achieved. I can think of a few
ideas but I don’t know if any of them are correct.
After my snow experiences of February 2009 and listening toweather forecasts and reports during the subsequent few weeks, I
gained the impression that there had been more snow over Europe
in early 2009 than the average. I receive APT and EUMETCast
images on most days and I must have been sensitised into looking
for snow, particularly on the Pyrenees, Alps, Norway and Iceland—
all prime candidates for snow.

Later in the morning, when light levels had increased, I wondered if
any satellite images would show up the snow cover which, fromnews reports, had covered most of England. I once recorded an
APT image in the USA which showed a very clear band of fresh
snow covering several states (GEOQ 13, page 18) and wondered if
I could do this for the UK. I turned on my EUMETCast system
hoping for a high resolution visible image within 15 minutes but
was somewhat aghast to be confronted with a screen message
stating ‘No Satellite Signal’. My system had been working perfectly
the night before so I was distressed to think that a fault of somedescription had occurred at the very time I wanted to record a
special image. However, it transpired that the two events, theovernight snow and my imaging system fault, were closely related.
When I went outside to inspect the receiving dish bolted to the sideof the house I discovered the basis of my problem—the LNB at the
focal point of the dish was covered with snow.
Interestingly, another satellite dish nearby had a layer of snow on it
but the LNB was clear. The gentle breeze accompanying thesnowfall had created eddies around my house that were enough todeposit snow on dishes which would otherwise have beenprotected. The careful use of a ladder to a flat roof gave me accessto the dishes and, with a small hand brush, I easily cleared thesnow from the dish surfaces and the LNB. Now my system worked
perfectly; but the irony was of course that I could not receive any
interesting images of the country’s snow cover because it was all
obscured by clouds.

I was specially interested in snow in Africa, particularly on the HighAtlas mountains of Morocco. I judged that the news reports relating
to amounts of snow were correct because, on browsing throughsome of my past images, I found one of the High Atlas fromMarch 2008 which seemed to show less snow than the same area
this year. It is the day-by-day persistence of the snow on theseimages which distinguishes it from the more variable clouds which
form over mountains. I find March and April are the best months torecord images of snow on mountains in the northern hemisphere.
Most of the winter snow has fallen by then and the daylight levels
make snow easy to image.
This is not the first time I have written about snow on mountains.
Readers may recall my article in GEO’s Launch Issue inspring 2004 which related to the Snows of Kilimanjaro. I had visitedthat area in early 2004 and viewed the mountain from a gamereserve. I understand there are only three places in Africa where
there is permanent snow: Kilimanjaro (5895 m) and Mount Kenya(5200 m), both close to the equator, and the High Atlas of Morocco
where some of the peaks retain permanent snow. My reference
books indicate that Jbel Toubkal (4167 m, latitude 30°N) is thehighest point in the several hundred kilometre length of the
Moroccan High Atlas mountain chain; it is also the highest peak inNorth Africa. My understanding is that there will not be permanentsnow on Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya for much longer because of
our planet’s general warming and I expect the same will be true ofpermanent snow cover in other places.
My travels have allowed me to see at first hand snow in the HighAtlas mountains and other places but Kilimanjaro has to rate asspectacular, being viewed from tropical grassland. And no! I didn’t
climb to the top.
But perhaps the most impressive snow-capped peak I have seen is
Cotapaxi, viewed from Quito. This beautiful conical volcanic peaklies very close to the equator in Ecuador and has a cap of
permanent snow. Interestingly, Cotapaxi (5896 m) is almost exactly
the same height as Kilimanjaro.
Please, can any reader submit a satellite image from any source of
Cotapaxi, showing the snow cap. I have my own terrestrial
photographs but it would be great to see a satellite image showing
snow on the equator. Again, no! I didn’t climb Cotapaxi, though I
did reach an altitude of 4167 m in the Andes. And yes, it does takeyour breath away!

40

www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2009

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

An APT image showing the storm that deposited snow the length and breadth of England in February 2009.
The white speckling over the High Atlas mountains of Morocco indicates the areas of permanent snow.

www.geo-web.org.uk

41

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Douglas Deans - dsdeans@tiscali.co.uk
Last quarter, I mentioned that I hoped
to get some further information about
Microsoft’s next Operating System,
Windows 7. With many people now
beta testing the new Operating System
there is a wealth of early information
available, so my intention is to allocate
the majority of this column to a firstlook at Windows 7, particularly as beta
testing seems to be going very well. The
early reports are most encouraging andeven those who were highly critical ofVista are commenting very favourably.
Below I have outlined some of the moreinteresting details about Windows 7
and have touched on how Microsoft
have dealt with some of the least liked
aspects of Vista. The User AccountControl (UAC) quickly comes to mind;
indeed one comment I read suggested
that it was the best early beta of any
previous Microsoft releases … praiseindeed! Microsoft are very aware that
Vista has not been the most popular ofOperating Systems so it now seems
very likely that Windows 7 will be
released this year. I have also included
a couple of reviews of new programs,
from familiar faces.
Windows 7
As I touched on earlier there are now
thousands of people beta testing
Microsoft’s next operating system.
Whilst there is always interest in what
is coming next, it seems that
Windows 7 has attracted more intense
scrutiny, mainly due to theconsiderable criticism that Vista hasreceived. That has reflected seriously
on Vista sales.
The first thing that has to be clarified
is that the new Operating System (OS)is still Vista based but Microsoft saythat they have listened very closely towhat has been said over the past few
years and that it has evolved from that
feedback. Early reports, even fromVista’s most severe critics, seem tosuggest that Microsoft have done their
homework correctly. I have not used
Windows 7 myself but, from reading
many reports, it seems that theconsensus is that the new OS hastaken the best bits of XP and Vista andadded a range of new features. Someexisting Vista features which have been
criticised have been redesigned. As I

42mentioned above, one of the mostannoying features of Vista has been the
UAC with its frequent pop-up windows.
On the other hand, most computer
experts agree that the UAC is an
important security tool and notwasteful in resources. What Microsoft
clearly did not do was to provide a goodbalance between annoyance andsecurity, so whilst UAC remains in
Windows 7, there are a range ofcontrols to better suit the mood of theuser.
Below I take a look at what appears tobe the more interesting of the newfeatures, and although it is likely thatthey will remain, please keep in mind
that this is beta stage and subject tochange before the final release.
New Taskbar
Probably one of the most obvious
changes is the new Taskbar. You canlaunch and switch between
applications from the Taskbar andprovide shortcuts. Clicking on the icons
allows you to see a larger preview andyou can actually see a full screen
preview before switching to thatwindow.
Jump Lists
Taskbar icons feature a jump list which
is a form of pop-up menu customised
for a particular application. It can beused to find files you have recently
been working with. For example, I
could right click on the Word programicon and see the files (such as this one)
I have been recently working on.
Desktop
According to Microsoft, Windows 7
simplifies the way you work with thewindows on your desktop by providing
more intuitive ways to open, close,
resize and arrange them. You can dragopen windows to screen borders, so
you’ll no longer have to click on tiny
objects in the corner of a window tomake it do what you want. You can
maximise a window by dragging its
border to the top of the screen andreturn it to its original size by dragging
it away from the top of the screen. It is
now easy to copy files or compare thecontents of two windows by dragging
the windows to opposite sides of the

www.geo-web.org.uk

screen. As your cursor touches theedge the window will resize to fill that
half of the screen. All this is part of afeature called Aero Snaps. If you want
to see all your desktop gadgets, thenjust drag your mouse to the lower rightcorner of your desktop. That will makeall the open windows transparent andmake your desktop, and hence all thegadgets on it, immediately visible.
Internet Explorer 8
The new OS will incorporate the latest
version of Internet Explorer. For thoseinterested, Internet Explorer 8 can now
be downloaded as a beta and willhappily work with other versions of the
OS. Updates include changes to theaddress bar, search, tabs and thefavourites bar.
Action Centre
Problem solving has become much
simpler and less frustrating thanks toa new feature in Control Panel called
Action Centre. The most common
maintenance and troubleshooting tasks
have been brought together under asingle interface.
Networks
Although, in my opinion, one of thebiggest improvements in Vista related
to setting up a home network (XP was
diabolical), there has been further
improvements to the ease of network
set-up in Windows 7.
A new tool called Home Group makes it
easier to connect to other computersand devices on a wireless home
network so you can share files,
photographs, printers etc. over the
network. However, as I understand it,
to use Home Group you must have atleast two computers running
Windows 7, so perhaps the ghost of a
Vista/XP network has not yet been laid
to rest.
Device Management
One of the important things about
computers is the ability to attach
devices such as printers, phone,cameras etc. In the past you had to use
several screens to manage different
types of devices. With Windows 7 asingle Devices and Printers screen canbe used to connect, manage and use aJune 2009

range of printers, phones and other devices.
A new technology in Windows 7 called Device
Stage takes device management a stepfurther. Device Stage helps you interact withany compatible device connected to yourcomputer. From Device Stage you can see
device status and run common tasks from asingle window. There are even pictures of thedevices which makes it really easy to see
what is there.
So there we have it. Just a brief snapshot ofwhat will be coming next. Obviously there ismuch more, some interesting, some not sointeresting. There is a wealth of information
about the up and coming new Operating
System on the Internet. Just type Windows 7
into a search engine and choose one of the
600 million hits for more information !
One final word from Microsoft on the
different versions that will probably beavailable although once again this is not
finalised.
Windows 7 Starter
This does not have the 3D features included
with Aero (most users would not consider
this a great loss!). In addition, it is limited torunning a maximum of three programs at
the same time. This version will not be
widely available in the developed world.
Windows 7 Home BasicNo restriction on number of programs
running. Still no Aero. No Internet
connection sharing. Again, limited
availability.
Windows 7 Home PremiumThis is the one that most people are likely towant. It includes Aero, touch screen
functionality (hardware permitting) and DVD
playback and burning. It will be available
everywhere.
Windows 7 Professional
This includes advanced backup andnetworking features. It will also be available
everywhere.
Windows 7 EnterpriseThis version includes improved encryption
and allows you to boot from a Virtual Hard
Disk (VHD)—this is the format created byMicrosoft for their Virtual PC software. This
will only be available to organisations,companies, universities etc.
Windows 7 Ultimate
This is basically everything. It includes all of
the features of the other versions of Windows
7. This will only have limited availability.
So the reality is that you are likely to beinterested in Windows 7 Home Premium orWindows 7 Professional
Software Updates
This quarter it is not so much updates as
two new programs, both from programmers
already well known to the weather satellite
fraternity.

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 22

Metop LSA Viewer
This is a program from the keyboard ofDavid Taylor to handle new LSA-SAF data
products on EUMETCast. The Land Surface
Temperature (LST) and Downwelling Surface
Long Wave Flux (DSLF) is based on Metop
data and is provided for the European
region. Although we already receive similar
products for this area (and many others)
these new data are of a considerably higher
resolution. DSLF is probably for more
specialised users but the land surface
temperature at this resolution, for this area,
is clearly very interesting. The inside front
cover shows an LST image for the TurkeySaudi-NE Africa area. I have chosen thisarea as, at this time of year, it demonstrates
a wider range of temperatures than would beseen in Europe.
For more information and to download theprogram go to
http://www.satsignal.eu

Weview
You may recall that in GEO 14 (June 2007) I
did a brief review of a free program from Rob
Alblas which can provide images from HRIT
and LRIT data from MSG satellites alongwith many other data services. Rob has now
produced a new program called Weview,which is a simplified version of his original
XRIT for those who only require a limited
range of features. This is still a work inprogress but the program allows you toprocess and view MSG, NOAA AVHRR and
GAC, and Metop data. There is more
information available at
http://www.alblas.demon.nl/
wsat/software/man_weview.html

and to download the beta go to
http://www.alblas.demon.nl/
wsat/software/winsoft_wev.html

David Taylor’s Latest Releases
ATOVS Reader
AVHRR Manager
BUFR Viewer
CMA Viewer
DWDSAT HRPT Viewer
GeoSatSignal
GRIB Viewer
GroundMap
HDF Viewer
HRPT Reader
Kepler Manager
MapToGeo
Metop Manager
MSG Animator
MSG Data Manager
PassControl
SatSignal
Sea-Ice & Viewer
Wxtrack

v 1.1.4
v 1.5.0
v 1.0.0
v 1.2.0
v 1.1.0
v 7.0.2
v 2.2.2
v 2.0.6
v 1.3.0
v 2.8.2
v 1.3.2
v 1.1.6
v 1.3.2v 2.5.26
v 2.5.26
v 3.2.2
v 5.1.2
v 1.3.4
v 3.7.2

To learn more about those programs and to
download the latest updates please go to
http://www.satsignal.eu

www.geo-web.org.uk

Applying Snow
Detection
Software(continued from page 37)

channel-4 to red, channel-1
to green and channel-3A toblue then combines them ina non-linear manner todifferentiate snow and icefrom cloud and fog. The
algorithm attempts todisplay snow and ice as
white and most othersurfaces as intuitively
natural colours, as follows:• Grassland, farmland,desert are rendered tan• Snow on treeless land is
white• Forests without snow arelight green• Forests with snow show
dark green with a greyish
white ‘frosty’ tinge• Ice cover shows up as
white• water is greyish blue,
tending towards purple
with increasing
temperature• Low clouds are yellow• Higher clouds range fromyellow through green tolight blue as cloud
temperature decreases.
Examples using thisalgorithm can be seen in
figures 2 and 4 on page 38.
We have seen that only
NOAA-17 and Metop havethis channel-3A switchingactivated, allowing 'snow
detection' with HRPT
Reader, highlighting thiswell but with differingresults depending on thetab. Using the RGB tab(R3G2B1) and the NOAA
tab [Snow (3a)] settings on
NOAA-18's channel-3B
gives very poor snow
highlighting ability witheither tab.
Personally, I prefer the RGB
tab result in which snow ishighlighted well in cyan andthere is generally good(colour) differentiation
between snow and whitecloud—see image examples.
Reference
1 Apparent Anomaly in
Midwinter NOAA-17
Channel-2 Images Les Hamilton - GEO Q12,
December 2006, page 14.

43

GEO Quarterly No 22

Group for Earth Observation

June 2009

Angus Crawford
I will admit from the start that I am not a very technicalmeteorological or computer person, just a pilot who has aninterest in the present weather in Europe.

normally use the False colour tab to get the best picture but
scrolling through the other images can sometimes revealfeatures like jet contrails in better relief.

Several years ago, Deutscher Wetterdienst (the German
national meteorological service) started disseminating a highresolution set of AVHRR images from the NOAA orbiters
under the title DWDSAT. These images are segments of
NOAA 15-18 passes centred on north-western Europe. I wasbrowsing through David Taylor’s offerings for EUMETCast
late last year, came across this product, and thought itwould be an interesting addition to my set-up. In order toreceive DWDSAT you need to be registered with EUMETSAT
and have a dongle, etc. Originally, DWD charged for theservice but now it is free to registered amateur users. Go to

Below the main picture window are two buttons. The left
one toggles the country boundaries as specified in the Setup
tab; these boundary lines can be nudged into place with thearrow keys to the left of the boundary toggle. The right handbutton is used to display grid lines. The Setup tab lets you
define boundary paths, colours and line width. The RGB
settings look too technical for me so I just leave them alone!

www.dwd.deldwdsat

to obtain a request form. Send this back to them and they
will forward permission to EUMETSAT who will then enabletransmission to your data set.
Software Changes
Once EUMETSAT informs you that you are ‘live’, you need tomake a couple of changes to your receiver setup. In<DVB receiver options → Setup4PC → Data Services>, include‘303’ in the PID list. No changes are required in the recv.ini
file but in the recv-channels.ini file you need to add
something like
[DWDSAT]
Target_directory=C:\Received Files\DWDSATThe DWDsat HRPT Reader is available fromwww.satsignal.eu/software/dwd-hrpt.htm

You can download the software for a 30-day evaluation
period before purchase, if desired. This link also provides
other useful information about the program not mentioned
above. For £39.95 I think it is a great value-for-money
addition to the EUMETCast imaging software suite ofprograms.
A quick note about my Weather Setup

The file types downloaded are .bzz, -tiff, -tar, -ias and -ps. I am
primarily interested in the images transmitted in the .bzz
files, deleting the others as needed by means of TrimTree.
The -tiff files are meteorological charts of significant weather
and winds which may be viewed, if desired, by any of thecommercially available tiff readers (Alternatiff is a good one).
DWDSat Reader
David Taylor’s DWDSAT HRPT Viewer is typicallystraightforward to download and install. In the <File> menu
you have the choice of <Open Pass> and two <Save> options.
<Open Pass> reveals a list of all the currently downloaded
NOAA files. If you have ticked <Use tall File|Open dialog> in
the Setup tab, this will display a larger <Open Pass> window
displaying all the .bzz files for at least the previous two days.
David is working on a way to display the files in ‘Date
Modified’ order rather than by name. At present, just clickon the ‘Date Modified’ tab twice to have them displayed inchronological order (newest first). The <Save As> option lets
you save the displayed image as a JPEG file, to a location ofyour choice.
Double-clicking on the filename in the <Open pass> dialogue
box will load it into the viewer. Not all of the passes include
the British Isles and on others, Britain is shown at the edgeof the frame where the resolution drops off markedly. You
may need to look through several files before you find one
showing the area desired. In the viewing window there areseveral tabs across the top allowing you to view each of theindividual AVHRR spectral channels individually, as well as
False colour, RGB and Vegetation combined images. I

44

The images displayed with the False colour tab are often very
striking, as the March 9, NOAA-16 image reproduced
opposite shows. Mainland Britain, Ireland and France aremostly cloud free and a myriad of contrails are visible over
the North Sea. I now use the DWDsat images daily, alongwith those from MSG-1 and MSG-2, to get a pretty goodview of the general and specific weather in our region.

I have a Shuttle Cube XPC computer with a Celeron2.53 GHz processor, 2 GB of RAM and a 250 GB
Diamondmax-10 SATA Maxtor hard drive. I have enabled a
600 MB RamDisk using instructions from Arne van Belle’s
article [1]. I have the standard TechniSat SkyStar-2 PCI DVB
card installed. Using Windows XP Pro with SP3, I run
DWDsat HRPT Viewer, two installations of MSG DataManager (MSG-1RSS and MSG-2), Metop Manager, andWeatherlink data logger software for my Davis Weather
Monitor II weather station. These all run concurrently on thesystem and I have not suffered any data loss. If anyone
wants a copy of my recv.ini and/or recv-channels.ini files,
please e-mail me atangus@mendocino.co.uk

and I will send them to you.
The Weatherlink software also uploads my weather station
information to the Weather Underground site, using their‘Rapid Fire’ system, every 5 seconds or so! To see mystation, log on to the Weather Underground at
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=gatwickand scroll down to: ‘Weather Stations > Personal Weather
Stations’. My station is called ‘Mendocino, Domewood’(normally about the 4th one down the list).
Reference
1 Using the Arc Soft RAM Disc on Windows XP, Arne van Belle GEOQ 11, September 2006

www.geo-web.org.uk