Group for Earth Observation

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

46
June 2015

Inside this issue . .
Norbert Pütz and Marc Peigneux have both experienced RFI interference to their Meteor M2
imagery, and each describes steps he has taken to minimise these intrusions.
As manufacturers continue to develop more PCiE cards capable of EUMETCast reception, Mike
Stevens describes trials he has undertaken with the TBS6983 and the Technisat Skystar-2
eXpress HD units.
And there are features on the recent Solar Eclipse, Cyclones over Vanuatu, Karymsky Volcano,
Typhoon Maysak, Bardarbunga, Herbert Island and Elephant Foot Glacier plus many coloured
satellite images..

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAMLes Hamilton

Director and Public Relations
Francis Bell,
Coturnix House, Rake Lane,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB,
England.
Tel:
01483 416 897
email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
General Information

geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

T

he big story of the past three months has been the upsurge in interestin the reception of images from Russia’s Meteor-M2 satellite, so muchso that GEO’s YAHOO! Group at

John Tellick,email: information@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton,
8 Deeside Place,
Aberdeen AB15 7PW, Scotland UK.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Despatch
Peter Green
Membership and Subscriptions
David Anderson,
35 Sycamore Road,
East Leake, Loughborough LE12 6PP,
England, UK.
email: members@geo-web.org.uk
Tel:01509 820 067
Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/info

received over 400 posts, the majority on this topic, during April alone.
Much of this interest has been generated by Alex (Netherlands), Vasili(Russia) and Oleg (Russia). Alex has coordinated testing as the Russian
duo produced a succession of software updates that have culminated ina situation where it is now possible to receive Meteor images in real time,
just as we do with NOAA APT.

R

eception is based upon new SDR Sharp plugins that decode theMeteor transmissions on the ﬂy, and feed them to the imaging
software. Particular credit must be given to software designer Vasili, who
has created a revolutionary QPSK-Demodulator plugin that is extremely
sensitive, allowing longer images from weak Meteor signals, and mostimportantly, is far less susceptible to interference.

Alex has produced a detailed tutorial on setting up a reception platform,
and a copy has been lodged in the ‘Files’ area of GEO-Subscribers:

GEO Shop Manager
Nigel Evans (Assistant: David Simmons),
email: shop@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton,
email: liaison@geo-web.org.uk
Management Committee Members
Clive Finnis
Carol Finnis

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

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/ﬁles

The document is called Receiving Meteor M-N2 in Realtime.pdf. In
addition to detailing all the steps required for setting up your reception
platform, the tutorial also contains URLs from which all the relevant
software can be downloaded.

I

nterest in Meteor M2 is really taking off now, and we have included anumber of images from this satellite to whet your appetites.

C

opy deadline for the September issue of GEO Quarterly is
Sunday, August 16, 2015.

Contents
GEO Report and Quarterly Question
Cover Image Details
Bardarbunga: The Eruption is OverEUMETCast DVB S2 Experiences
Using WxToImg to Produce Images from Recordings
Solar Eclipse Images from Belgium
Cyclones Thrash Vanuatu and Western Australia
Ashfall from Karymsky Volcano
Weather Effects of the 2015 Partial Eclipse
EMC Advice for using an SDR Dongle
Early Days of Weather Satellite Reception
Elephant Foot Glacier
Reducing Noise on an SDR Dongle
Testing the TBS-6983 and HD DVB-S2 Tuner PCIe Cards
Super Typhoon Maysak
Herbert Island
Satellite Status
Feedback
GEO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
GEO Membership Application FormGEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
John Tellick
Peter MarcheseAndre T’Kindt
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Greaves
Norbert Pütz
Barry Smith
NASA Earth Observatory
Marc Peigneux
Mike Stevens
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory

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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

Francis BellGEO Visit to Darmstadt
The arrangements for our third visit to EUMETSAT’s HQ
in Darmstadt, Germany on July 2, 2015 are securely inplace. The fine detail of the programme still has to be
finalised but it is expected there will be presentations by
EUMETSAT staff about their new EUMETCast service andtheir new high-speed data transmissions, plus at least one
presentation by a GEO member. This, together with a tourof the Head Quarters with their new building, should fill abusy day.
An unexpected complication about our visit is thecoincidence with the planned launch of MSG-4, currently
scheduled for the evening of July 2, 2015: yes, the same
day as our visit! Nobody could have foreseen this, but it
may be double edged, with much technical activity by
EUMETSAT’s staff which our visiting group may be able
to observe. On the other hand, we must recognise that on
this day our GEO visit may not be their highest priority
with their latest satellite launch in progress.
We still have places if you wish to register for this visit, if
so then please send an email toliaison@geo-web.org.uk
expressing your wish to join our group visit to Darmstadt.
The planned visit to ESOC on the July 3 is still in doubt
because of the launch of MSG-4. However, on the positiveside, we have a GEO member who works at ESOC andsome negotiation for a visit may be possible. I will keep
the GEO website up-to-date with the programme for ourDarmsatdt visit.
The International Space station ( ISS )I continue to follow the imaging from the ISS by logging onto the following websites:and subsequent imaging. At a recent Kempton radio
rally I sold all the stock I had in about one hour, which
illustrates how attractive this method of satellite reception
has become. This dongle is available from the GEO shop
together with connectors and cables.
Quarterly Question Number 45
The last Quarterly Question related to an image I received
from the ISS. The image was one showing the junction of
three great lakes on the USA/Canada border. It showedparts of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron,with the town of Sault Ste. Marie close to the centre of theimage. My thanks to those members who emailed me withthe correct names of the lakes.
Meteorological Technology International (MTI)
I have recently received a very interesting 100 page
publication from the MTI relating to the monitoring of the
Earth’s weather from space. This particular edition has
informative articles about NOAA’s new GOES-R satellite
and the UK’s Met-Office Space Weather Centre, plus about
18 other related articles. The MTI is based in the UK but
its major annual conference, with exhibition, is held in
Brussels, Belgium each year. The dates for this year’s
conference are October 13-15, 2015. If you would like a
copy of their latest publication, which is not generally on
sale, you could try writing to:
Meteorological Technology International, Abinger House,
Church Street, Dorking Surrey RH4 1DF, UK or emailsimon.willard@ukipme.com
State in your correspondence who you are and yourinterest area, and ask to be included on their mailing list. I
cannot promise anything but it’s certainly worth a try.

www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html
Sometimes there are excellent Earth images from theHigh Definition TV cameras on the ISS, but I also have toadmit it can be frustrating, because it seems impossible topredict at any one time which camera will be functioning.
It’s possible to have a forward view, a rear view or bestof all a vertical view of the Earth. Perm these variables
with orbital position, day night and communication links;
receiving striking images of the Earth can be a bit of alottery. However, this does not stop me at home where I
regularly run my ISS viewing system.
Note: the second website address above also carries audio
relating to activities on the ISS.
Software Deﬁned Radio (SDR)
I continue to use the GEO SDR dongle for reception of the
NOAA APT polar orbiting satellites and the new Russian
Meteor M2 satellite, which transmits LRPT digital images.
The low price of the dongle, and free software, makes
this an attractive method for live satellite signal reception

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June 2015

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GEO Quarterly No 46

Future Events
June 21, 2015 - Newbury Radio
Rally. GEO will have a standat this rally held on the
Newbury Show Ground, andwill demonstrate live satellite
reception from a field location
July 2, 2015 - GEO’s visit toDarmstadt, Germany.
July 24-26, 2015 - AMSAT-UK
will be holding their annual
colloquium at the Holiday Inn,
Guildford. GEO will have astand there, and may perhaps
make a presentation relating
to weather satellite reception.
For further information visit
AMSAT-UK’s web site atwww.amsat-uk.org
September 25-26, 2015 - The
highly popular National
Hamfest takes place at the
Newark Showground. In thepast GEO has run a standat this rally and details of
our attendance this year are
under discussion.

Front CoverThis exceptional Meteor M2 image was
acquired by David Taylor on April 5, 2015.
It shows the United Kingdom and western
Europe under the inﬂuence of a large regionof high pressure, in which both Ship Trails(over northern Scotland) and aeroplane
contrails and their shadows (over the Irish
Sea) are prominent. Perhaps because
it was Easter Day, notes David, there
was less interference than usual, hence
the ﬂawless image. Reception was via a
FUNcube Dongle Pro+ using a 137 MHz
filtered HAB preamp. Processing was withthe usual software, and the image enlarged
50% with some brightness correction andsharpening applied.
Inside Front CoverThis Meteor M2 RGB123 image was captured
by Peter Kooistra from the 10:09 UT pass on
April 10, 2015. A large anticyclone is in placeover western Europe bringing unseasonable
warm, sunny weather, except for southern
Scandinavia, which is shrouded in fog.
The image is also notable as one of theoccasional transmissions where channel-3
replaces the usual infrared channel-5, giving

added tonality to the scene. It was recordedwith as experimental IF-recorder plugin(Vasili) at 1.4 MSPS with a bandwidth of
90 kHz, using a Chinese €10 RTL2832U
dongle with the 820 T2 tuner.
Inside Back Cover
Hendricus Lulofs has been experimenting
with Meteor M2 reception, and recently installed
the new QPSK plugin. This is the May 14
image he shared with members via the GEOSubscribers Group, his first with the newsoftware, and his longest and best quality
result to date.
You can learn more about this new
methodology by consulting the tutorial
mentioned in the Editorial on page 1.
Back CoverThis image showing almost the entire UK
free from cloud is part of a Meteosat-10 image
downloaded from EUMETCast by Mike
Stevens on April 19. Overnight, onshore
winds had shrouded the eastern half of
Scotland and England with cloud, but by early
afternoon, it had almost totally dissipated.
Image © EUMETCAST 2015

Enrico Gobbetti acquired this Meteor M2 image of the eastern Mediterranean from the 07:23 UT/15° maximum elevation pass on March 4, 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

NASA Earth Observatory
The Operational Land Imager(OLI) on NASA’s Landsat-8 satellite
captured this pair of false-colour
images of the Holuhraun lava field.
The images combine shortwave
infrared, near infrared, and red light(OLI bands 6-5-4) to show variationsin the temperature of the lava better.
This particular band combination
also makes it easier to see throughthe plume of steam and gas risingfrom the fissure.
Figure 1 shows the region on
September 6, 2014, in the earlydays of the eruption. Newly-formed
basaltic rock is black and fresh lava
is bright orange. On February 28,
Icelandic authorities declared theeruption to be over, and figure 2
shows exactly the same area
on April 2, where the lava fieldremained warm enough to prevent
significant accumulation of snowin an otherwise snow blanketed
landscape.
Since August 2014, the eruption has
produced a lava field that covers
85 square kilometres. The average
thickness of the field is between 10
and 14 metres, with a total volumeof nearly 1.4 cubic kilometres of lava
extruded from the Earth.

Figure 1 - Lava from the Bardarbunga eruption spews from a fissure in
the Holuhraun lava field on September 6, 2014

The eruption created a number offeatures—the lava field and several
craters—that local authorities are
now in the process of naming.
A new lake will probably form whensummer melt water runs off ofnearby Vatnajökull glacier (seen at
the foot of both images).
Although fresh lava has now stopped
ﬂowing from Holuhraun, it is possiblethat activity could resume. One
volcanologist monitoring the area
noted that Bardarbunga’s caldera,
which fed the Holuhraun eruption,
has started rising, a sign that magma
may be accumulating in the magma
chamber again.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse
Allen, using Landsat data from the US
Geological Survey

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Figure 2 - Although the eruption is now over, the erupted lavas remain sufficiently warm to prevent
snow accumulating over the Holuhraun area., shown on April 2, 2015.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

Peter Kooistra submitted this Meteor M2 image of snow-covered Mount Etna, dating from March 1, 2015.

Robert Moore sent us this interesting clip from a Meteosat‑10 image acquired in early evening on April 15 this year. The two streaks running acrossnorth Wales are the decaying remnants of contrails. This illustrates just how contrails contribute to global cloud cover.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 46

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June 2015

John Tellick
There has been discussion on the User Groups over thelast few months about signal strength and required dishsize for the ‘new’ EUMETCast DVB-S2 VCM service from
Eutelsat‑10, as users migrate from Eutelsat‑9A DVB-S.
EUMETSAT had suggested that most users would not haveto change their dish (apart from re-pointing it) to receive
the new Basic Service, but a new LNB and cable might
be an advantage. However, comparing the EIRP contours
for Eutelsat‑10 compared with those for Eutelsat‑9A, thecentral area EIRP has been reduced from 50 dBW to
48 dBW and, correspondingly, the level will be lower as
you move away from the ‘core contour.’

The Triax 1.1 m TD steel dish features all the well-known
reception properties and is distinguished by its design andquick and easy mounting (about 2 minutes).
A novel elevation bracket with scale setting facilitates
precise mounting, the pre-mounted feed arm justneeds unfolding, and the LNB bracket with the LNB is
simply clicked on.
I have many years experience of setting up dishes,
including a prime focus 2 m dish for the Soviet C band
Ghorizont TV satellite in 1980 – with a considerable
inclination, and later a prime focus 1.8 m dish for the
early days of European Ku-band TVRO and the start of‘DTH Satellite Broadcasting’ from Astra.
As had been said often on the YAHOO! User Groups,
accurate alignment of both the dish and LNB would be
required for the slightly more critical reception of DVB-S2
VCM EUMETCast from Eutelsat‑10. In my view, setting up
a dish accurately requires that you are able to hold one
plane (either azimuth or elevation) rigid while you adjust
the other. In fact, I would say this is essential.

Figure 1 - The Eutelsat-10 EIRP contour map for DVB-S2

This comparative reduction in signal level has already been
experienced by users, especially those in Scotland, wheresome have had to increase their dish size. One could
experience quite a drop in SNR when moving the dish overfrom Eutelsat‑9A to Eutelsat‑10. And, if you require the
EUMETCast HVS Service, dish size increases considerably
beyond what we have been used to.
EUMETSAT’s EUMETCast web pages recommend minimum
dish sizes of 90 cm for the Basic Service and 1.8 m for the
HVS Service within the central zone contour area. This isin order to maintain the service Link Margin, taking into
consideration rain fade and possible slight off pointing of
the dish alignment and LNB skew.
However, at my location within the central zone, signal
level using an Inverto Black Ultra LNB on my original
85 cm dish with the SR1 receiver, I was experiencing nopacket loss on the Basic Service and several dB’s of Link
Margin—although I had to tie up next door’s bulging fir
tree and move my patio mounted dish slightly, as it had
increasingly been partly shadowed by the tree. So that was
encouraging, signal wise.
Looking to the future, and the possibility of receiving
EUMETCast HVS, I purchased a Triax 1.1 m dish in early
December which, given it’s well known name for qualityof construction and signal performance, should havebeen capable of giving me sufficient Link Margin (most of
the time) for HVS, being inside Eutelsat‑10’s central zone
contour.
Having unpacked the dish and found that it was indeed
very well made, as expected, I noticed it had an unusual
mast/elevation clamp design, which the supplier’s website
detailed thus:

6

Figure 2 - A ‘conventional’ clamp arrangement for dish adjustment

The good old, common ‘box type’ mast/elevation clamp
bracket (figure 2) offers this facility as you only loosen
one of the two elevation clamping bolts to tilt the dishwhile adjusting it: the other bolt holds the dish secure. So
I was interested to see how the ‘novel’ Triax dish clamp
system worked. You will note that the dish doesn’t tilt—asis common with just about every other dish—but rotates‘through’ the curved clamp mechanism on a curved dishback plate track (figures 3 and 4).

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June 2015

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GEO Quarterly No 46

Having set the azimuth, I had to loosen the two elevation
clamp bolts in order to allow the dish to swivel verticallyin order to adjust the elevation. But, having loosened bothclamp bolts, the dish was now able to move from side toside owing to the curved clamp/back-plate mechanism.
It was impossible to make accurately the delicate
adjustments in elevation for those elusive decimal pointsof a dB required on the new service, owing to the dish not
being held secure whilst adjustments were made. I gave
up after some time, then had another go the next day, but
again to no avail.
Fortunately, I had a very old slightly battered 1 m offset
dish (with a ‘proper’ mast/elevation clamp mechanism) inthe shed which I set up and aligned accurately in less than
10 minutes. This gave me an SNR of 13.2 dB on the Basic
Service under clear sky conditions.
Dialogue
The supplier of the Triax dish had meanwhile gone out ofbusiness and could not take back the dish nor afford torefund the cost. The new management of the firm wouldn’t
get involved as ‘they had not sold the dish and it wasn’t amatter for them to sort out.’ I was recommended to get a
professional in to install the dish. “Not necessary”, I said.
I took the matter up with Triax, saying that it was
impossible to align the dish accurately owing to the designof the clamp, and that I needed to be able to adjust both
azimuth and elevation separately whilst the other plane(and dish) was held secure and rigid (my requirement andfunctionality). This, I pointed out, can be done with justabout every other dish employing the ‘box type bracket’
clamp design, in order to maximise dish pointing andobtain maximum signal. After a couple of email exchanges,
I was told by a manager:

Figure 3
The Triax clamp arrangement, showing the two clamping
bolts. Both bolts must be loosened to adjust elevation, but thisallows the dish swivel from side to side in the clamp as well.

We manufacture and supply many thousands of the TD
series satellite dishes throughout the UK and Europe
each year for satellite TV reception.
The dish is fit for the purpose it was designed for ,i.e.,
satellite TV reception, and is the preferred choice formany TV system installers.
We do not promote the product as having themechanical functionality you are requesting.
Unfortunately the dish appears not to match yourparticular requirements, but as stated above, we do notclaim this design functionality.
Well, what an admission!
So, if anyone wants a challenge, I have an ‘as new’ 1.1 m
dish going spare.
Rain Fade?
My old 1 m dish was producing good SNR under clear sky
conditions, so I rather eagerly waited for the rain. The first
fairly heavy rain of January—and really the first rain since
switching to Eutelsat‑10, produced quite a shock. I noticed
that my SNR was down from around 13.2 dB under clear
sky conditions, to only 8.3 dB in cloudy, rainy conditions.
“That’s not possible”, I thought. It hadn’t been raining thatheavily, and in fact the rain had stopped when I checked
the SNR, although it remained heavily overcast.

Figure 4
The Triax clamp arrangement, showing the curved back-plateof the dish, which is secured by a curved clamp plate.

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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

Figure 5 - Large raindrops on the LNB causing severe signal loss.

Figure 6 - Smaller raindrop accumulation causing minimal signal loss.

Figure 7 - A simple, but effective, LNB rain cover.

Figure 8 - The Mark‑2 version of the LNB rain cover.

Then I noticed that the face of the LNB was covered inlarge drops of rain water (figure 5). I folded a sheet ofkitchen towel into a strip and gently wiped the face of the
LNB dry from the sides, and immediately the SNR reading
recovered to 12.3 dB, which is what I might expect undercloudy rainy conditions?
I had an empty plastic lemonade bottle and made a crude
rain cover for the LNB (figure 7) which, despite similar
rainfall, kept the LNB dry, with the SNR dropping only toaround 12.3 dB. I tried the uncovered LNB situation again
when it rained but, strangely, this time the ‘wet LNB face’signal loss was much less than before—only around 1.5
dB. Looking at the LNB face, it was clear that the water
drops were smaller and more dispersed than previously(figure 6).
It had been very windy during this rain episode comparedto the still conditions during the first. The dish is tucked
into a fairly sheltered position on the patio. So for mysituation a rain cover seems to be a worthwhile addition,
though perhaps it would be better to open the lower
section in case of heavy snow accumulation. A morerobust version of the LNB rain cover is shown in figure 8.
I suspect with dishes mounted higher and in the open,
wind will keep the LNB face fairly clear of rain drops. But
this was quite a worthwhile experiment.

8June 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

This MODIS image of the Caspian Sea was acquired by NASA’s Terra Satellite on March 11, 2015. Although the deep southern basin of the sea
remains ice-free, the shallow Caspian Shelf in the north (mean depth between five and six metres) fed by the Volga delta, still harbours considerable
quantities of pack-ice. Snow still lingers on the nearby mountain ranges, the Caucuses to the west and the Alborz range to its south.

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10This beautiful Meteor 2M colour composite LRPT image was captured on March 11, 2015 by Les Hamilton, using
an RTL‑SDR dongle, ground-mounted QFH antenna and the SDR-Sharp software defined radio. On this occasion
the satellite was transmitting channels 1, 2 and 3, which combine to render snow and ice in a cyan colour.

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GEO Quarterly No 46

Peter Marchese
Although interest has moved recently
to Meteor series of weather satellites,
there is still much interest in the
NOAA series, that do not require sucha high level of technology for their
reception. Two excellent programs,
WXtoImg and SatSignal, are available
to display them and, with the lower
bandwidth of their transmissions,horizon to horizon reception ispossible with a QFH antenna.
If the receiver and computer areleft running continuously, WXtoImg
will generally record the passes andproduce a map overlay which ismuch appreciated by viewers in thecloudy UK. It is, of course, possible
to record the passes overnight witha continuously running receiver,and a recorder switched on for, say,
16 minutes by the reception the 2.4
kHz subcarrier. The images chieﬂyof interest can then be produced thenext day.
In my case I have a Timestep Proscan
receiver and a Sony MiniDisk recorder,
into which I have built the 16 minutetimer that enables it to record up
to five passes overnight. How easy
the high precision MiniDisk recordermakes things. Back in the sixties, allthat I had were cheap tape recordersthat were so frequency unstable that
one had to record the picture data on
one track with a regenerated 2.4 kHz
subcarrier with encoded phasing
pulses on the other.
Everything is so easy these days
with cheap computers and online
software. But the first time I wasable to see satellite pictures on amonitor screen instead of having tophotograph them from a slow scan TV
display was in 1984, using the set-up
shown in figure 2. I was really proudof the nondescript bit of equipment
to the left of the monitor, built from
TTL, and all hand wired. It is still
serviceable but only has 256 kB ofmemory, which cost £250 in thosedays.
I used to be able to read out the
pictures from the MiniDisk recorderand relabel each .WAV file with thecorrect pass time in order to make themap overlays fit. But unfortunately,

Figure 1 - Processing a prerecorded NOAA satellite pass using WXtoImg

Figure 2 - The author’s original satellite receiving station,
dating from 1984, and still in working order.

since replacing my computer, the newmodel insists on time stamping every
audio file it records: so this simple
scheme is no longer possible and I
have had to adopt a more complex
procedure.
www.geo-web.org.uk

Inside an external control unit
(figure 3), I have installed a 567
tone-burst detector, the output of
which will toggle the playback fromthe recorder on and off. The 567 is asemiconductor chip that functions
continued on page 14

11

Figure 3 - The Control Unit and Tone Detector

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The Group for Earth Observation

This unit also controls the power for the whole system, via the Triac.

0 V runs the recorder untimed, while 12 V runs it for 16 minutes.

When set to ‘Auto’, this unit outputs either 12 V or 0 V, that starts therecorder in response to the 0.5 second AOS and LOS 2400 Hz tone bursts
from the WXtrack program.

GEO Quarterly No 46
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GEO Quarterly No 46

Figure 4 - The Recorder Interfacewww.geo-web.org.uk

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rather like a radio receiver, and can be configured to
output a logic LOW when a particular frequency is fed into
it. I chose to use this device as it is fed from the speaker
output of the computer and I did not want it responding to
the various other bleeps that might be emitted.
Sitting under my computer monitor I have a metal box
that once contained a 20 MB hard drive, but which now
contains a small 25 volt and 5 volt PSU, and an Opto Triacwhich controls the power to my computer, printer, scannerand monitor via a small push button switch: so that when
I do a software shut down of the computer, all peripherals
are also powered down.
I am running Windows‑10 normally, but this applies to all
earlier versions such as Windows‑7 and Windows‑8. If you
go into the ‘Control Panel/Sound’, then open the ‘Sounds’tab, you will find all the pre-recorded sounds that you can
get the program to emit. There you will find a selection
appertaining to WXtrack, as illustrated below. You evenhave the option to provide you own file for it to output as
well.

June 2015

My external control unit (figure 4), in addition tocontrolling the power, is fitted with switches, as follows:• to control the Mini Disk recorder• to enable the tone burst control:up: to start the recorder outputting in response to
the tone burst in the 16 minute timed mode
mid way: disconnected
down: stopped and started by the tone bursts but
the timer does not run.
• to enables these functions to be performed manually
without the tone burst.
All the components are very cheaply available from Tandy
on-line but not the switches, one of which I had to buy
from Maplin down town at about five times the proper
price!
Producing the Satellite Images
Now, when I wish to produce an image from a recorded
satellite pass, I must first reset the computer clock to one
minute before the predicted pass time, and then switch
on the tone-burst detector. I now start up WXtrack, which
will emit a tone burst at AOS and LOS, and set WXtoImg
running on auto mode, so that the software ‘thinks’ it isreceiving a live pass.
This rather complex procedure works fine if you do it all
correctly; it just takes a little practice.

I used the ‘Simple Tone Burst Generator’ from David Taylor
to generate a 500 ms, 2400 Hz burst, and arranged for
WXtrack to emit this at the predicted AOS and LOS times.
You can download this software from the following URL:

Of course the recording setup for WXtoImg and the AOS
and LOS outputs from WXtrack have to match, but thisis not difficult and the mismatch is never more than one
second.
And ﬁnally ...
If any reader wishes to construct Peter’s circuits, he will behappy to reply to any queries at

http://www.satsignal.eu/software/audio.html#ToneBurst

Peter.marchese@hotmail.co.uk

Andre T’Kindt

The eclipse reaches maximum

A fine view of the crescent sun, shortly before maximum.

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The eclipse nears its end, still visible through light cloudMike Stevens .sent in this superb Meteosat-10 image showing the umbra of the May
20 solar eclipse centred over the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic.
Image ¨ EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

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The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

NASA Earth Observatory

Early March was an unusually busy week for tropical cyclones
in the vicinity of Australia. The mosaic above shows threestorms—Pam, Nathan, and Olwyn—swirling near the continent
on March 11, 2015. The mosaic is based on data collected during
three orbital passes of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer
Suite (VIIRS) on NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite. Other satellite
instruments that can observe more of Earth’s surface at once
captured views with a fourth tropical cyclone, Bavi, in the Pacific
Ocean well north of Pam.
Severe Tropical Cyclone Pam, the second most intense storm of
the South Pacific Ocean was heading in a southwesterly direction
when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired the upper rightimage at 02:20 UT on March 13. Not long after this image was
acquired, the storm struck the island of Efate, where the east
coast probably took the strongest hit, but the capital city, Port
Vila, which lies on the southwestern side of the island, also faced
extremely destructive conditions. As Pam approached the city,
it had sustained winds up to 265 kilometres per hour, equivalent
to a Category-5 hurricane. Regarded as one of the worst natural
disasters in the history of Vanuatu, Pam caused several fatalities
and numerous injuries, destroyed many villages,disrupted power
and water supplies throughout the island.

Cyclone Pam strikes Vanuatu

On the same day, Category 3 Cyclone Olwyn made landfall inWestern Australia near the city of Carnarvon. The lower image
on the right was acquired at 02:55 UT by the MODIS on NASA’s
Terra satellite. Thousands of people in Carnarvon lost power as aresult of the storm, which weakened as it pushed inland.
NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response
Team at NASA GSFC. NASA VIIRS image by Jesse Allen, using data from theSuomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership. Suomi NPP is the result of a partnership
between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and theDepartment of Defense. Caption by Adam Voiland.

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Cyclone Olwyn strikes Western Australia

Douglas Deans is one of a growing band of GEO readers who, after many years dedicated to EUMETCast reception, is enjoying a return to thegrass roots of the hobby by dusting off his APT antenna and receiving Meteor M2 imagery. Despite problems with pagers, he has been able toproduce some excellent results such as this image of the British Isles acquired on April 14, 2015.

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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

NASA Earth Observatory

The Karymsky stratovolcano in Kamchatka, photographed in March 2006
Photo: Alexander Belousov/kscnet.ru

The Karymsky stratovolcano, 1536 metres above sea
level, is the most active of Kamchatka’s eastern volcanoes,
having been almost constantly active since at least the late
18th century, when historical records for the region began.
Most of its eruptions, and occasional lava ﬂows, originate
from its summit. Karymsky’s current eruptive phasehas now been continuously on-going since 1996, andbecause of the high levels of volcanic activity in this partof the world, the Kamchatka Volcanic Eruption Response
Team (KVERT) monitors the activity levels of many of the
volcanoes.
The Akademia Nauk caldera—now filled with water to form
the present-day Karymsky Lake—is located to the southof Karymsky volcano. Calderas are formed by an explosive
eruption that empties a volcano’s magma chamber,causing the structure to collapse and form a crater-like
depression. Akademia Nauk last erupted in 1996.
Evidence of Karymsky’s frequent eruptions is visible in thisnatural-colour satellite image, acquired by the Operational
Land Imager (OLI) aboard the Landsat 8 satellite on January
18, 2015. A streak of dark ash extends southeast fromKarymsky’s summit amidst a backdrop of snow, skirting to
the east of frozen Karymsky Lake.

The steaming summit of Karymsky, with the scenic lake-filled Akademia
Nauk caldera to its south.
Photo: Dan Miller (USGS)/Wikimedia

18

An ash cloud streams from the summit of Karymsky

Image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

Francis Greaves
The effects of an Eclipse on the weather are
documented all over the place. I noticed that the BBC
were promoting a project [1] to record various aspectsof the weather during the Partial Eclipse of March 20,
2015, organised by the Department of Meteorology
at the University of Reading. However, I could notcontribute because a postcode was required to registerand there are no post codes in the depths of West
Cork, Ireland where I live (see figure 1). I enjoyedexcellent views of the 1999 Total Eclipse on St Marys,
Isles of Scilly, so was very excited to be able toexperience this one at home, even though it would be
only a Partial Eclipse (referred to as Eclipse from hereon). The forecast looked promising too.
We were due to have 92% of the sun covered at
09:22:34 UTC, which I expected would have noticeable
effects on the weather. I was able to observe theEclipse in various ways, using special eclipse glasses,
a colander, a pin-hole camera and my Digital SLR
with a 500 mm lens and Solar Filter. Fortunately, thecloud cleared during the first part of the Eclipse, andthen we had a pretty clear sky for most of the Eclipse
itself. Being stuck out on the Mizen Peninsula we tend
to get significantly less cloud than inland sites. In thephotograph I took at maximum coverage you can see
the irregular edge of the moon quite clearly.

Figure 1
The approaching eclipse at 08.15, showing the author’s location

The expected effects on the weather are as follows:• A fall in Solar Radiation• A fall in Temperature of about 1°C or 2°C caused
by a reduction in the radiation from the sun• A fall in Wind Speed• A reduction in the variability of Wind Direction
due to the stabilisation of the boundary layer, andan associated reduction in turbulence [2]. The
Wind Direction has also been found to ‘back’ (goanticlockwise) due to an ‘Eclipse Cyclone’ [2].
I have an excellent Automatic Weather Station (AWS)(well three actually), but my old Instromet system
is slowly dying. My Davis Vantage Pro works wellmost of the time. I have used the data from my fancy
Campbell Scientific AWS, recording data every fiveminutes [3] to examine the data for the Eclipse. In
particular, the Ultrasonic Wind sensor at a height ofsix metres is very sensitive and accurate, especiallyat low wind speeds. The site is very exposed on thenorthern side of the Mizen Peninsula, 2.8 km fromthe sea at a height of 60 metres above sea level. We
look out down Dunmannus Bay into the Atlantic. The
anemometers are on a 10 m mast well away from thehouse. The AWS is away from the house nearby, andwell exposed.
The Eclipse started at 08:19:06 UTC and finishedat 10:30:23 UTC. During the period of maximum
coverage, there was an eery darkness, and the birds
became quiet, as we had expected.

Figure 2
The eclipse at 09.15, close to maximum

I have included the False Colour Images of the British Isles
from EUMETCast for 0815, 0915, and 1015 UTC, which show
my location, the cloud cover and the darkness of the Eclipse at
0915 UTC rather well.
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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

I have provided graphs showing the effect of the Partial Eclipse
on Solar Radiation, Air Temperature and Relative Humidity(RH), Wind Speed and Direction. Each of the graphs has a blue
horizontal arrow to show the period of the Eclipse and a verticalarrow at the maximum point. This is what I observed:• The Solar Radiation was kept down somewhat early inthe eclipse by the cloud cover, remaining down during the
Eclipse period, rising rapidly at the end. The dotted line
shows the expected rise in clear weather.
• The Air Temperature (blue line), which should have been
rising steadily, fell by 1°C then remained pretty static,
eventually lagging behind the expected rise by about
2°C and then catching up very quickly once the Eclipse
was over. The dotted line shows the expected rise in
Temperature.
• The Relative Humidity rose quite sharply as theTemperature fell, then fell back as the Temperature rose
once again.
• The Wind Speed Average (red line) and Gust Speed (yellowline) rose early in the Eclipse and towards the end fromabout 0.4 - 1.0 m/sec to 2 - 3 m/sec, falling back by about
1.5 m/sec in the middle.
• The Wind Direction (blue line) very clearly shows areduction in variability. The general trend is represented
by the dotted line. The general direction however ‘veered’(moved clockwise) from SSW to NW then back to SW.

Conclusion
The effects that I observed from my Automatic Weather Stationon the weather by this Partial Eclipse are pretty much as
expected. The Solar Radiation, Air Temperature and Wind Speed
all fell. However, some of the changes in Wind Direction were
not what I expected. There was a reduction in the variability of
the wind direction, but Instead of backing, the wind veered quite
markedly.
I think I am correct in saying, if there was an Eclipse Cycloniceffect (wind in an anticlockwise direction round an Eclipse), andwe were on the East side of that ‘Eclipse Cyclone’, then you

June 2015

Figure 3 - Post eclipse at 10.15 UTC

would expect the wind to veer, which is what happened here in
Sunny West Cork.
The rise in RH is to be expected because, as Temperature falls,
the ability of the air to hold moisture will also fall, so the RH willrise. Once the Eclipse was over, the Air Temperature rose once
again, causing the RH to fall.
Being able to look at these data enhanced my Eclipse
Experience, and should I be able to enjoy another one, then I willbe trying to take weather observations as well as enjoy all theother sensations of this natural wonder.

References
1. http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/outreach/newex_2015/index.html
2. http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/weather-and-climate-at-reading/2015/how-do-solar-eclipses-affect-the-weather/
3. These data are available as a CSV file at http://www.themetman.net/content/eclipse-2015#CSVFile20
20www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

Norbert Pütz
After several years away from satellite imaging, while raising myfamily, I recently took an interest again, particularly towards the
new Russian Meteor M2 satellite. But, like many other users,
I was being plagued by interference. Because these unknown
effects were disturbing my Meteor M2 satellite reception, the
LRPT decoder was not able to decode my recorded signals fromsouth of the Alps; additionally, lots of coloured lines spoiled mysatellite pictures. Figure 1 shows part of one of my images: thebroad white band is due to a processing fault aboard Meteor-M2
that produces these breaks in imaging every 6½ minutes, but thethin coloured lines below it are the result of interference.

Figure 3 - Measuring magnetic near-fields on the laptop bezel.
Figure 1 - Part of a Meteor image showing interference lines

Some time ago, I read in a Russian publication the words ‘USBbus noise may be present’, which prompted me to investigate theElectro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC) of my reception system.
So I decided to take my spectrum analyser, fitted with a magnetic
near-field probe, to search for the reasons for my interference.
Fortunately, Würth Elektronik GmbH was able to supply me with
two USB-filter sticks for test purposes. I discovered four possible
ways of combatting interference, and these are detailed below.
1 - Use a USB-extension cable
It is well worth while using a short (~20 cm) USB extension
cable to attach the RTL Dongle to your computer, specially if it
is a laptop. By applying this measure you´ll reduce the inﬂuenceof the radiated magnetic near-fields of your computer on yourreceiver dongle,

My Lenovo T520 laptop computer gives off strong magnetic nearfields next to its speaker and also from the USB socket at the left
side of its housing (figure 2).
There are two ways in which emissions can be propagated by theUSB-interface:• along the screen of the USB-cable• Inside the screen, on the VCC /GND wires and the twosymmetrical data lines
To suppress the emissions on the screen, place a suitableclam-shell ferrite core on it.
2 - Fit a Passive USB-ﬁlter
A passive USB-filter suppresses the conducted radiations(common mode currents) on the two symmetrical data lines andthe VCC line. These RF currents may reduce the sensitivity of
the Funcube dongle, because they can couple into your Funcube
dongle. Even the perfect Faraday cage of a Desktop PC will notprevent this type of radiation.
At the moment, I´m testing a Würth 829 999 USB-filter stick withgreat success. You can read more about this device at
http://www.we-online.com/web/en/
electronic_components/extra_pbs/USB2_0.php

Figure 2
A plot showing magnetic near-fields in the frequency
range 1 - 300 MHz from the author’s laptop computer.

Figure 4 - A Funcube Pro+ dongle attached to the Würth USB-filter stickwww.geo-web.org.uk

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June 2015

Figure 6 - This plot shows the noise on the USB-cable screen.

Figure 5 - Measuring the USB-noise on the screen.

Figure 4 shows my FUNcube Dongle Pro+ connected to a short USB
extension lead through the Würth 829 999 USB-filter stick. The
circuitry inside the USB-filter stick is shown in figure 7.
Figure 5 shows me measuring the USB-bus noise on the screenof the USB cable adapter, using a magnetic near field probe(loop). The frequency range is approximately 1 ‑ 200 MHz. This
noise will not be suppressed by the filter stick, and can only be
dealt with by placing a clam-shell ferrite core around the screen.
Figure 6 is a plot showing the measured USB noise.

Figure 7 - The circuitry inside the Würth 829 999 USB-filter stick

continued on page 24

Figure 8 - A block diagram showing the circuitry of the Funcube Dongle Pro+22

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June 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

Figure 9 - Meteor M2 at 09:08 UT on April 8, 2015, received when using a USB-filter stickwww.geo-web.org.uk

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The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

Figure 10
The four electromagnetic interference coupling modes

3 - Aircraft radio
In the case that you are living in an area which is suffering fromaircraft radio or similar sources of interference, you have to
use a Funcube Dongle Pro+ rather than a basic RTL-SDR dongle.
The Funcube device implements many more filtering options
through its preselectable filter banks. A block diagram of the
Funcube Dongle Pro+ circuitry is shown in figure 8.
4 - Tips for Reducing Unwanted In-House NoiseDon´t forget that the harmonics of switched power supplies candisturb your LRPT reception too. You can locate these by using a
Long/Medium wave compact radio with an integrated ferrite rod
antenna: I use a Sony ICF-SW7600 for this purpose.
For test purposes disconnect your switched power supplies
from the mains during satellite reception. Later you can replacethem. Figure 10 illustrates the four electromagnetic interference
coupling modes. The victim (susceptible device) is, of course,
your RTL or Funcube dongle.
Figure 11 shows my original TA-1 antenna (Russian version),complete with an SSB Electronic LNA 137A preamplifier
Summary
By choosing the appropriate EMC measures, a Meteor M2
transmission with a signal to noise ratio higher than 6 dB will giveyou great results.
When I received Meteor M2 without using a USB-filter stick(figure 1), the southern parts of Europe were not detectable by
the LRPT decoder software.

Figure 11
The TA-1 antenna used for Meteor M2 reception.

But with the filter in place (figure 9), not only was the numberof interference lines much reduced, but good quality imaging
became possible much farther to the south, all the way to North
Africa.
Of course, nothing can be done about the wide white band, which
results from a processing defect aboard Meteor M2. No image
data was transmitted during these few seconds. But there wasonly a single white interference band in the entire image, a great
improvement.

This segment from a March 11, 2015 Meteor M2 image was posted on GEO-Subscribers by Jim Scheffler. One of the infrequent
RGB123 transmissions, it renders snow and ice in cyan, emphasising winter’s embrace on the Great Lakes and their surroundings.

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This Meteosat image received by Mike Stevens via EUMETCast shows an active front whichbattered the UK with intense wind gusts and heavy rain on March 15, 2015.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

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26

Mahesh Vhatkar (VU2IIA) sent us this Meteor M2 image of India. It has been enhanced by DCE Autoenhance software,
which is easy to use and has useful features. Process involved adjusting ‘Auto balance’ , ‘Mid-tones’, ‘Remove Bluecast’, ‘Enhance color’, ‘Filer simulator’ and ‘Sharpen’ located under their respective tabs, but not the ‘Hotpixel’ and‘Denoiser’ options. The program does a reasonably good job of enhancing terrain and cloud simply and quickly.

www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

Barry Smith
Barry Smith is one of the ‘Old Timers’ of weather satellite
imaging, having cut his teeth on the APT satellites inthe early 1980s. But never one to duck a challenge,
Barry has recently taken on board the challenge of
LRPT from Russia’s Meteor M2 satellite, and one of his
images appears on the following page. Barry has beenkind enough to provide the following brief summary
explaining how his interest in this hobby developed.
I was introduced to weather satellite reception in theearly 1980s (I can’t remember the exact year) by a very
good friend of mine and fellow radio amateur, David
Duff G3VYV, who sadly died unexpectedly in 1999.
David was the science teacher at a secondary school in
Skelmersdale.
The exact details are lost in the mist of passing years, but
I can recall a small number of pupils, myself and David
going to the school on a Sunday with a home made 4 or
5 turn helical beam antenna, home made receiver, Unilabinterface and a Muirhead fax machine. I can’t remember
the model number of the Muirhead but do remember
it having the same shape as an upright piano, about
half the size and quite heavy. The ‘write head’ had been
modified and an LED was fitted instead of the original,
which may have been a hot wire stylus for recording on tothermal paper.
The satellite, of an early TIROS/NOAA vintage, wastracked ‘by ear’, pointing the beam in its direction
and listening for the best signal to noise ratio. The
Muirhead received the audio via the Unilab interface andilluminated the LED which was focused on a sheet ofphotographic paper on the drum inside the fax machine.
Once the satellite had passed, the photographic paper
was developed in the darkroom and we were all excitedseeing the picture appear. It was in black and white, ofcourse, but was in focus and perfectly exposed. It’s agreat shame that I don’t have the original, or a copy.

The author’s Cirkit receiver and YU3UMV decoder

Some clever people designed modifications to theframestore to provide visible/IR switching, extra memory,and so on. You may be surprised to learn that the basic
framestore only stored the image as 6 bits (64 grey levels)in 64 kB of memory. Later, it was possible to fit larger
memory chips (256 kB) which stored four images, selectedby a switch. In a 1986 advert for a kit to construct theYU3UMV framestore with 256k memory chips, the asking
price was £78.37, equivalent to about £212 in 2015.
Other modifications were published which added
frequency scanning, squelch and tape recorder control to
the Cirkit receiver.
As well as decoding and displaying pictures for low Earthorbit APT satellites (American and Russian), the decoder
could also process the analogue signals from the early
geostationary Meteosat satellites. I bought a secondhand, one-metre prime focus dish and down-converter(to convert 1691 MHz to 137 MHz) and soon had picturesfrom Meteosat. I have a photo (taken of the monitor screenwith an early digital camera) of Meteosat-7 from November
2004. Unfortunately, that phase of my activities didn’t last
for long as the analogue transmissions were soon to cease:so I bought an LNB and pointed the dish a Hotbird for TV
reception.

David then changed jobs and started work for Unilab,
developing science instruments for schools, including
a weather satellite receiver and an interface for thethen popular BBC ‘B’ computer. When RIG (the Remote
Imaging Group) was formed in 1985, both myself andDavid were early members. I still have every issue of theirnewsletters. Issue No 1 is dated June of that year.
As the technology advanced, firms like Cirkit started
selling components which allowed you to build receivers.
In 1982 a German amateur radio magazine, UKW Berichte(the English edition was called VHF Communications)
had started a series of articles describing how to build a
hardware decoder, designed by another radio amateur(YU3UMV), which took the audio from a satellite receiver,processed it, stored the ‘image’ in RAM and output
a CVBS video signal to a monitor, resulting in a live
scrolling picture on the screen.

The author’s one-metre prime focus dish and a Meteosat-7 image

Nowadays, you can receive low resolution pictures fromNOAA fully automatically with a suitable receiver andsoftware, and high resolution pictures from the Russian
Meteor low Earth orbit satellite with cheap hardware andfree software. But one thing hasn’t changed over the years- you do need a good antenna.

www.geo-web.org.uk

27

Barry Smith from Darwen in Lancashire has recently started acquiring imagery from the Meteor M2 satellite. This image, from April 21, 2015, showsa splendid view of anticyclonic weather over the British Isles and western Europe.

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This Meteor M2 image of eastern Canada from Jim Scheffler dates from March 9, 2015, and shows exquisite
detail of the St Lawrence estuary, Labrador, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia.

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29

Enrico Gobbetti sent in this Meteor 2M image he decoded from the 09:22 UT pass on March 13, 2015, showing a highpressure regime over western Europe. The mountains of Norway and the Alps are nicely revealed through their snow
cover, while snow lying over Scotland’s Grampian Mountains can just be seen through bands of hazy cloud.

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June 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 46

NASA Earth Observatory

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

Imagine pouring batter on to a griddle andwatching the mixture spread out into around-shaped pancake. The movement
is similar to the ﬂow of piedmont glaciers,
which form when ice spills from steep
valleys on to a relatively ﬂat plain.
Such glaciers are known for their highly
symmetric, fan-shaped lobes.
Greenland’s Elephant Foot Glacier, forexample, has such a distinct shapethat it stands out dramatically from its
surroundings when viewed from space.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI)

aboard NASA’s Landsat 8 satelliteacquired this image of the glacier on June21, 2014.
Elephant Foot is an excellent example ofa piedmont glacier, so much so that it isoften used as the example of a piedmont
glacier because it is so symmetric.
Located in northeastern Greenland, on the
Kronprins Christian Land peninsula, theglacier is not connected to Greenland’s
main ice sheet. Rather, it’s part of a
network of glaciers and ice caps thatpepper the periphery of the island.

Research has shown that, as a whole,these outlying glaciers and ice caps
account for as much as 7% of Greenland’s
total ice cover, and they are responsiblefor 20% of the island’s contribution to sea
level rise.
Elephant Foot Glacier is just one of thebeautiful scenes contained within thisimage swath acquired from across the
Arctic by Landsat 8. To interactively
explore the entire swath and to view more
image highlights, read the full story at the
URL below.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/ArcticLongSwath/www.geo-web.org.uk

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June 2015

Marc Peigneux
Being so often absent from homebecause of my work, I finally took
advantage of Bank Holidays to spendsome time investigating in detail
how to receive Russia’s Meteor-M2
satellite, and get some of the data it
provides. Earlier articles published in
GEO Quarterly encouraged me, andhelped me to make some successful
trials.
Although I increased my chances ofreceiving the satellite’s VHF signal
by using a selective 136-138 MHz
preamplifier coupled with a QFH
antenna, I unfortunately had similar
experiences to many others who
have experimented in using an SDR
RTL dongle to decode Meteor’s QPSK
signal: the sensitivity of these small
receivers is rather weak.

Figure 1 - An outer view of the metal enclosure containing the RTL Dongle

In the previous issue, Les Hamilton
related that some jamming problem
happened with Scottish ‘pagers’. I
also noticed that the dongle itself wasacting like a very good ‘wide band
antenna’.
My problem was that a lot of
unwanted electronic signals (radiatedon VHF band by several electronic
devices present in my ‘technicalroom’ (figure 3) were present on the
SDR Sharp spectrum analyser screen,
seriously disrupting the Meteor M2
signal.

Figure 2 - A close-up photograph showing the dongle encapsulated in its metal box

As metallic boxes are frequently
used to isolate electronic devices
working on high range frequencies,
I decided to enclose my dongle ina metal box to see if this made any
improvement (figures 1, 2). My result
was remarkable: dongle encapsulation
resulted in a 10 dB improvement in
the signal to noise level. That is areally significant gain!
The box to hold the dongle wassimple to make. It includes a switch
to connect the antenna (and its
preamplifier) to either the R2ZX
receiver for the NOAA APT satellites,or towards the dongle for Meteor
QPSK demodulation. It also has
an input connector for attaching acorrectly filtered power supply topower the antenna preamp and theR2ZX. A 1 nF capacitor isolates thedongle antenna input from the power
supply.

32

Figure 3 - The authors ‘technical room’ - full of potential interference.

I still follow the traditional checklistof disruptive devices I need to switch
off before each satellite pass: Internet
box, other computers, and indeed any
device in the vicinity of the dongle
www.geo-web.org.uk

that might produce electromagnetic
radiation. With these dongle receivers,
every little thing that can be done to
reduce the noise problem is extremely
valuable!

This Meteor M2 channel-5 infrared image was posted on the GEO-Subscribers YAHOO! forum by Jeff Kelly, who drew particular attention
to the warmer waters of the Gulf Stream as it makes its way north off the coastlines of Florida, the Carolinas, Virginia and Delaware.
These warmer (darker) waters contrast greatly with those of the North Atlantic around Long Island and the even colder Great Lakes.

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GEO Quarterly No 46

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2015

Mike Stevens
I have chosen two different tuners to highlight in this article:
the TBS-6983 Dual Tuner Card and the Technisat SkyStar 2 eXpress HD
DVB-S2 Tuner PCIe Card.
Any controversy as to which is the best tuner for EUMETCast
has now more or less been settled by members making theirown distinct choices. And with the EUMETCast switch-over now
completed—except for the live HVS Service transmissions—we
can now settle down and perhaps continue to experiment as
more tuners able to deliver the new DVB-S2 ACM/VCM service
come on the market.
The TBS 6983 PCIe Card
The TBS-6983 is the latest DVB-S2 tuner card to come from ourfriends out in the Far East. I have been using one since August
2014, and it has proved to be a very reliable unit, especially insevere weather conditions when it has held its own extremely
well. This unit, as you can see from the picture, is much thesame as the TBS-6925, except that you have twin input sockets forsatellite feeds from the LNB: one is Tuner ‘A’, the other Tuner ‘B’,and you can connect to either one for EUMETCast Reception of
weather data.

Figure 1 - the TBS-6983 set-up screen

the incoming data stream without any system crash or BSOD.
The one advantage of this PCIe card is that there is no separate
power supply to bother with: it connects directly within the PC.
You just have to set the IP Address correctly and you are done.

The TBS-6983 Dual Tuner Card

The card was sent to me and others in the Group for trial andevaluation, and immediately after installation and testing I
realised that it was very stable, with excellent front end gain.
Despite some very severe weather conditions, including heavy
rain and strong to gale force winds, its performance did not
deteriorate. The lowest SNR was 9.8, and although there wassome Packet Loss, most were FEC recovered and very few
segments were missing from the images. These mainly affected
Metop A, and most occurred in the dark and over the sea.
Coincidental, no doubt.
I am sure most of you are now able to install and set up a PCIecard. If not, I would recommend you get the help of an expert
or knowledgeable member to do this for you. Alternatively, you
can refer to my article on the TBS-6925 in GEO Quarterly 44:
installation is the same, but with slightly different software [1].
Once you are plugged in and the software has been installed, theset-up screen is again similar to the TBS-6925 and, as you cansee from figure 1, you are now able to see all the active PIDs and34

So operation of the TBS-6983 card is simple once it has been set
up. Lets deal with that. On activation of the TBS-IP Icon on yourdesktop, a User Account Control (UAC) box will appear, asking if
you wish to proceed. You say ‘yes’, of course. Then the TBS box
appears for you to select which Tuner to use, ‘A’ or ‘B’. I use
Tuner A, but its your choice to decide which one.
The TBS 6983 DVB/S2 Tuner A - Version 3.0.4.6 Data Services Box
now appears, and its here that you input all the relevant
information: i.e., Satellite, Frequency, Polarity, Symbol Rate and
MODCODES. Remember to tick the correct ones: ‘8PSK 3/5’ forthe Basic Service and ‘16APSK 2/3’ for HVS. Click ‘OK’ followedby ‘Lock TP’, then go to the IP over DVB tab and input all therequired PIDs for the services you require. I would then advise
to re-boot the PC as this settles everything in. When you comeback to that screen, with the TBS Data Services box, you can tick
the Show all Active PIDs box and they will appear on the Active PID
screen so you will see that your data is correct and ﬂowing in the
Packet Received box.

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Having now used this TBS-6983 Tuner PCIe Card for eight months,
I can with all honesty say it’s an excellent unit. It’s very robust
and seems to remain constant with my system even in severe
weather conditions, and the Gain and Sensitivity also arevery good. My unit at the moment is running with Signal 98%,
Quality 82% SNR = 11.7 and BER = 0.00000. The lowest it
has ever been, during some very heavy rain, was SNR of 9.8
and Quality that dropped to 78%, but I had no segment loss on
images. Missed Packets before FEC were 291, FEC Recovered
Packets were 289. The Tuner usually runs with both these on
zero. The Chip/Demodulator is different from the TBS‑6925
and is more robust and reliable, but tuner design is much thesame, which makes for an excellent DVB-S2 unit to receive theTransmissions.
The Technisat SkyStar 2 eXpress HD PCIe Card
Now lets look at the Technisat SkyStar 2 eXpress HD PCIe Card,
which is capable of reception of the Basic Service only, but inthis case an advantage, because, as it only receives BS and not
HVS, there is no interference whatsoever on the BS Service,
which remains constant throughout.
Figure 2 - The opening Technisat SkyStar screen

The Technisat SkyStar 2 eXpress HD PCIe Card

There are several ways to install and run this card. You canfollow the EUMETSAT set-up procedures, or you can use theaccompanying CD and install from this. I used this CD and it
installed and worked first time.
The main installation detail on this unit is that it is not powered
directly from the PCIe slot, but via a separate Molex connector
on the side of the card (shown at upper right in the photographabove). Many computers possess one or more spare Molex
connectors, intended to power additional items such as DVD
and CD drives. To enable this card to work, you have to connect
into the power supply using a Molex cable and connector. If yourcomputer lacks such a spare connector, and you are uncertain
how to proceed, contact an IT expert or a local computer repair
shop to assist with installation.

Figure 3 - Displaying the active PIDs

Once you have installed and connected the PCIe card, use theaccompanying disk to install the software. This is very easy.
Just follow the on-screen instructions, and when completed you
can then insert all the relevant information into the Technisat
software, such as Satellite: Eutelsat 10A, and so on (figures 2, 3).
Near the foot of figure 2 is a button labelled ‘Data Services’. Clickthis to reveal the Data Services Screen where you input all the PIDs
relating to the EUMETCast Operational Data (figure 4). At thispoint you may need to refer to the EUMETSAT Guide for further
information. When all the software has been installed, locate theprogram Setup4pc and place a shortcut on the desktop to assist
with further set-up.
Once installation is complete and you run the program for the
first time, you should see a screen such as figure 5 to confirm
that all is working well. As I explained earlier, you can follow the
EUMETSAT Guide for all of the installation instructions if you so
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wish, its your choice. I chose to do it from the supplied CD and it
worked perfectly first time.
So, to conclude all my findings, the TBS-6983 is by far the superior
tuner, and will receive all the Data Transmissions: both the currently
available Basic Service, as well as the High Volume Service when
it starts in the future. It costs around £200. The Technisat SkyStar 2 HD
is a good, relatively inexpensive tuner if you just want to receive the
Basic Service, and can be purchased for around £50.
I did these experiments to help evaluate the differences betweena reasonably priced tuner (the TBS) and a very cheap tuner (theSkyStar) so that you can see for yourselves what is available at the
moment. I know which I prefer, but as always, the final choice is up
to you.
Reference
1 Testing PCIe 6925 and 6983 Cards for EUMETCast
GEOQ 44, page 13, December 2014.

Figure 5 - The SkyStar system in operation

This Meteosat image was acquired using the TBS-6983 card at 15:30 UT on April 6, 2015
Image © EUMETSAT 201536

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Despite all the recent interest in Meteor 2M’s LRPT imagery, many readers still enjoy capturing APT
imagery from the NOAA satellites. André T’Kindt sent in this NOAA 19 image acquired from the 13:48
UT pass on April 9, 2015, showing excellent ground detail throughout western Europe.

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June 2015

NASA Earth Observatory

Typhoon Maysak, an unusually early storm for the northwest
Pacific, strengthened abruptly on the last day of March and grew
into a category 5 super typhoon, the most powerful yet recordedin this region. While Maysak was near peak intensity, astronauts
on the International Space Station were treated to an aweinspiring view of the storm. ‘Looking down into the eye—by far
the widest one I’ve seen—it seemed like a black hole from a sci-fi
movie,’ tweeted NASA astronaut Terry Virts. European Space
Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti shared the sentiment,
stating: ‘Commands respect even from space.’

Above: Super Typhoon Maysak as seen from the ISS on March 31
Image: ESA/NASA/Samantha Cristoforetti

What caught the astronauts’ attention was Maysak’s eye.
Reported to be 30 kilometres wide by the Joint Typhoon Warning
Center, the eye had a near perfect ring of convection swirling
around it. The storm appeared to be an annular tropical cyclone,a subcategory of storm known as a ‘doughnut’ storm.
The photograph of the eye offers a good example of the ‘Stadium
Effect’, a meteorological phenomenon defined by the eye being
wider at the top of the storm than the bottom, like the shape ofa sports stadium. The effect happens because rising air in theeyewall tends to slope outward, while the air in the eye itself isdescending. Cyclones typically form eyes when a storm’s winds
exceed 125 kilometres per hour.
In Maysak’s case, the storm weakened on its approach to thePhilippines as it encountered stronger upper level winds and dry
air. When it made landfall on the island of Luzon on April 4, it wasbarely a Category-1 storm.
On the following page is a night-time VIIRS image acquiredby the Suomi-NPP satellite shortly after midnight, local timeon April 2/3, by which time the storm lacked an obvious eye,suggesting that it was weakening.

38
38

The eye of Maysak, clearly showing the ‘Stadium Effect’

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Typhoon Maysak, viewed by NASA’s Suomi-NPP satellite, at 12:42 a.m. local time on April 3, 2015.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using the VIIRS day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership satellite.

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40

This NOAA 18 colour composite image from André T’Kindt, who lives in Ronse in Belgium, acquired from the 15:05 UT
pass on May 5, 2015, shows the depression that brought heavy rainfall to much of the UK and The Netherlands. The
image is also noteworthy for the interesting sunglint in the Mediterranean, and around both England and Iceland.

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NASA Earth Observatory

The Islands of the Four Mountains, imaged by Landsat-8’s OLI instrument on July 29, 2014
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

One of the Islands of the Four Mountains, Herbert—at lower
left of the image above— is a volcanic island located in the
Aleutian chain off Alaska. A symmetrical stratovolcano
stands in its centre, rising 1,280 metres above the northPacific Ocean: the entire island is just 10 kilometresacross. Herbert sits within a few tens of kilometres of threeother volcanoes: Carlisle, Cleveland, and Tana.
Both images above were acquired by the Operational
Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat-8 satellite. The circularformation in the centre of Herbert is a 2-kilometre widesummit caldera. The straight-down (nadir) satellite view
can make it difficult to determine which part of thelandscape stands taller than the other, a phenomenon
known as relief inversion.
In the June 8, 2013 image (next page), the summit
and caldera are coated with snow and ice, while lower
elevations appear to be clear. Clouds obscure most of theslopes and lowlands, with thicker cover on the north sideof the island. A similar pattern repeats at other nearby
islands, suggesting that winds were out of the south andthe volcanic islands were affecting the formation of clouds.
In the July 29, 2014 image, the volcano is nearly ice free
and the marine clouds are mostly offshore at midday.
Alaska and its surrounding waters were unseasonably
warm in 2014, perhaps leading to more melting. A meltlake fills roughly a third of the caldera.
The remote volcanic island has scarcely been studied
and there are no records of eruptions there. Geologists
have been much more interested in Cleveland volcano,which sits just 5 kilometres to the east on Chuginadak
Island. Cleveland is one of the most active volcanoes in the
Aleutians. Scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory
keep track of all of the volcanoes in the Aleutians because
ash eruptions can create hazards for aeroplanes that passthrough the area on their way from North America to Asia
and Europe.

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The Herbert Island caldera on June 8, 2013

June 2015

The Herbert Island calders on July 29, 2014

Image: NASA/GSFC

Image: NASA/GSFC

The Islands of the Four Mountains, imaged by Landsat-8’s OLI instrument on June 8, 2013, showing snow cover patterning.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey

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In that time, technology has moved on, with a new systemcoming in requiring yet more hardware and software to makeuse of it. This has its implications in terms of investing time,money and effort in getting to grips with it all, and it is a bigger
commitment than I am willing to make. I have many demands
on my time and I just can’t fit it in any more, beyond doing theoccasional APT image, while that remains available.
To David Anderson
Thanks for your email. I have decided to discontinue mymembership of GEO because I am no longer an active weather
satellite user. I took my equipment out of use during somerenovating and decorating last year.

I would like to thank you and the other GEO committee members,
past and present for all your hard work, which was very muchappreciated. Perhaps you would be kind enough to pass on mythanks to those of them that you can.
Regards
Terry Mullen

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

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

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

44This is GEO’s own group, where
members can exchange informationand post queries relating to any aspect

The Group for Earth Observation
related to weather satellite reception(hardware, software, antennas etc),
Earth observation satellites and any
GEO-related matter.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/info
Satsignal
An end-user self‑help group for users ofDavid Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools(SatSignal, WXtrack, GeoSatSignal,
HRPT Reader, GroundMap, MSG DataManager, AVHRR Manager and the
ATOVS Reader).
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SatSignal/info

June 2015
Mike Stevens, Dorset, England.
Assistance with reception of
EUMETCast to include Metop-A andMetop-B; also MSG Data reception
and set-up within the PC, assistancewith dish alignment and set-up, andinstallation and set-up of TBS DVB-S2
units.
• email: mikeg4cfz@gmail.com
Guy Martin, Kent, England.
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who
wishing to receive MSG/Metop using
Windows 2000 or XP. Can also help
with networking and ADSL router setup.
•

MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat
Second Generation (MSG), where
members share information about the
EUMETCast reception hardware andsoftware.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MSG-1/info
WXtoImg-l
A forum for users of the WXtoImg
software application for receiving andprocessing imagery from the NOAA
satellite APT signals.

gmartin@electroweb.co.uk

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

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

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

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wxtoimg-l/info

Copy for GEO Quarterly
GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans, Dunblane, Scotland.
All aspects of weather satellites from
APT, HRPT to Meteosat-9 DVB/EUMETCast systems.
• telephone:(01786) 82 28 28• e-mail: dsdeans@btinternet.com
John Tellick, Surrey, England.

Original contributions relating to
any aspect of Earth Imaging should
be submitted in electronic format(although handwritten and typed copy
will be accepted).
Please note that major articles whichcontain a large number of illustrations
should be submitted as early as
possible before copy deadline,
to give time for preparation prior to
publication.

Meteosat advice: registering for thevarious MSG services, hardware
and software installation andtroubleshooting. John will also
field general queries about any
aspect of receiving weather satellite
transmissions.

Please note that it is preferred thatsatellite images are provided without
added grid lines, country outlines or
captions unless these are consideredessential for illustrative purposes in an
accompanying article.

• telephone: (0208) 390 3315
• e-mail: info@geo-web.org.uk

Materials for publication should be sent
to the editor,
Les Hamilton
8 Deeside Place
Aberdeen AB15 7PW
ScotlandThe most efficient way to do this is byemail attachments to the following
address

Geoff Morris, Flintshire, NE Wales.
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,
coax connectors, mounting hardware
etc. and has also done a lot of work withthe orbiting satellites. Geoff has beena EUMETCast Meteosat user for sometime and is familiar with David Taylor’s
MSG software. He should be able toshare his experiences with newcomers
to this branch of the hobby.
• Tel: (01244) 818252• e-mail: gw3atz@btopenworld.com
www.geo-web.org.uk

Submission of Copy

geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Particularly large attachments (8 MB
and above) can be transmitted via
Hightail
https://wwwhightail.com/

June 2015

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