Group for Earth Observation

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

47
September 2015
Inside this issue . .
This issue opens with acolourful photo-essay fromDavid Taylor relating to
GEO’s summer visit to
EUMETSAT HQ in Darmstadt.
David Taylor has produced
an application called LRPT
Image Processor which canmanipulate Meteor M2 images
saved in RGB125 format toproduce a variety of new
products including Vegetation,
Thermal and Infrared. The
software also provides tools
for histogram equalisation,
sharpening, and applicationof colour palettes.
John Tellick follows up an
earlier article by discussing
Eutelsat-10 signal variation,
and also reports on the
launch of MSG-4, the final
satellite in the current
geostationary series.
Since last issue, Sentinel-2A
has been started imaging. Les
Hamilton provides anintroduction to this new highresolution satellite,
accompanied by some
spectacular imagery.
Plus articles on the Hubbard
Glacier, Suomi observations ofsummer auroras, Franz Josef
Land, and a spectacular Solarhalo.

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
Director and Public Relations
Francis Bell,
Coturnix House, Rake Lane,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB,
England.
Tel:
01483 416 897
email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
General Information
John Tellick,email: information@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton,
8 Deeside Place,
Aberdeen AB15 7PW, Scotland UK.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

Les Hamilton

geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

I’ll start by reminding readers that our next issue, due in December, will
be provided to all subscribers as a printed magazine (as well as a PDF
document). Accordingly, the copy deadline is a fortnight earlier than was
the case for this issue. We hope you will rally round with articles andimages to make this a truly ‘bumper’ issue to conclude 2015.

P

resentations from the Darmstadt Visit

1 - Overview of Current Satellite_Operations (.ppt 30 MB)
2 - EUMETCast DVB-S2 Operations and Future HVS (.pptx 8 MB)
3 - Future Satellite Services - Sentinel-3 (.pptx 5.2 MB)
4 - Future Satellite Services - MTG (.pptx 114 MB)
5 - Case Studies (.pptx 69 MB)
6 - Data Centre Update (.pptx 6 MB)
7 - User Services Activities Update (.pptx 6 MB)

GEO Quarterly Despatch
Peter Green
Membership and Subscriptions
David Anderson,
35 Sycamore Road,
East Leake, Loughborough LE12 6PP,
England, UK.
email: members@geo-web.org.uk
Tel:01509 820 067
Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Shop Manager
Nigel Evans (Assistant: David Simmons),
email: shop@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton,
email: liaison@geo-web.org.uk

These may all be downloaded from the GEO website at the following URL
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php#PowerPointP

roduction of this issue of GEO Quarterly has been fraught withdifficulties. Holidays notwithstanding, the GEO Quarterly PC suffered
two BSOD failures during production, and it was fortunate indeed that the
Quarterly could be rescued. A new PC will be required for the December
issue, which will include Francis Bell’s report on the GEO visit to
EUMETSAT in Darmstadt last July.

I

hope you enjoy this issue, which contains a large number of interestingsatellite images.

Management Committee Members
Clive Finnis
Carol FinnisC

opy deadline for the December issue of
GEO Quarterly is Sunday, November 15.

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.

Contents
EUMETSAT Visit Photo Essay

David Taylor

Contrails from Above and Below2
5

Enhance Meteor imagery with LRPT Image Processor

David Taylor

6Advance of the Hubbard GlacierNASA Earth Observatory

10

Suomi Images Midsummer Auroras

NASA Earth Observatory

13

Printing (December Issue)

Waw an Namus

NASA Earth Observatory

15

Hedgerow Print,
16 Marsh Lane,
Crediton, Devon EX17 1ES.
Tel: 01363 777 595

Practical Cooling system for the Ayecka SR1

John Din

16

Proba-V Views Cloud-Free Europe

John Tellick

17

Sentinel 2A

Les Hamilton

20

Final MSG Satellite in Orbit

John Tellick

24

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.

Meteorological Technology International

Fritz Zajicek

26

Perito Moreno GlacierNASA Earth Observatory

27

Spectacular 22° Solar HaloJohn Tellick

28

Some Thoughts on Eutelsat-10 Signal Variation

John Tellick

29

Franz Josef Land

Wikipedia

33

Unusual Meteor M2 Image

Enrico Gobbetti

37

The Weather Experiment (Book Review)

Robert Moore

41

Copyright GEO © 2015

Satellite Status

46

Cover Image Details46

GEO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups

47

GEO Membership Application Form48

GEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

49

Responsibility

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.

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

Photographs © David Taylor

A half-scale model of an MSG satellite in the EUMETSAT grounds

2

A scale model of a polar orbiting Metop satellite

The GEO delegates outside EUMETSAT’s Darmstadt HQ in July 2015.

http://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php
www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

The impressive atrium at EUMETSAT HQ
There’s actually a stream flowing through it.

GEO Quarterly No 47

Some of the speakers and Twitter staff for our day: Sally Wannop,
Sancha Lancaster, Kim-Hui Gaune and Klaus-Peter Renner.

Part of the new Data Centre complex at EUMETSATThis is the library for EUMETSAT’s hard-copy publications

Phil Harvey, our guide, in the EUMETSAT control roomPeter Muellner explaining operations to the grouphttp://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php
www.geo-web.org.uk

3

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

Jochen Kerkmann’s presenting case studies

September 2015

Enjoying refreshments following the EUMETSAT HQ visit

A somewhat depleted GEO group pictured after the ESOC visit, as some of the party had already started on their journeys home.

The ESOC building.
Unfortunately, we were not permitted to take photographs inside.

4

A relaxing group meal at the super Khan Mongolian Barbeque, where
Mark Drapes (our joint guide for the ESOC tour) joined us.

http://www.geo-web.org.uk/darmstadt-2015.php
www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

Close to sunset on the evening of June 3, 2015, Douglas Deansacquired an interesting Meteor-M2 infrared image that clearly
showed the presence of aeroplane contrails over northern

GEO Quarterly No 47

Wales. And at about the same time, Robert Moore spotted, andphotographed, a set of brilliantly illuminated contrails against aclear sky. Both images are reproduced below.

Robert Moore’s photograph of aeroplane contrails

Douglas Deans Meteor M2 image, showing the same contrails from orbit.

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

55

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

David Taylor
Program Background
Like many other readers, I had been dabbling with Meteor M2
imagery in recent months, and quickly became aware of one
feature that currently available software lacked: the ability to
combine the three Meteor LRPT channels into realistic falsecoloured images.
Those of you who download NOAA HRPT imagery will bewell aware that excellent results can be formed by combining
channels 1, 2 and 4, to create the ‘classic’ RGB124 coloured
images. In theory, this can also be achieved for Meteor as thefrequency ranges of the two satellites’ channels are almost
identical, as illustrated in the tables below.
NOAA

Meteor M2

Channel 1 0.58 - 0.68 µm

Channel 1 0.50 - 0.70 µm

Channel 2 0.725 - 1.00 µm

Channel 2 0.70 - 1.10 µm

Channel 4 10.30 - 11.30 µm

Channel 5 10.55 - 11.50 µm

One problem is that Meteor M2 transmits its channel-5 image
with the warmer areas as light tones and cold regions in darktones, displaying dark clouds and light coloured land. NOAA
reverses this prior to transmission, providing images with themore familiar light cloud features and darker land and sea.

Figure 1 - The original RGB125 Meteor M2 Image from April 21, 2015

A second problem is that I have yet to find calibration datafor digital level to brightness temperature, so I have had toestimate this by comparison with other satellite data.
Meteor RGB125 images
If you select the three Meteor LRPT channels as red, green andblue respectively in Oleg’s LrptOffLineDecoder, you end up withimages like the one shown in figure 1, where there is a strong
red bias, especially in the seas. But because these images
contain the complete sets of values for all three LRPT channels,
it is a straightforward matter to tease them apart with softwareand recombine them in more interesting interpretive ways.
LRPT Image Processor
This was the rationale behind the development of LRPT
Image Processor, a simple program that converts Meteor
RGB125 images into a number of more useful formats. Someof these are simply combinations of the original channels, whileothers result from the application of Colour Lookup Tables(CLUTs) to produce more realistic false-colour images.
LRPT Image Processor can be downloaded fromhttp://www.satsignal.eu/software/LRPT-processor.html
and is free to use. No registration is required.
To install LRPT Image Processor, extract all the files from the
ZIP archive into a directory outside the C:\Program Files\ tree: I
suggest C:\Tools\SatSignal\LRPTprocessor\.
Usage
LRPT Image Processor can remove the edge compression
present in the raw scan data from Meteor-M N2 LRPT data
(and does so by default), to create a Meteor RGB122 image,pseudo-NOAA RGB124 image, vegetation image, infrared
image, thermal image and a false-colour image based on

6

Figure 2 - The Geometrically Corrected RGB125 Meteor M2 Imagea provided 256×256 CLUT. The thermal components dorely on you initially saving an RGB125 Meteor image from
LrptOffLineDecoder, wherechannel 1 (0.5 - 0.7 µm)=>
channel 2 (0.7 - 1.1 µm)=>
channel 5 (10.5 - 11.5 µm) =>

Red
Green
Blue

You can load such an image, in either BMP or JPG format,
into LRPT Image Processor from the command-line, by usingdrag-and-drop on to the program interface, or via the File|Open
continued on page 8

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

Figure 3 - The standard Meteor RGB122 image

Figure 6 - Infrared image derived by inverting Meteor channel 5

Figure 4 - Mimicking NOAA’s RGB124 image

Figure 7 - The Thermal image

Figure 5 - Vegetation Index derived from channels 1 and 2

Figure 8 - The False-colour Image created by applying the
TempToColourHLS CLUT

www.geo-web.org.uk

7

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

menu. After a short delay while processing takes place, all theimages generated are automatically saved in the same directoryas the input image, and in the same format (BMP or JPG). These
images can be inspected individually by clicking on the various
tabs at the top of the screen. Initially, because each image isshown at full resolution, only a small section appears on screen.
But a left-click over the image toggles it between full size andfit-to-screen.
Histogram Equalisation
As readers who regularly acquire Meteor M2 imagery will bewell aware, the infrared images from Meteor’s channel-5 often
show very low contrast. When LRPT Processor’s ‘InfraRed’ tabis displayed, a right-click over the image reveals a pop-up menu
that provides four histogram equalisation options ranging from‘none’ to ‘strong’ (figure 9). Lower levels of equalisation improvedetail in light coloured areas (clouds) while higher levels reveal
progressively more detail in darker regions (land). The four levelsof equalisation are compared in figure 10.
The ‘False-colour’ tab also allows a choice of histogram
equalisation and sharpening, both accessed by a right- mouseclick (figure 12). Note that the sharpening will also make thecompression in the original data more obvious.

Figure 9 - The right-click histogram equalise menu that
operates on the Infrared tab.

Figure 10 - The Histogram Equalise options available on the Infrared Tab (from left to right): None, Mild, Normal and Strong.

The Options Menu
The ‘Options’ menu allows you to• Rotate an image: used for flipping imagery from northboundpasses into an upright position.
• Select a CLUT, which determines the appearance of theimage in the ‘False-colour’ tab.
• Reveal the ‘Setup’ panel.
This final option allows the user to select which of the sevenimages displayed on LRPT Processor’s tabs are actually
saved when the software is activated, whether or not to apply
geometrical correction to the images, and the preferred output
format (figure 11).

Figure 11 - The LRPT Processor ‘Setup’ panel.

8

The program has been developed in Embarcadero’s Delphi
using Windows-8.1/64, but I would expect it to work on
Windows XP-SP3 and later. Windows-XP/64 and Vista/64 may
not work as expected (and these operating systems are notsupported). It will also work in Linux, under WINE.
To run LRPT Processor, my Runtime Library Bundle must also be
installed. It can be downloaded fromhttp://www.satsignal.eu/software/runtime.html

Figure 12 - The sharpening menu on the ‘False-colour’ tab.

www.geo-web.org.uk

This segment from the 09:55 UT Meteor M2 pass on August 3, 2015 was created using the false-colour option in LRPT Image Processor

www.geo-web.org.uk

9

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

NASA Earth Observatory
Since measurements began in 1895,
Alaska’s Hubbard Glacier has been
thickening and steadily advancing
into Disenchantment Bay. Thisadvance runs counter to so manythinning and retreating glaciers
nearby in Alaska and around theworld.
The upper image on this page,acquired by the Operational Land
Imager (OLI) on Landsat-8, shows
Hubbard Glacier on July 22, 2014.
The lower image shows a close-up of
the glacier’s terminus on that day.
For reference, yellow lines indicate thelocation of the terminus on August 1,
1978, and on July 13, 2002.
According to Leigh Stearns, aglaciologist at the University of
Kansas, Hubbard’s advance is due
to its large accumulation area, theglacier’s catchment basin extending
far into the Saint Elias Mountains.
Snow that falls in the basin either
melts or flows down to the terminus,
causing Hubbard to steadily grow. In
addition, Hubbard is building up alarge moraine, shovelling sediment,
rock, and other debris from Earth’s
surface on to the glacier’s leadingedge. The moraine at the front gives
the glacier stability and allows it toadvance more easily because theice does not need to be as thick tostay grounded. (If it is thin, it canstart floating and will not necessarilyadvance.)

The Hubbard Glacier, imaged by Landsat-8 on July 22, 2014

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological
Survey and Hubbard Glacier data provided by Marcy Davis of The University of Texas at Austin

Twice in the past hundred years—in
1986 and again in 2002—the moraine
has made contact with Gilbert Pointand blocked the entrance to Russell
Fjord. With nowhere to drain, runoff
caused the water level in the fjord torise rapidly.
The image below, acquired on July 13,
2002 by the Enhanced Thematic
Mapper Plus on Landsat-7, shows theglacier the last time that it sealed thefjord. Water levels to rose 0.24 metres
per day, eventually reaching 18
metres above sea level. However,the closure was temporary, and on
August 14, the combination of waterpressure and heavy rains overpowered
the encroaching ice and debris andburst through the natural dam toreturn the fjord to normal levels.

10

The Hubbard Glacier terminus, imaged by Landsat-8 on July 22, 2014

NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological
Survey and Hubbard Glacier data provided by Marcy Davis of The University of Texas at Austin

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

A broader view of the hinterland of the Hubbard Glacier, here entering the sea north of Gilbert Point at centre right of the image
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and Hubbard Glacier data provided by
Marcy Davis of The University of Texas at Austin

In 2002, while attending a glaciology conference innearby Yakutat, Alaska, a town that depends on Russell
Fjord’s marine life, Stearns asserted that: “Understanding
Hubbard’s behaviour is scientifically interesting, but it also
has immediate consequences for the town of Yakutat.”Those consequences provoked her to investigate what
controls the terminus position and its advance, andto estimate when the fjord might become permanently
blocked. The findings, recently accepted for publicationin the Journal of Geophysical Research, explain how themechanics at the terminus override the influence of otherclimate fluctuations.

One estimate suggests that the fjord could permanently
close by 2025. But Hubbard’s terminus is nearly
14 kilometres wide and does not advance at the samerate across its entire width. The region adjacent toGilbert Point, where the closure would occur, advances
more slowly because seawater passing through the gap
constantly erodes the ice. Based on the current rateof advance at the gap, Stearns estimated that closure
could occur by 2043. Stearns cautions, however, thatthese closure dates are “projections based on our current
observations, and should be viewed with scepticism.”www.geo-web.org.uk

Text by Kathryn Hansen.

11Mike Stevens downloaded this NOAA-19 HRPT image via EUMETCast on April 5, 2015,
showing the UK and France enjoying a particularly fine spring day.

12

Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

NASA Earth Observatory

This year, midsummer was marked by spectacular auroras
at both poles. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections(CMEs) sent streams of electromagnetic energy directly
towards Earth, creating nighttime light-shows thatstretched deep into mid latitudes.
The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on
the NPOESS Suomi NPP satellite acquired this view of
the Aurora Australis, the Southern Lights, over Antarctica
in the early morning hours of June 24, 2015. The
atmospheric light show was captured by the VIIRS ‘daynight band’, which detects low light levels such as auroras,
airglow, city lights and reflected moonlight. In this image,the sensor detected the visible light emissions that
resulted from energetic particles raining down from Earth’s
magnetosphere into the gases of the upper atmosphere.
For the previous two weeks, sunspot AR12371 had beenhighly active as it moved across the Earth-facing side of
the Sun, and overnight on June 20-21 launched a CME
toward Earth, causing a severe geomagnetic storm twodays later. Skywatchers as far south as Texas reported the
Aurora Borealis on the horizon. Another flare, which burst

from the region early on June 23, may have produced thedisplay shown in this image.
Auroras occur when solar flares and CMEs—or evenstrong solar wind streams—disturb and distort Earth’s
magnetosphere, the region protected by Earth’s magnetic
field. The result is a flow of particles into the upper
atmosphere (at altitudes between 100 and 400 kilometres)
which excite oxygen and nitrogen molecules into releasing
photons of light. The results are rays, sheets, and curtainsof light in the sky, centred around both of the planet’s
magnetic poles.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured several photographsof the auroral storms from his perch on the International
Space Station on June 22 and June 23. These are
reproduced on the next page.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using VIIRS
day-night band data from the Suomi National Polar-orbiting
Partnership.

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

13
13

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of an aurora from the International Space Station, 400 km above Earth, on June 22, 2015.
Image: NASANASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of an aurora from the International Space Station on June 23, 2015.
Image: NASA14
14

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

NASA Earth Observatory
Seen from space, few other extinct
volcanoes look as exotic and spectacularas Waw an Namus. The volcano, locateddeep in the Sahara Desert in the Fezzanregion of southwestern Libya, appears asa smear of dark basaltic ash and tephrathat contrasts sharply with the lightcoloured sand of the Sahara Desert.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on
Landsat 8 captured this view of the feature
on May 29, 2015. While the precise
date of the most recent eruption is notknown, the lack of erosion and weathering
implies that it probably occurred during
the last few thousand years. South of theash field, mud streams have begun theslow process of eroding the tephra andash away. The ash field extends arounda much smaller caldera that is about
4 kilometres wide. Calderas are hollowedout circular depressions that form at
the summit of volcanoes when magma
is withdrawn or erupted from a shallow
underground magma reservoir.

A general view of Waw an Namus

The lower image shows a closer viewof the caldera. Within it, three small
salty lakes ringed with vegetation are
visible. The volcano gets its name fromthe lakes, which are reportedly home tothriving communities of mosquitos: inArabic, ‘Waw an Namus’ means “crater ofmosquitos.” The edge of a cinder cone isalso visible near the centre of the caldera.
Cinder cones are steep, conical hills
that accumulate around volcanic vents.
They are made from small glassy rockfragments that pile up around vents as
ash and congealed lava erupts.
The beauty and unique appearance of
Waw an Namus has long fascinatedtravellers. In 1969, anthropologist Froelich
Rainey described the feature this way:
The whole effect of Waw an Namus
is weird. Quite suddenly we seemed
to be in the shadow of a cloud, but
the sky was clear and looking closely
at the desert sand I noticed that it
had changed from yellow to blackwith a thin surface layer of whatlooked like coal cinders. Then, after
crossing about ten kilometres of thisblack desert, and without warning,
we were abruptly halted by a hugecrater perhaps three kilometres indiameter. In the centre rose a brown
volcanic cone surrounded by a series

A close-up view of the Waw an Namus caldera.

of narrow crescent-shaped blue
lakes. There were occasional datepalms and bamboo growing about
the lakes and one small hut. The darksand, the isolation, and the obvious
record of what had happened there allcontributed to the awesome spectacle
before us.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using
Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Inside the caldera.

Photo: Rudolf Baumann/Wikimedia Commons

15

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

John Din

During recent months I have noted
concerns relating to the coolingof the Ayecka SR1 receiver. I haverecently installed one of these for
my EUMETCast reception, andfound that my unit became quite
hot after operating continuously
over a 24-hour period: so I decided
to design a simple cooling system
to ensure that it did not overheat.
My device consist of a 10 mmthick plywood base measuring
approximately 100 × 125 mm,
and two 100 mm lengths of
25 × 25 mm aluminium angle
moulding screwed down 110 mmapart (figure 1).
A third length of angle moulding
is used to mount a 12 volt fan,salvaged from a failed computer
power supply unit, between
the strips that support the SR1
receiver. The fan is powered from astandard 12 volt plug-top unit.
This assembly supplies cooling air
under and above the case of theSR1, and of course through it via
the casing air holes.

Figure 1 - The frame which holds the SR1 close to the fan

Figure 2 - The Ayecka SR1 positioned in its frame

16

Figure 3 - A side view, showing the Ayecka SR1 next to the cooling fan

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

John Tellick

This nearly cloud-free view of Europe is partof a global mosaic of Proba‑V images acquired
on 9 March, 2015. The Proba‑V satellite wasbuilt by Belgian company QinetiQ Space.
Our green continent is depicted at aresolution of 333 metres/pixel, with snow
capping the peaks of the Pyrenees and Alpsbordering Italy. Proba-V is a miniaturised
ESA satellite tasked with a full-scale mission:
to map land cover and vegetation growthacross the entire planet every two days.

The camera’s continent-spanning 2250 km
field of view collects light in the blue, red,near-infrared and mid-infrared wavebands,
ideal for monitoring plant and forest growth
as well as inland water bodies.
Proba-V images are processed and distributed
to hundreds of scientific end users by VITO,
Belgium’s Flemish Institute for TechnologicalResearch, extending the dataset of previous
generations of the Vegetation Instrument flown
on the Spot-4 and Spot-5 satellites.

Image: ESA
www.geo-web.org.uk

17

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

ESA’s Redu Centre in the Belgian Ardennes, which handles communications with ProbaVThe Proba V control centre.
Image: ESA

ESA’s Redu Centre in Belgium’s
Ardennes region is responsible
for controlling and testing a rangeof satellites as part of ESA’s
ground station network. It is also
home to the Space Weather Data
Centre as part of ESA’s Space
Situational Awareness Preparatory
Programme.
The centre provides S-band
links for ESA’s network ofground stations, as well as inorbit testing for a wide range oftelecommunication and navigation
satellites. Today, it is providing
communications for the Artemis,
Integral and Proba satellites,
as well as backup facilities for
the XMM‑Newton X-ray spacetelescope.
This site, pictured above,
currently hosts 43 steerable dishantennas operating in a wide
variety of frequency bands (S, Ku,
Ka, L, C) with diameters ranging
from 4.5 metres to 20 metres.

18

This Proba‑V image dramatically depicts the River Nile as it flows through the desert.
Image: ESA

www.geo-web.org.uk

Most Meteor M2 images posted on the Internet tend to be colour composites. But single channels can also
be interesting. This is the 21:16 UT channel‑5 infrared image from July 9. Following hot weather over France
and southern England, numerous ‘Heat Islands’ stand out, most notably around Paris and London

www.geo-web.org.uk

19

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

Les Hamilton
The European Space Agency’s 1200 kg Sentinel-2A satellite
was successfully launched from the Kourou Spaceport in
French Guiana at 01:52 UT on June 23, 2015. Sentinel
flies in a sun-synchronous polar orbit, 786 kilometresabove the Earth, with a descending node at 10:30 local
time to provide optimum solar illumination. This satellite
adds high-resolution optical imaging to the European
Union Copernicus environmental monitoring system, which
got under way with the launch of the Sentinel-1A radar
satellite last year.
An EU flagship space initiative, Copernicus has been sevenyears in the making, has been designed to operate for morethan 20 years, and will provide operational informationon the world’s land surfaces, oceans and atmosphere, tosupport environmental and security policymaking andmeet the needs of citizens and service providers [1,2,3].
Copernicus is the new name of the European
Commission’s Earth Observation Programme, previously
known as GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment
and Security). The new name was announced on
December 11, 2012, by European Commission VicePresident Antonio Tajani, and pays homage to Polishmathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543) who, in the 16th century, led the drive tounderstand our environment.

Sentinel-2A being encapsulated within the half-shells of the Vega rocket
fairing, on 6 June 2015.
Image © ESA / M Pedoussaut, 2015

Sentinel-2 is the second unit of a constellation thatwill eventually number twenty satellites providing
the most comprehensive data for environmental andsecurity applications available anywhere in the world.
Sentinel-2A will complement the all-weather, day-andnight radar imagery provided by Sentinel-1A, launched on
April 3, 2014. Sentinel-2B, an exact twin of Sentinel 2A, isscheduled for launch in mid-2016.

SpacialResolution
(m)

10

20

60

Band
NumberCentral
Wavelength(nm)

Bandwidth
(nm)

2

490

65

3

560

35

4

665

30

8a

842

115

5

705

15

6

740

15

Image © ESA / M Pedoussaut, 2015

7

783

20

8b

865

20

11

1016

90

12

2190

180

1

443

20

9

945

20

10

1380

30

Details of the 13 spectral bands available in
Sentinel 2A’s Multi Spectram Instrument (MSI).

20

The Vega fairing holding the Sentinel-2A satellite in the launch gantry at
Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Integration of the fairing of Vega VV05, carrying Sentinel-2A, in the
launcher assembly area at Kourou, French Guiana.
Image © ESA / M Pedoussaut, 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

Sentinel‑2A carries an innovative wide-swath highresolution multispectral imager with thirteen spectral
bands which will open a new perspective on our land andvegetation. The combination of high resolution—offeringa maximum of 10 metres/pixel—with a swath width of
290 kilometres and frequent revisit times will provide
unprecedented views of Earth.
To put this into perspective, the highest resolution MODIS
images from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites have aground resolution of 250 metres per pixel. Sentinel‑2’sMulti Spectral Imager is capable of delivering fourchannels of imagery at 25 times this resolution.
The Mission
The Sentinel‑2 mission is based on two identicalsatellites flying in the same orbit but phased 180° apart.
Sentinel‑2B, which will complete the constellation, isdue for launch in about a years time. The full mission
specification will cover the entire Earth’s land surface,large islands and inland and coastal waters at a highrevisit frequency of five days at the equator, and will
provide information for agricultural and forestry practices
and for helping manage food security. The satellites’
images will be used to determine various plant indices,such as leaf area, chlorophyll and water content indexes.
This is particularly important for effective yield prediction
and applications related to Earth’s vegetation.

This is a segment from Sentinel 2A’s first image, showing the city of
Genoa in Italy, and its hinterland.
Image © ESA

As well as monitoring plant growth, Sentinel-2 can beused to map changes in land cover and to monitor theworld’s forests. It will also provide information on pollution
in lakes and coastal waters. Images of floods, volcanic
eruptions and landslides will contribute to disastermapping and help during humanitarian relief efforts.
Sentinel-2 is the result of close collaboration between ESA,the European Commission, industry, service providers
and data users. Demonstrating Europe’s technologicalexcellence, its development has involved around sixty
companies, led by Airbus Defence and Space (Germany)for the satellites and Airbus Defence and Space (France)
for the multispectral instruments. The mission has been
supported in kind by the French Space Agency CNES toprovide expertise in image processing and calibration,and by the German Aerospace Center DLR who provide
the optical communication payload, developed by Tesat
Spacecom GmbH.

This is a segment from Sentinel 2A’s first image, shows individual
buildings in the city of Milan at 10 metre/pixel resolution.
Image © ESA

This final item of technology allows the Sentinel-2
satellites to transmit data via laser to satellites ingeostationary orbit that carry the European Data Relay
System (EDRS). This is a new space data highway whichallows large volumes of data to be relayed very quickly andmade available to users as rapidly as possible.
References
Liftoff of Vega VV05 carrying Sentinel-2A from Kourou on June 23, 2015.
Image © ESA / M Pedoussaut, 2015

ESA’s Sentinel Satellites - GEOQ 35, page 6 (September 2012)
Sentinel 1A images Pine Island Bay - GEOQ 42, page 14 (June 2014)
Sentinel 1A images The Netherlands - GEOQ 42, page 24 (June 2014)www.geo-web.org.uk

21

The resolving power of Sentinel-2A is demonstrated in this image, captured on July 26, 2015,
which shows ships queuing along the Danube near the Romanian town of Zimnicea..

22

Copyright Copernicus Sentinel data (2015)/ESA

www.geo-web.org.uk

Mike Stevens discovered this interesting Meteosat-10 image while rummaging through his archives. It dates from April 21 this year, and shows mostof western Europe bathed in sunshine, while Spain and Morocco seem to have been caught up in a maelstrom of cloud.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

23

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

John Tellick
The last in the Meteosat Second Generation series of satellites
is now safely in orbit and under the control of EUMETSAT.
An end to another Meteosat Era. The next, major step, will
be Meteosat Third Generation, an entirely different system,comprising a constellation of two satellites—one for
imaging, the other for sounding—and three-axis stabilised
rather than using the current spin-stabilisation design.
GEO members who took part in our July visit to
EUMETSAT also visited ESOC, where, a week prior to thesatellite’s launch, they were shown round the same control
room in which ESA personnel are seen celebrating the
success of the mission in the photograph below.
ESA Reported the event as follows:
At midday on July 26, 2015, ESA formally handed
control of Europe’s last Meteosat Second Generation
weather satellite, MSG-4, to EUMETSAT, the European
Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological
Satellites.
MSG-4 had been operated from ESA’s European Space
Operations Centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, since
it separated from an Ariane rocket shortly after launch on
July 15. A team of operations engineers, software and groundstation specialists, and ﬂight dynamics experts, worked roundthe clock to shepherd the satellite through its first dozendays in space—the critical launch and early orbit phase—on
EUMETSAT’s behalf.

MSG-4, the final satellite in Europe’s highly successful Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG) series lifts off from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou,
French Guiana, on an Ariane-5 launcher, on July 15.
Photo: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE

During this period, the satellite was moved into geostationary
orbit and various elements of its platform were activated andchecked. This included critical manoeuvres such as firing
the apogee thrusters, changing the satellite’s orientation andunlocking the camera’s scan mirror.
Now in its planned geostationary slot some 36 000 km above
Europe, MSG-4 will go through payload commissioning toserve as the in-orbit ‘hot backup’ to its three sibling satellites,
MSG-1 to -3. All are used for weather forecasting, and play a
crucial role in ‘nowcasting’ high-impact weather events andclimate research. They are operated by EUMETSAT, with ESA
responsible for their design, development and in-orbit delivery.

MSG-4’s propulsion tanks are filled during launch preparations.
Photo: ESA-CNES-ARIANESPACE

Weighing some two tonnes, MSG-4 is the 142ndsatellite built by Thales Alenia Space to be launched by
Arianespace. During the eleven days of the craft’s LEOP
(Launch Early Operation Phase), spacecraft controllers
from ESA and EUMETSAT finalised MSG-4’s final
configuration and orbit, then activated and checked thefunctionality of the various components on its platform.
Following handover, EUMETSAT will begin commissioning
the satellite and its sensors, a two-month phase of checkout and assessment, followed by four-months for imaging
and product testing, including calibration and validation.
Once commissioning is complete, MSG-4 will be renamed
Meteosat-11, and will be stored in orbit until such time as itis required to replace one of its predecessors.
The ESA mission control team in the Main Control Room at ESOC on
July 24, celebrating adding ‘MSG-4’ to the Mission History Wall.
Image © Copyright ESA / D Danesy

24

It will then take over services and ensure the smoothtransition to Meteosat Third Generation in 2019.

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

MSG-4 delivers its first image
The Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager
instrument on MSG-4 captured its first image of Earth on
August 4, 2015. This demonstrates that Europe’s latest
geostationary weather satellite, launched on July 15,
is performing well and is on its way to becoming fully
operational when needed after six months of commissioning.

GEO Quarterly No 47

The first image is a joint achievement by ESA, EUMETSAT
and the European space industry. For its mandatory
programmes, EUMETSAT relies on ESA to develop newsatellites and procure the recurrent satellites like MSG-4.
This cooperation model has made Europe a world leader
in satellite meteorology by making best use of the two
agencies’ expertise.

www.geo-web.org.uk

25
25

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

Fritz Zajicek
Thanks to Francis Bell´s information in the last
GEO Report, I was very interested to get thispublication and did an Internet search. I quickly
found the source and discovered how easily you
can read and save the publication. Let me share
this information with all interested GEO Quarterly
readers.
How to get MTI
Choose www.ukipme.com in your browser. I
tested it with Firefox 38.0.5 and Windows IE 9[and it also works beautifully in Google Chrome— Ed].
Go to ‘Publications’ in the menu bar and click on‘Meteorological’ in the drop-down menu. Now you
can click the ‘Read Now’ button to open and readthe edition of your choice in the zmags viewer.

The ‘Publications’ Menu

In early June 2015, when this information
was compiled, all editions back to September
2011 were available. There is also an option to‘Subscribe’ to the magazine, free of charge.
If you prefer to read the publication in PDF
format, print it out or save it in your digital
library, you can also download the whole PDF
document or selected pages easily by clicking the‘Download’ icon: in the small reading menu, choose
from ‘all pages / shown pages / selected pages’
and finally click ‘Download’ and follow yourstandard download process.
The ‘Meteorological Publications’ Page

The complete April 2015 edition consists of 104
pages and takes 16.5 MB on the drive.
Background information about MTI
MTI is the world’s first and only publication thatis dedicated to the latest developments in climate,weather and hydrometeorological forecasting,measurement and analysis technologies andservice providers. It is published by UKIP Media &Events.
MTI was launched in November 2009 to great
acclaim from the industry. At least since 2012
MTI, has been published twice a year with aspring and an autumn edition. In 2015 MTI will
be published in April and September.
The publication will be distributed globally tomore than 18,500 key decision makers within
all the national, regional and international
meteorological offices and service providers, aswell as to the major purchasers and users ofweather, climate and hydrology technologies andservices, including the aviation industry, airports,
military operations, space centres, marine ports,shipping companies, energy industry, offshore
facilities, wind farms and the agriculturalindustry. In addition, a further 9,500 copies will
be sent out digitally.

26

www.geo-web.org.uk

Using the on-screen zmags viewer

The download options panel

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

NASA Earth Observatory
The 30 kilometre long Perito Moreno
Glacier, one of the largest in Patagonia, islocated among the icefields of the southern
Andes and is the centrepiece of the ParqueNacional Los Glaciares. The glacierdescends from an elevation of 2100 metresin the Southern Patagonian Icefield to just
180 metres above sea level in the waters of
Lago Argentino.
Perito Moreno is the region’s most famous
glacier because it periodically cuts off
Brazo Rico, the major southern arm of
Lake Argentino by means of an ice dam.
The glacier advances across the lake until
it meets the opposite shoreline and its
ice tongue becomes grounded to form anatural dam. This dam prevents lake waterfrom circulating from one side to the other,which results in muddier and ‘milkier’ water
concentrating in Brazo Rico. Water ﬂows
down under the glacier from the mountains,
not only carrying the mud into the lake but
also helping lubricate the glacier’s downhill
movement.
Meltwater runoff from the surrounding
mountains can raise the water level in
Brazo Rico as high as 30 metres abovethat in Lago Argentino, exerting hydrostaticpressure which leads to the formation ofdrainage tunnels and fractures within theice. Ultimately, this pressure causes theice tongue to rupture catastrophically in agreat natural spectacle. The dam collapsed
spectacularly in March 2004, and the image
shows a new ice dam across the Brazo
Rico arm of Lago Argentino forming thefollowing November.
This process repeats every four to five
years as the glacier grows back towards
the opposite shoreline. The repeatedruptures have made the glacier and lake amajor tourist attraction in the region. A more
recent rupture occurred in March 2012.
The past extent of glaciation in the region
is marked by several valleys formerly
filled by ﬂowing ice. A particularly striking
example of this landscape feature is in
the centre of the image, where five glacial
valleys converge to a central star-shaped
outﬂow valley. Widespread recession of
the glaciers in southern Patagonia has
occurred over the last 30 years, possibly
due to warming of the regional climate.
Contrary to this trend, Perito Moreno
seems to be maintaining an equilibrium
between ice formation in the mountains
and ice loss due to melting and calving into
Lago Argentino.

Astronaut photograph ISS010-E-5803 acquired on November 4, 2004 shows a new ice dam
forming across the Braco Rico.
Image: NASA/JSC

www.geo-web.org.uk

27

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

John Tellick
On August 2 this year, the sky over southeast England was almost
clear, with just a thin veil of high-altitude cirrus cloud. The sun wasshining brightly, but was surrounded by a spectacular halo. In theimmediate vicinity of the sun, the sky was girdled by a darker region,
which was itself bounded by an iridescent brighter halo of light. This
was an example of the 22-degree halo.
This halo owes its origin to ice crystals suspended within cirrus
or cirrostratus clouds at altitudes of 5 to 10 kilometres, where thetemperature hovers between -30°C and -40°C at this time of the year.
These crystals are rod-shaped prisms with a hexagonal cross section,
and are orientated randomly within the clouds. When light rays fromthe sun pass through the 60° apex angle of these prisms, they arerefracted, a process that is repeated when they re-emerge. This
double refraction produces deviation angles in the range 22° to 50°.
The minimum possible angle of deviation varies a little withwavelength (21.54° for red light and 22.37° for blue light), and isgenerally quoted as 22°. The wavelength dependence results in the
inner edge of the halo being reddish while its outer edge shows abluish tinge. Because some of the sunlight has been redirected into
the bright halo, the region between it and the sun appears darker
than the sky in general.
The segment from the 13:00 UT Meteosat-10 image, shown below,
clearly shows the wispy high-level cloud band lying to the west of theThames estuary.

The sun, surrounded by a 22° helo.
Photo: John Tellick

This is a segment taken from the 13:00 UT Meteosat-10 image on August 2, 2015.

28
28

Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

John Tellick
I have written before about ‘rain fade’ [1] and the severe effect, in my case, of water drops accumulating on the face of my LNB, which

considerably reduces SNR, never mind the attenuation of the rain itself and rain bearing cloud.

There have been discussions on the MSG‑1 Yahoo Group this year regarding varying signal levels on EUMETCast transmissions from
Eutelsat‑10, other than the lower transmitted power contours compared with Eurobird-9 under clear sky conditions. Some contributors
suggested that it might be that the satellite has some slight inclination, the effect being exacerbated by slight dish off-pointing. I
tried several avenues to get an answer from Eutelsat, but to no avail. Their final comment was to suggest that I contact my service
provider: which is EUMETSAT, not Eutelsat.

Figure 1 - Basic structure of the atmosphere
Image: theozonehole.com

This I did, and was told that the service is performing as
specified—with a suggestion that I might do some research on
satellite signal propagation to answer some of my questions.
Thus I learned that several factors conspire to degrade oursatellite signals.
I’m not a radio ‘ham’, but I was an enthusiastic ‘shortwave
listener’, and later a TV and FM DXer for many years from theearly 60’s and through the 70’s and 80’s. This only came to an
end when my ‘rather large’ antenna array—which had survived
the 1987 ‘hurricane’—finally came down during the Burns Day
Storm over January 25-26, 1990. I was aware of the various
mechanics of ‘atmospheric layer radio propagation’: D, E, F1 andF2 layers and tropospheric propagation (figure 2 overleaf). My
best catch was TV from Zimbabwe via trans-equatorial-skip.

However, I rather thought that line-of-sight satellite transmissions,at (very) much higher frequencies, would be immune totropospheric and ionospheric disturbances: but I was wrong.
My DVBWorld box on the old Eurobird-9 DVB-S EUMETCast SS
and SQ reading didn’t alter under clear sky conditions: SS was
always 98% with an 85 cm dish.
My SR1 receiver, with a 1m dish and an Inverto Black Ultra LNB,
shows the SNR altering by a few decimal points of a dB all thetime under clear sky conditions, and the ‘mean’ level altering
between day and night. Also, even the ‘mean’ levels appear toalter over longer periods (days and weeks). I don’t know how
accurate the SR1’s SNR and link margin readouts are, or how
sensitive, but they indicate these variations all the time.

www.geo-web.org.uk

29

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

The first obvious thing is that, during daylight hours, theSun’s various radiations are ‘zapping our side of the Earth’s
atmosphere.’ At night time our side is in shadow, yet some of ouratmospheric layers are still ‘active’.
I found a great deal of useful information in an article on theRadio-electronics.com website, written by Ian Poole, in which heexplains the structure of the atmosphere, and how interaction
between its layers and incoming radiation causes ionisation,
which affects radio propagation. Additionally, in the troposphereand ionosphere, refraction and absorption of radio waves canoccur.
An effect which I found quite fascinating and important wasthat of Faraday Rotation, which causes different elements of aradio signal to travel in different ways. In particular, the effectcan rotate the plane of polarisation, which causes reception
problems. This happens because the ionosphere is a magnetoionic region and linear polarisation can be twisted as it passes
through this layer owing to this magneto-ionic effect.
Eutelsat-10, along with most other, if not all, Ku-band satellites,
uses linear, horizontal and vertical signal polarisation. This allows
frequency sharing and overlapping, and the ability to transmit far
more channels. A satellite due south of your location will have‘accurate horizontal and vertical polarisation’, but satellites tothe east and west of your location increasingly appear to tilt—as
does their signal polarisation, a phenomenon called skew. So our
LNB has to be rotated clockwise/anti clockwise from ‘vertical’ toaccurately match any skew in the received signal.
This I have found to be most important when setting up a dish,as even a small misalignment causes SNR degradation from theunwanted ‘other polarisation.’ However, trying to track—albeit it
small I suspect—varying skewing of the Eutelsat‑10 signal due
to Faraday rotation, is a lost cause. Once you get out into ‘freespace’ there is very little to affect satellite signals other thanattenuation caused by the sheer distance to geostationary orbit.
Ian also touches on the problem of Ionospheric Scintillation, which
can change the angle of arrival of signals well into the microwave
region. The effects are related to the location of the receiving
station and the general level of geomagnetic activity, latitude,

Figure 2 - Layers within the Atmosphere
Image: NASAand local time of day. Radio transmissions can also be affectedby ionospheric scintillation but this is considered to be negligible
on radio frequencies above about 2 GHz.
Ian’s final section deals with Tropospheric propagation effects
such as signal bending as a result of refraction, scintillation, andattenuation.
Readers interested in consulting Ian Poole’s article can find it at
this URL
http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/satellite/
satellite_sig_prop/satellite_signal_propagation.php
There is obviously a lot happening to our satellite signals before
they reach the LNB, even under clear sky conditions.
Reference
EUMETCast DVB-S2 Experiences - GEOQ 46, page 6, June 2015

Typhoon Soudelor photographed from the ISS at 08:44 UT on August 5, 2015, as the storm advanced towards Taiwan.

Image: Astronaut photograph ISS044-E-30716 provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center30

www.geo-web.org.uk

This segment from a high resolution visibloe image acquired by Japan’s geostationary MTSAT2 at 03:01 UT on July 11, 2015 shows super typhoon
Chan-hom making landfall on China’s Zhejiang province, where some million people were evacuated from their homes.. Windspeeds of up to 173 km/
hour were recorded, and some locations received over 400 mm of rain in 24 hours.

www.geo-web.org.uk

31

Rarely is Russia’s Arctic archipelago of Franz Josef Land, situated at 81° north, revealed as it
was on August 2 this year, in this splendid MODIS image from NASA’s Terra satellite.
Image: LANCE Rapid Response/NASA/GSFC

32

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

Summarised from Wikipedia
Franz Josef Land, pictured on the previous
page, is a totally uninhabited archipelago of
191 islands, straddling 81° degrees latitudein the Arctic Ocean and 900 kilometresfrom the North Pole. It constitutes thenorthernmost part of Archangelsk Oblastin Russia. In total, the islands cover
16,134 square kilometres and stretch
375 kilometres from east to west and 234
kilometres north to south. The largest
island, at 2740 km2, is George Land, butthree others exceed 1,000 km2: Wilczek
Land, Graham Bell Island and Alexandra
Land.
Eighty-five percent of the archipelago isglaciated, although large unglaciated areas
are located on the largest islands andmany of the smallest ones. Cape Fligely,situated at 81°50’ north on Rudolf Island,is the northernmost point of the Eastern
Hemisphere.
The archipelago was named after emperor
Franz Josef I of Austria by the 1873 AustroHungarian North Pole expedition led by
Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht. The
islands were annexed by the Soviet Union
in 1926 and have been a nature sanctuary
since 1994. They became part of theRussian Arctic National Park in 2012.
Franz Josef Land experiences 141 days
per year of midnight sun (from April 12 toAugust 30) and, during the winter, 128
days of polar night (from October 19 toFebruary 23). Even during summer theangle of the sun ray spreads the limited
radiated energy over a large area. Further
cooling is caused by the high amount ofcloudiness. The sea starts to freeze inlate September and reaches its annual
maximum in March, at which time ninetyfive percent of the sea is ice-covered. The
ice starts to decrease in May and suffers
a major melting in June, with the minimum
occurring in August or early September.
ClimateDuring winter, high-pressure and clear
skies can send the temperature down to−40 °C. Frequent low-pressure weather
produces strong winds and precipitation,with spells when the temperature creeps up
to and above freezing. During such shifts,
the temperature can change by 20°C withinjust a few hours.
During summer the temperature is much
more uniform, averaging between 0°C and
3°C at Hayes Island. Fog is most common

during the summer and average annual
precipitation at the coastal stations is
between 100 and 150 millimetres, with thewettest months being from July throughSeptember.
Flora
More than 100 species of lichen are foundon the islands, as well as sixteen speciesof grass and about 100 species of algae.
Over fifty species of vascular plants havebeen recorded, the most common being
Arctic poppy and saxifrage, which groweverywhere. Common in wet areas are
alpine foxtail, buttercups and polar willow.

Source: Wikimedia

Fauna
Forty-one species of birds have been
documented in the archipelago, of which
fourteen breed. These are dominated byseabirds such as the fulmar and kittiwake,
which are common throughout thearchipelago, while seven other species,
including the purple sandpiper, Arctic skua,
glaucous gull, ivory gull, Arctic tern, snow
bunting and common eider prefer nesting
on ﬂat tundra.

Cape Tegethoff on Hall Island
Image: Polarstar / Wikimedia

There is a polar bear presence on Franz
Josef Land, and also a population of Arctic
foxes, which typically have their territories
near seabird habitats.
Marine Mammals
Being declared as a marine mammal
sanctuary, the islands have a richbiodiversity of rare marine mammals.
Three species of seals habit thearchipelago, the harp seal being themost common. Walruses, which wereformerly hunted, dramatically reducing
their numbers, have been internationallyprotected since 1952 and their populations
have since been on the increase, with
between one and three thousand now livingin the archipelago.

Cape Flora - Franz Joseph Land
Image: Christopher Michel

Minke whales, humpback whales, andbeluga whales are commonly seen around
Franz Josef Land, and less commonlyorcas and narwhales.
Human activity
Heiss Island - Franz Joseph Land
There is no infrastructure to support tourism
Image: Sergei Slepnev / Wikimedia
and the islands can only be reached bywalrus colonies, such as Cape Flora
icebreaker. The most frequent service
on Northbrook Island and Cape Rubini
is a three-week North Pole tour with a
Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker which on Hooker Island, as well as historicalremains such as Nansen’s hut on Jackson
stops by the islands. The most popularIsland.
destinations are areas with bird cliffs andhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Josef_Land
www.geo-web.org.uk

33

Mike Stevens submitted this fine Metop‑B image from August 11, 2015, which shows the Volga river snaking from the Rybinsk reservoir (at theextreme top left) towards the Caspian Sea. To its right you can see the remains of the Aral Sea, with its eastern lobe much reduced in extent.

34

Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

What a difference a week makes! In this Metop‑A image from August 19, 2015, also sent in by Mike
Stevens, you can see that the eastern lobe of the Aral Sea has been significantly replenished.
Image © EUMETSAT 2015www.geo-web.org.uk

35

This image from China’s latest satellite, Feng Yun‑2G, was sent in by Mike Stevens. To theright hand side you can see Category‑5 Typhoon Soudelor advancing towards Taiwan.
Image © EUMETSAT 201536

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

Enrico Gobbetti

On August 18 this year, an email from Enrico
Gobbetti, reported on a remarkable Meteor M2
image he had just received from his station in
Italy.
“This morning, I received from Meteor M-N2, on
Orbit 5759, at approximately 07:15 UT, a strange
image, which I think may be due to a technical problem
on the Meteor M2 satellite.”
It is clear that the satellite is not pointing towards
the nadir, but is skewed towards the limb of
Earth. After querying the situation with theRobonuca website (http://meteor.robonuka.ru/),
Oleg replied:“It was a small rotation of the spacecraft. This ishappening for the second time this month.”
So it seems that this was a brief, but planned
manoeuvre of the satellite, as this was the only
abnormal image received on that date. Imaging
returned to normal on the following pass.

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

3737

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

Thunderstorms forming over northwest France threaten England in this segment from the 09:31 UT Meteor M2 pass on August 16, 2015.

38

www.geo-web.org.uk

This colour composite image from China’s Feng Yun 2F satellite, acquired at 02:30 UT on August 21, 2015, includes two huge typhoons
traversing the western Pacific ocean. Typhoon Goni can be seen battering the Philippines, chased closely by Typhoon Atsani.

www.geo-web.org.uk

39

All to frequently, Norway’s Arctic island of Spitzbergen is hidden from view by cloud. But on July 9, 2015, a large window opened up in the clouddeck, revealing its intricate, glacier covered terrain to the MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite..

40

Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

A Book Review by Robert Moore
This is a book that almost any GEO
member will find interesting, but each may
read it in a different way. This volume is at
the same time an important contribution
to the history of science, an introduction
to the biographies of the pioneers of
meteorology and an insight into theintellectual life and personal relationshipsof the scientific establishment of 19th
century Britain. Above all, it is an accountof an heroic period in the developmentof meteorology and of the larger-than-life
figures who made it.
Most readers will be aware of how modern
our understanding of the weather is andhow relatively primitive our knowledge
was until late in the 19th century.
Alternative theories of weather and storms
led to fierce debates amongst leading
scientists in the UK, Europe and North
America. The Weather Experiment is richin biographical detail and in sketching theoutlines of these key scientific debates. To
this reviewer, two great seafarers standout above all others but many readers willfind the account of the early attempts to
explore the upper atmosphere interesting,amusing and hair-raising. In 1862, James
Glaisher and Henry Coxwell took ﬂight ina balloon: Glaisher took instruments hehad made for the purpose and Coxwell
managed the balloon. As they approached
29,000 feet (5.5 miles), Glaisher passedout but remained conscious enough to
see Coxwell, undoubtedly suffering fromhypoxia (oxygen starvation), climb outof the basket to free a valve that had
become tangled below the balloon. Bothlanded with the data and their lives. Thus
meteorology advanced!
Francis Beaufort was a distinguishednaval officer, rising to the rank ofAdmiral, being made Hydrographer
to the Navy and elected a member ofthe Royal Society. He is perhaps mostcommonly remembered for the Beaufort
Scale, an innovation which enables
seafarers the world over to use common
terminology, and thus exchange mutually
understandable information. But Beaufort
was also a meticulous surveyor andhydrographer. Under his supervision
the whole British coastline was charted
accurately. Furthermore, he recognised
the potential of the telegraph. It was
the rapid transmission of informationthat later made it possible to chart theweather and to give warnings of weather
hazards. Beaufort was a polymath and,according to Peter Moore, a kind of 19th
century Wikipedia. If you wanted to know
something: ‘Ask Beaufort’. The locationof Osborne House on the Isle of Wight
was the answer to a question addressed
to Beaufort by none less than Prince
Albert. All of these talents combinedwith administrative capabilities andpolitical skills made him a key figure in
the intellectual history of Britain and thedevelopment of meteorology.
Robert Fitzroy was Beaufort’s protégé.
Again, he is a man usually rememberedfor one thing: captaining the Beagle on
Darwin’s great voyage of discovery. But
it was Fitzroy’s expedition, not Darwin’s.
Fitzroy was making his own studies ofthe sea and the winds, while exploring
and charting the difficult coastlines atthe southern tip of the Americas. He kept
weather records during the voyage, andthroughout his career Fitzroy remained
an assiduous recorder and collector of
data; he recognised that in science there
is no substitute for data. He was also,
and perhaps remains, one of the greatest
seamen of all times, not least in that healways brought his ship and crew homesafely in conditions where others failed.
Parliament made Fitzroy a grant tostudy the winds. This he did, and one
outcome—made possible by the use of
the telegraph—was the development ofstorm warnings and the hoisting of cones
to warn coastal seafarers of imminent
dangerous weather. The disastrous
sinking of the SS Royal Charter on the
North Wales coast underlined the need forsuch warnings (and the better educationof ships’ captains). Many lives were saved
when the warnings were heeded, and lostwhen they were not. After Fitzroy’s death,
Parliament withdrew from the project.
Fitzroy’s original grant to study the winds
had been made in order to shorten sailingtimes to the Antipodes, not to save lives.
Samuel Plimsoll was to encounter similar
attitudes to the safety of life at sea.
Fitzroy, whilst a brilliant seaman, wasclearly a very ‘difficult’ character andnot an easy officer to serve under. He
was a prolific writer of reports and his
two books on weather, Barometer And
Weather Guide (published by the Boardof Trade in 1859) and The Weather Book:
A Manual of Practical Meteorology (1863)
remained in use for many years. The
latter was recently reprinted. Fitzroy also
www.geo-web.org.uk

invented the Fitzroy barometer; fallingpressure foretold deteriorating weather,and it was barometric data telegraphed
to Fitzroy that formed the basis of themeteorological analysis that was thentelegraphed out to ports and harbours.
Fitzroy founded the Meteorological Officein 1854.
Fitzroy’s later life was marked by abreach with Darwin and by Parliamentary
ridicule at the idea of predicting theweather (Beaufort had spoken in terms ofprobabilities, a concept lost on politicians
and newspaper editors). His coastal
cones were reinstated by demands
from seafarers and marine interests,
and his weather ‘forecasts’ appearedin The Times, mainly, it seems, for the
benefit of the horse-racing fraternity.
Fitzroy’s nemesis was Francis Galton, whocoined the term ‘anticyclone’, but is today
largely remembered with a mixture ofcontempt and mirth (I used some of his
work to illustrate lectures on how not to do
science). Does anyone remember Galton
today? Fitzroy, who died by his own hand,
has a mountain in South America named
after him, a road in Exeter and a verylarge chunk of the North Atlantic.
Reading or dipping into The Weather
Experiment will remind readers of theenormous debt we owe to the pioneers. I
wonder what Beaufort and Fitzroy would
have made of the imagery that we see
today thanks to EUMETSAT, NOAA andthe UKMO, and how they would haveenvied us the internet!
Recounting anecdotes from famous
lives cannot do justice to The Weather
Experiment, which is not only richly
populated with the famous figures of
19th century science and politics but
also with often heated scientific debates.
Like nearly all science, meteorology
did not develop by great men thinking
great thoughts in their book-lined studies
or laboratories, but through debate
and ferocious argument upon which
reputations often depended. Peter Moore
sets out the scientific foundations ofmeteorology that emerged from thesedebates.
Finally, I would like to point out that I am
not related to the author of this splendid
book, though it might have occurred tosome readers that I am a former seafarer.

41

GEO
GEO Quarterly
Quarterly No
No 47
47

The
The GroupGroup forfor Earth
Earth Observation
Observation

September
September 2015
2015

This splendid colour composite image was created by Mike Stevens, using the 06:30 UT data from
China’s Feng Yun 2F geostationary satellite, downloaded from EUMETCast, on September 3, 2015.
Image© EUMETSAT 201542
42

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 47

Enrico Gobbetti acquired this Meteor M2 LRPT image, showing excellent, cloud-free views of theBlack Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Caspian Sea on September 3, 2015.

www.geo-web.org.uk
www.geo-web.org.uk

43
43

André T’Kindt sent in this striking NOAA‑19 channel-2 APT image from the 13:50 ascending pass on September 8, 2015.
It shows the amazing diversity of weather across Great Britain: brilliant sunshine in the west but cloaking low cloud in the east.

44

www.geo-web.org.uk

André T’Kindt produced this HVCT+precipitation colour composite image from the same NOAA-19 pass reproduced on the previous page.

www.geo-web.org.uk

45

GEO Quarterly No 47

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2015

Front Cover
It’s the first day of July and summer has arrived over western Europe with a vengeance. Hot air funnelling up from North Africa andSpain gave many places their hottest July day ever. This is the scene as imaged from Russia’s Meteor‑M2 N1 satellite at 10:43 UT on
July 1, 2015. Later that day London experienced 36.7°C, Paris 39.7°C and Westdorpe in Zeeland Netherlands 36.5°C, all breaking
previous July records.
Image: Les Hamilton using RTL/SDR#/QPSK Demodulator v 1.4

Inside Front CoverThis 17:51 UT NOAA‑15 image from André T-Kindt shows the situation over western Europe on July 2, 2015, with a rainfall overlay
picking out thunderstorms generated by the high temperatures.
Inside Back Cover
Enrico Gobbetti acquired this NOAA‑19 HRPT image from his station in Italy at 13:18 UT on July 19, 2015. The entire Meditarraneanarea basks in sunshine, broken only by cloud over Morocco’s Atlas mountains and southeast Spain.
Back CoverThis splendid MODIS image, acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite on July 12, 2015, shows Ellesmere Island (the tenth largest in theworld) and Axel Heiberg Island in Canada’s northern province of Nunavut enjoying the height of summer. In the north of Ellesmere
Island, the Mountains of Grant Land still carry an ice cap almosr 900 metres deep, a remnant of the last Ice Age.

46

Image: LANCE Rapid Response/NASA/GSFC

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

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
This 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

GEO Quarterly No 47
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/

47

GEO Quarterly No 47

48

The Group for Earth Observation

www.geo-web.org.uk

September 2015

September 2015

The Group for Earth Observation

www.geo-web.org.uk

GEO Quarterly No 47

49