Group for Earth Observation

December 2014
Inside this issue . .
This 56-page issue marks amajor turning point in satellite
imaging: EUMETCast moves
to the new DVB-S2
dissemination format, andDirect Readout has beenrevitalised with the arrival of
Russia’s Meteor M2 satellite.
For EUMETCast users making
the essential switch to
DVB-S2, we have several
articles explaining all you
need to know: from dishrealignment, evaluatingreceivers, monitoring the newservice with MRTG, and areport from Nigel Heasman
who has already completed
the transition for his station.
The Meteor M2 satellite
launched last July brings a
new opportunity for Direct
Readout, for the first timeoffering high resolution LRPT
imagery. Raydel Abreu
Espinet’s headline article
delves into this new topic at
depth, and explains how,using an RTL-SDR dongle, itis perfectly feasible to capture
stunning images from thissatellite.

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There are reports on GEO
visits to Spacelink’s Activity
Day for Schools and to
AMSAT, as well as several
articles from NASA Earth
Observatory. There’s alsoa special centrefold ofimagery from the new
Meteor M N2 towhet yourappetite.

peEarth Observation and Weather Satellite Enthusiasts

44

Su

The Independent Amateur Quarterly Publication forGEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
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email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
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Les Hamilton
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

T

wo major, radical changes are taking place in the world of weather satellite
imaging. One has been anticipated for some time, the switch of EUMETCast
broadcasting to the new higher-rate DVB-S2 standard at the end of 2014. The
other, the arrival of Russia’s Meteor-M N2 satellite last July came very much out of
the blue to most of us. This 60 page GEO Quarterly dwells primarily on these two
events, and should provide you with all the help you need to update your satellite
experience, whether that be continuing with EUMETCast, taking up the challengeof LRPT reception from Meteor, or both.
efore the days of EUMETCast, this hobby involved a high degree of homebrew activity: constructing our own receivers, antennas and so forth to monitor
APT transmissions from the American NOAA and Russian Meteor satellites. Asa reminder of that era, we reproduce an image from the Meteor 3-05 satellite on
page 50. In the certain knowledge that the current NOAA satellites are the last of
their line, and that the Americans will not be launching any more satellites delivering
APT, momentum has swung inexorably towards EUMETCast in recent years. But
Meteor-M N2 is the ﬁrst of a projected ﬁve new accessible Russian orbiters
nce more, as Raydel Abreu Espinet explains in his seminal article startingon page 6, direct readout from weather satellites is again within reach of theamateur, and at minimal cost. The receiver is an RTL-SDR dongle which can bepurchased for under £10, and all the reception and processing software is free. If
you still possess an antenna for the 137 MHz band, you are set to go. This is theshot in the arm that our hobby has so badly needed for years.
inally, as you will read on page 3, this it the last printed copy of GEO Quarterly
you will receive—for a while at least. However, while economics havecompelled GEO to embrace electronic distribution, it is still our intention to provide
every subscriber with a ‘bumper’ paper magazine every December. So keep thecontributions coming in: the best could well appear in our Christmas Special issue
next year. A prosperous Festive Season to you all, and a healthy New Year.

B

O
F

Copy deadline for GEO Quarterly No 45 is Sunday, February 22, 2015
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
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 © 2014
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.

Contents
GEO Report
A Tale of Two Poles
Receiving Meteor M N2 with an RTL-SDR Dongle
Cover and Full Page Image Details
Testing PCIe 6925 and 6983 Cards for EUMETCast
Meteor M2 Images from India
Viewing Volcanoes from SpaceGEO Outreach: Spacelink Activity Day for Schools
Live HDTV Reception from the ISS
My Move to the EUMETCast DVB-S2 Basic Service
East African Ice Fields Revisited
Evaluating DVB-S2 Receivers for EUMETCast
Enrico Gobbetti’s Meteor-M N2 Showcase
EUMETCast DVB-S2: Making the transition
Volcanic Ash Covers New Britain
Meteor-M N2
Gonzalo stirs up Sediment around Bermuda
Letter from Australia
Sunglint
MRTG
NASA’s ISS-RapidScat
Satellite Status
Retreat of Alaska’s Yakutat Glacier
GEO at Amsat
EO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
Copy deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterly
GEO Membership Application FormGEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Raydel Abreu Espinet
Mike Stevens
Mahesh Vhatkar
Francis Bell
Francis Bell
Francis Bell
Nigel HeasmanPeter J Bradley
Alan Banks/David Taylor
Les Hamilton
David Taylor
NASA Earth Observatory
Les Hamilton
NASA Earth Observatory
David Williams
NASA Earth Observatory
David Taylor
Les Hamilton
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Francis Bell
Subscriptions
During the past six months, the GEO management team havebeen evaluating the benefits of receiving GEO Quarterly in electronic
format, compared with our traditional paper publication. Since
the formation of GEO about eleven years ago there have been
quantum leaps in the Internet and the availability of publishedmaterials in an electronic format. In parallel with this, there has
been the rapid escalating cost of postage within the UK, Europe
and the rest of the world.
Supported by the discussions at our last AGM, a decision has beentaken to issue GEO Quarterly in electronic (PDF) format, but thatthe December issue will also be supplied in the traditional printed
format. The electronic copies will be secure and not available
for general circulation, hence preserving the privileges for GEO
members.
In recognition of the savings made by electronic publication, we
have reduced the annual membership subscription to just £15 foreveryone. Members who have renewed recently at a higher rate
will not be penalised, as an appropriate money refund can be madeor their membership period extended.
Challenging Times
I think most of us would agree that we are experiencing challenging
times for the direct reception of Earth observation and weather
satellite images. EUMETCast is about to switch off its existing
S1 service that many of us have enjoyed for over ten years andcontinue only with the upgraded S2 VCM service using a different
satellite. The new Sentinel-1 satellite is now operational andproducing outstanding Earth images, while the latest Russian polar
orbiting satellite Meteor-M N2 (also known Meteor M2) is providing
live Earth images very similar to the established NOAA APT service
several time a day.
The consequences of EUMETCast’s switch from their establishedS1 service to the new S2 VCM signal protocol for the EUMETCast
service has occupied much of our time over the last year. Thosemembers who attended our Symposium at Leicester earlier in theyear will appreciate the background research GEO management
have undertaken trying to ensure continued reception of the new
EUMETCast service for our members.
At the time of writing there seem to be a number of receiver
brands able to cope with the new service, plus others on test withEUMETSAT. In the short term, because of their availability, the
GEO shop is selling the Ayecka receiver to our members, and ourthanks must go to those running our shop for their negotiations
with the Ayecka manufacturer which has resulted in our ability tobulk stock this item and sell it for a modest price. See the GEO
website and our advertisement if you are interested in buying thisreceiver. However, future years may see other receivers able tocope with the new EUMETCast standard becoming available, andwe will continue to evaluate these. Feedback from our members
will be invaluable during this process, so please keep in touch withus. For example, Mike Stevens article in GEO Quarterly 43 is very
informative, plus we have four Canadian Novra receivers being
evaluated by our members.
I have a fantasy that one day we will be able to use a cheap SDR
dongle for EUMETCast reception: perhaps the hardware exists
today and all we lack is the decoding software. Only time will tell
here.

2

Visit to Darmstadt and the EUMETSAT HQAt our symposium held in Leicester last April, the final part ofthe day was devoted to our GEO AGM. During the course of thismeeting, with about 50 members present, I was prompted to ask
if they would wish to have a third visit to EUMETSAT’s HQ in
Darmstadt, Germany. I was astonished by the positive responsewith almost everyone present voting for a Darmstadt visit in 2014.
GEO visited Darmstadt in 2007 and 2011, so the four year cycle
would continue if we again visited in 2015. The proposed date isThursday July 2, 2015 with a possible visit to ESRA the following
day. I have been in touch with EUMETSAT’s ‘User Services’, andour visit has been agreed, but we will have to wait until early next
year for the final confirmation of the date and any associatedprogramme connected with the visit. But the most important
point to note at this stage is to record this date in your diary if
you are interested in attending: Thursday July 2, 2014. Further
details relating to possible accommodation and registration will be
published on the GEO web site when details are available.
Meteor M2
I admit here that my knowledge relating to this satellite is in catchup mode because it was not until it had been in orbit for about twomonths that I learned about its origins and technical background.
My thanks here go to GEO members in Cuba, Italy and France,
who have brought me almost up to date with details relating to thereception and processing this satellite’s data. There are a numberof articles elsewhere in this Quarterly relating to Meteor.
The Russians have been running their own weather satellites foryears and, in the 1990s, I remember receiving images of Europe
from the early Meteor satellites which transmitted APT images on
137.30 and 137.85 MHz. Since then I seem to have lost touch with
Russian satellite programme until the recent news relating to theJuly launch of Meteor M2.
Meteor M2 is in a sun synchronous orbit with overhead passes
at about 9.30 am and 9.30 pm local time. The main downlink
frequency is 137.10 MHz, the same as NOAA 19. But the differenceis that Meteor M2 transmits digital signals whereas the previous
Russian and NOAA satellites all used the APT standard. It would be
beguiling to think that our existing receivers designed specifically for137.10 MHz would be able to receive the new Meteor M2 service.
Unfortunately this is not the case, because the digital Meteor
signal requires about four times the bandwidth compared with APT.
However, the good news is that there are available very cheap SDR
dongles and free software which can receive excellent Meteor M2
signals. I understand that there is also free software available fordecoding the signals into images. This is my next step as I haven’t
quite done this at home myself. It’s my next target.
For predictions of Meteor M2 passes I use the website
www.heavens-above.com

which can provide accurate predictions for anywhere in the world.
If you have not used this site before log on and register yourlatitude and longitude. Then go to the heading ‘Satellite Data Base’and type in ‘Meteor M2’. Click the ‘Update’ box and then select‘All Passes’. You will now be given a table with about ten daysof Meteor M2 passes for you location. Be careful with the times
because of daylight saving time changes and times zones, but if
your latitude and longitude are correct there should be no problem.
The further good news about the Russian Meteor programme iswww.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

the plan for it to continue for the foreseeable future, hence local
reception of weather satellite images using low-cost equipment
looks set to continue.
My reception of Meteor M2
has been achieved using the
RTL-SDR dongle that the
GEO shop are now selling asa package with several coax
connectors and two leads.
See the shop section of our
web site for more details.
I have used three different
crossed dipole antennasfor Meteor M2 reception,
the latest one being a newvery well engineered one
currently sold by AMSATUK (illustrated). I certainly
recommend this item
because of its performanceand engineering. Perhaps
in the future the GEO Shop
will offer this antenna but, inthe short term, if you wanta crossed dipole antenna for the reception of NOAA satellites andMeteor M2, plus coverage of the 145 MHz band where amateur
radio satellites can be found then visit the AMSAT-UK Shop.
The URL for the page in question is 86 characters long, andexcruciatingly difficult to type without making errors. The best way
to access it to start by visiting
http://shop.amsat.org.uk/

then select the following links in turn:• Click ‘Enter the shop’• Click ‘Funcube’• Click ‘FUNcube Telemetry Receive Antenna System’

Quarterly Question 43
I was slightly disappointed to receive only one response to the last
Quarterly Question which related to three images of the same area
taken by three different satellites which I had received at home. The
images were of the River Plate estuary on the east coast of SouthAmerica. I chose the question because I had visited this River
Plate area about three years ago. The image show two capitalcities which are on the north and south side of the river estuary:
namely Montevideo (Uruguay) on the north side and Buenos Airies(Argentina) on the south side. The battle of the River Plate which
took place in December 1939 and resulted in the sinking of theGerman pocket battleship Graf Spee. Some recovered parts fromthe Graf Spee are on display in Montevideo. Although correctly
seen as an allied victory there was damage the allied ships ‘Ajax’,‘Achilles’ and ‘Exeter’. Unfortunately HMS Exeter was later sunk but
a Japanese torpedo in February 1942 during the battle of the Java
Sea.
Here is the answer I received from our very supportive member
Elmar Bögels:“You gave me a good hint by telling that you were north of the
Falkland Islands, so the coastline should be the east side of SouthAmerica. The next hint was the sinking of a pocket battleship. I
knew that the pocket battleship ‘Admiral Graf Spee’ sank in SouthAmerica, so the rest was easy. After searching the internet I foundthat the ‘Admiral Graf Spee’ sank on the river Plate estuary. The
two capitals on the estuary are Montevideo in Uruguay and Buenos
Aires in Argentina.
Best regards, Elmar Bögels: The Netherlands
Quarterly Question No 44 appears on page 4.

David Anderson

At our last AGM a decision was taken to reduce
the number of printed GEO Quarterlies to one
per year from 2015.
As a result of this decision, the three UK/Europe/
Rest of World subscription rates were replacedwith a single subscription rate of £15 at the endof last September.
From 2015 onwards, the first three issues will
be available in electronic format only, and thefinal (December) issue being available in bothelectronic and paper format.
To receive future electronic issues, it will benecessary for you to have Internet accessand an email address. Prior to receipt of thisissue you should have received an email with
instructions on how to download the electronic
version of this issue. If you did not receive
such an email, this will either be because yourmembership record does not contain an email
address, or the email recorded is no longer
valid.
In these situations, it will be necessary for you
to notify the Membership Secretary of your email
address as soon as possible
This can be done by sending an email tomembers@geo-web.org.uk
quoting your name and address.
When future electronic issues become available,
you will be sent an email with downloading
instructions.

www.geo-web.org.uk

3

GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

Quarterly Question 44 relates to the live ISS image I
received at home in mid October 2014 via the website
www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

The image above shows an island in the Mediterranean
Sea which is about 240 kilometres long. I instantly took
an interest in this image because I recognised the island’scharacteristic coastal outline and the distinctive colour band
stretching across about one third of its centre because I havevisited it three times and know a little about its geology andhistory of human occupation.
The island’s geology indicates that the rocks from which
it is made were extruded from the Earth’s mantle while it
was several kilometre under the sea. Not on this island,but elsewhere, typical pillow-lavas formed by such volcanic
activity are still being extruded today on the floor of some ofthe deep oceans. Subsequent tectonic activity pushed thisisland above sea level but the form of the pillow-lavas andother geological features can still be recognised. In my tours
around the island I have seen at first hand some of thisgeological history.

4

December 2014

It is believed that the island was first occupied by humans in
the Neolithic period about 10,000 years ago. Around 2,500
BC, a new wave of immigration brought new technologies tothe island and marked its transition into the Bronze Age. A
valuable metal in the rocks which form the central Troodos
Mountains accounts for some of the island’s wealth fromabout 2,300 BC almost up to the present day.
Politically, the island has been dynamic for over 3,000 years,
and this continues to the present day, with the British havingsome hand in this. Recently, however, the island’s underlaying geology and mineral wealth remain constant.
This Quarterly Question is to name the island in question(that should be easy), but also to identify the valuable metalfound in the Troodos Mountain’s rocks. As usual there is aclue in the above text, this time metallic, limiting the answer
to only one of two possible metals.
Please submit your answer to Francis Bell, by email, before
the copy deadline to the next Quarterly: February 22, 2015.

www.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

NASA Earth Observatory
Arctic sea ice continued its long-term decline during 2014,
reaching its annual minimum extent on September 17.
According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center(NSIDC), Arctic sea ice covered just 5.02 million square
kilometres (Mkm2) this summer, an extent similar to 2013
and well below the 1981–2010 average of 6.22 Mkm2. The
2014 sea ice extent was the sixth lowest recorded in themodern satellite era.
The summer started off as a relatively cool one, and lacked
the big storms and persistent winds that can break up theice and thereby increase its rate of melting. Even though
2014 was a relatively cool year, the ice is now muchthinner than it used to be, another factor that makes it more
susceptible to melting.
The Northwest Passage remained ice-bound all summer,
though a patch of open water reached 85°N of Siberia in theLaptev Sea, the farthest north that open ocean water has yet
been observed during the satellite era.

Figure 1 - Arctic sea ice on September 17, 2014.

While summer sea ice has covered more of the Arctic in thepast two years than it did at the time of the 2012 record low,
this does not mean that the Arctic is returning to average
conditions. This year’s minimum extent fits into a long
downward trend in which the Arctic Ocean has lost about
13% of its sea ice per decade since the late 1970s.
To measure sea ice extent, scientists include areasthat are at least 15% ice-covered in a NASA-developed
computer program. This is just one of several methods in
use to calculate extent, and is based on data from sensors
on NASA’s Nimbus 7 satellite (which operated from 1978
to 1987) and the US Department of Defense’s Defense
Meteorological Satellite Program, which has provided information
since 1987.
Figure 1 shows the extent of Arctic sea ice on September
17, 2014. This map is based data from the Advanced
Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor
on Japan’s Global Change Observation Mission 1st-Water(GCOM-W1) satellite. The yellow outline on the map shows
the median sea ice extent observed in September from 1981
through 2010.
Meanwhile, sea ice around the opposite pole of the planet
has headed in the opposite direction. Figure 2, also basedon data from the AMSR2 sensor, shows Antarctic sea ice on
September 19, 2014. While it has not yet been possible todetermine whether the ice had reached its maximum extent
for the year, the five-day average had, according to NSIDC,
already surpassed 20 Mkm2 for the first time in the modern
satellite record.
According to Nathan Kurtz, a cryospheric scientist at NASA’s
Goddard Space Flight Center, this is not unexpected, as
many climate models actually predict a short-term increasein Antarctic sea ice. Factors like increasing fresh water andhigher wind speeds are known to promote ice growth andexpansion, and these appear to be dominating right now. In
the long-term, increasing near-surface air temperatures are
expected to have the stronger effect and begin to melt theice and halt the expansion. Nevertheless, the overall trendof sea ice expansion in the Antarctic is only a third of themagnitude of the decrease in arctic sea ice.

Figure 2 - Antarctic sea ice on September 19, 2014.

Antarctic sea ice develops and evolves under vastly different
circumstances than Arctic sea ice. In the north, sea ice sits in anearly land-locked ocean, while in the southern hemisphere it
exists in an open ocean surrounding an extensive land mass. This
geography affects how the ice expands and retreats in response to
climate, leading in part to the differing scenarios at the two poles.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using data from the Advanced Microwave
Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensor on the Global Change Observation Mission
1st-Water (GCOM-W1) satellite.

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Raydel Abreu Espinet, CM2ESP, Havana, Cuba (cm2esp@gmail.com)
Recently, on July 8, 2014, the latest Russian polar-orbiting weather
satellite was launched. It is Meteor-M N2, which came with new
upgrades and some fixes learned from its predecessor, Meteor-M N1,
as well as with improved radiometers and new technologies to betested.
Similar to the N1 spacecraft (no longer operational), Meteor-M N2transmits all six channels obtained by its radiometers in HRPT
format on 1700 MHz. However, the frame format is different fromother HRPT satellites, so a suitable decoder is required. Alongsidewith these HRPT transmissions, there is also an LRPT (Low Rate
Picture Transmission) digital downlink in the 137 MHz band, theprimary channel on 137.100 MHz and the secondary one on
137.900 MHz.
From the six available channels (three visual and three infrared),
the ground control can select a combination of three to be sent on
the LRPT VHF downlink. A special unit called the LRPT Adapter
takes 8 scan lines from the HRPT raw data from each of thechosen three channels, and applies a JPEG compression algorithm
to create a packet structure which is then digitally transmitted
at a pre-established speed of 72 or 80 kiloSymbols per second.
Unfortunately, this unit is of a new design—slightly different from theone previously flown in Meteor-M N1—and it exhibits a failure which
produces data dropout at equal time intervals (usually 6.5 minutes).
This is seen as white bands in the received LRPT pictures, though
this trouble does not affect the HRPT data. Finally, the LRPT
signal is QPSK modulated, and a 5-watt transmitter feeding a QFH(Quadrifilar Helicoidal) antenna broadcasts it to direct readout users
on the ground.
However, due to the digital nature of the signal, an analogue FM
receiver such as those used for APT is not suitable to receive
this new satellite. Previous satellites, like Metop-A, have flown
with LRPT transmitters, but the Russian LRPT format, although
based on Metop’s LRPT structure, is not exactly the same: so
professionals decoders designed for Metop LRPT cannot be used
for Meteor-M N2.
A technology named SDR (Software Defined Radio) can, however,be used to replicate part of the typical hardware. This system may
be easily programmed and adapted to multiple kinds of signal.
During the time of Meteor-M N1, software applications were
designed to decode its transmissions. These programs could readquadrature recordings from WAV files obtained from any suitable
SDR hardware, and then demodulate the signals and extract theimages. But as the Meteor-M N2 LRPT format is slightly different,
the pictures obtained are not perfect. The program, actually a
combination of experimental tools, is therefore not suitable forfully decoding Meteor-M N2 transmissions. However, one of thesetools, LrptRx.exe, can still be used to extract the QPSK constellation
coordinates. These coordinates are known as Soft-Symbols.
Another satellite enthusiast, Oleg Bekrenev, developed his
own program, LRPTOffLineDecoder, which reads a soft-symbol
input file and processes it to extract the images, specifically for
Meteor-M N2. This program can also combine the three visible
channels to produce a colour composite image, a very useful way
to obtain some resemblance to true colour RGB imagery.
How, then, can we actually proceed to receive Meteor-M N2 signalsthat can be processed with Oleg’s decoder?

6

Receiving the LRPT Signals
Well, there are two approaches. One is based on existing Windows
software and includes many different steps; another proceduremakes use the free Open Source software platform named
GNU-Radio and the Linux environment. Many users unfamiliar with
the Linux operating system may initially be afraid to try the second
approach, but as we are going to see during this article, the Linuxprocedure is actually easier, simpler and faster.
For the Windows procedure, almost any SDR device can be used,
as long as its bandwidth is enough to handle the almost 100 kHz
wide signals from the LRPT downlink, and its software supports
base-band WAV file recordings.
Many different types of SDR hardware can be used to record
Meteor-M N2 signals prior to its processing. As far as this author
knows, the FunCubeDongle Pro+, SDR-IQ, and Perseus-SDR
have all been used successfully. But we are going to focus in one
particular kind of SDR hardware, the cheap RTL-SDR dongle basedon the RTL2832U chip.
The RTL-SDR Dongle
This low-priced dongle was designed for DVB-T digital TV
reception, connection to a PC being done using a USB port.
However, it was later discovered that dongles based on the
RTL2832U chip can be commanded to stream raw I/Q data to ahost application and therefore be used as a simple and inexpensive
SDR receiver. The use of these devices for amateur weather
satellite images in the APT domain has been discussed previously
in GEO-Quarterly 40 and 41. But with Meteor’s LRPT transmissions
marking the arrival of the ‘digital age’ for direct readout users, thisdongle has come to the fore once again.
In order to obtain images from the Meteor-M N2 LRPT downlinkwith an RTL-SDR dongle there are two steps: first, receive andrecord the transmission; second, process the recording to extract
images. The second step is common to whichever procedure you
have chosen to record the signal.

Step One: Recording with RTL-SDR under Windows

There are many diverse software packages compatible with
RTL-SDR, but SDRSharp [1] is probably the simplest and mostintuitive. Installing and configuring SDRSharp is not included here,
but much information may be found on-line, as well as in my article
published in GEO Quarterly No 40.
Due to the internal characteristics of the RTL-SDR dongle, thebest results are obtained when using sample-rate values between
0.900 Msps and 2.0 Msps, 1.024 Msps being a good, balanced
value. In slow computers 0.900 Msps can be a better choice.
It is recommended to use off-set tuning to avoid any DC spike, as
well to avoid any loss of information derived from the I/Q imbalance.
Choosing a manual gain value and disabling AGC (Automatic Gain
Control) also allows getting better results. The best gain value
depends of the dongle’s tuner, the antenna, and the surrounding
environment. To overcome the poor sensitivity and selectivityof the RTL-SDR dongle, installing a mast-mounted, properly
tuned preamplifier with associated band-pass filter is a goodidea. However, in low-noise and interference-free locations, witha good quality antenna, the satellite’s downlink may be strong
enough at least near TCA (time of closest approach). Of course,

www.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

in locations suffering from heavy in-band interference, the use ofa preamp can make matters a lot worse. Frequency calibration is
not really required as long as the frequency difference does notexceed 5 kHz. But if you need to adjust it, the best way is to use areference station of known frequency, and change the ppm until thedisplayed frequency of the station matches the closest to its true
value.
Always be sure that
‘Correct IQ’ is selected
and enabled on the Radio
Panel in the left hand
section of SDRSharp.

GEO Quarterly No 44

small fraction of it contains the Meteor‑M N2 signal: the rest isjust noise or other unwanted signals, so some sort of filtering isrequired. To do so we are going to perform a type of Low-Pass
Filter, which means reducing the sample-rate of the WAV file
to remove the unwanted higher frequency components. When
handling quadrature recordings, the centre of the recorded
spectrum is represented by lower frequencies and the edges byhigher frequencies. If we reduce the sampling-rate to 130 kHz,
we are going keep only a band-span of such value, which will bemostly occupied by the desired Meteor‑M N2 signal, and only asmall portion of it being noise.
There are plenty of audio handling tools which may be used, but
Audacity [2] is a simple, free program, and it can be installed or used
as a ‘stand-alone’ application.

Prior to attempting arecording, several passes
should be studied in order
to find the optimal gain
values and configurations.
To successfully receive
data, the satellite
downlink should havea signal to noise levelexceeding 15 dB, andsolid decoding is obtained
above 20 dB.

To resample the audio with Audacity, first load the WAV file into it.
You will find at the program’s bottom-left corner a textbox labelled‘Project Rate Hz’ which indicates the current sampling rate of
the WAV file. Click on it and change this value to ‘130000’ (i.e.
130 kHz), and then press the ENTER key. Now save the file byopening the File Menu and clicking on ‘Export’. Select ‘WAV Signed 16
bit PCM’ as the file format, change the file name if desired, and click‘Save’. Figure 3 shows Audacity with a typical Meteor‑M N2 WAV
file after the resampling process. You can now discard and delete
the original file because only the resampled version is needed.

There is no need to
Figure 1
perform any sort of
The SDRSharp RTL-SDR configuration
frequency correction
window, showing a typical configuration
due to the Doppler effectsuitable for both LRPT and APT. Off-set
because the carrier
tuning is selected, AGC is disabled and therecovery and tracking
Gain value was adjusted to get the best SNR
algorithm in the QPSK
without over-loading.
demodulation process,which will be explained later, will sweep and lock into the signal,and follow it as it shifts in frequency.
Once we have everything ready to record, one importantelement which cannot be forgotten is to select 137.100 MHz (or137.900 MHz if the secondary transmitter is active instead) as the‘centre frequency’: the VFO frequency is not important.
In order to do this, perform a ‘left‑click’ over the
spectrum panel (not the waterfall), and keep holding
the mouse button down. Now drag the mousepointer left or right and a small label will appear next
to it indicating the ‘centre frequency’. When thisshows the correct value, release the left-click button.
Figure 2 (next page) shows the main SDRSharp window, with theMeteor-M N2 LRPT downlink at the centre of the spectrum.
Because we are going to record the received RF signal andthe entire spectrum, we don’t have to worry about which audio
demodulator is selected. Volume is not important either.
Proceed now to the Recording plug-in on the left panel, select‘Baseband’, leave ‘Audio’ unmarked and select ‘8 bit PCM’ as the
sampling format. The RTL2832U chip’s internal ADC (Analogue to
Digital Converter) has only 8 bit resolution, so recording at higher
values will simply consume higher space on your hard-disk without
any improvement in quality.
Wait until a Meteor‑M N2 pass begins and, after the signal has
exceeded the 10 dB SNR value, start the recording. Once thesignal has dropped or the satellite pass ended, stop the recording.
SDRSharp may be closed now if desired, because there is no needfor it until the next pass. The plug-in usually stores the recorded
WAV file in the SDRSharp folder.
Processing the WAV File
Before starting to process the recorded WAV file, you must
‘condition’ it. Because we recorded the entire pass-band, only a

Next in the requirements is to process the WAV file to demodulate
the QPSK transmission and extract the ‘soft-symbols’. For thispurpose we are going to use one of the original tools designed for
Meteor‑M N1, the program LrptRx.exe, which can be downloadedfromhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/
qq1fjyitpa3j14o/software.zip

as a file called software.zip, which contains three programs: but
only LrptRx.exe is needed. This software can read the WAV file andprocess it: the program’s output is later analysed by Oleg’s decoder
to create the image.
LrptRxThe interface of LrptRx is quite complex, but there are only a few
parameters which need to be adjusted. First, go to the left section
and open the WAV file at the ‘Input Filename’ box. Although notessential, you can change the output filename and its location,otherwise the program will simply store it on drive C:\ of your hard
drive, with the indicated name. Right between the two boxes there
is a check mark labelled ‘I/Q Swap’. It is essential to enable this.
Now hit the ‘Run’ button and manually move the progress slider
to its mid-point, where the signal should be the best. If you obtaina well defined 4‑dots constellation, each dot at the centre of its
quadrant, everything is OK. Close the program, re-open it andprocess the entire file.
If the constellation instead looks like an ‘X’ or a square, trychanging the symbol rate from 72000 to 80000 (in the Symbol
Loop configuration panel). If the constellation is now achieved with
4 dots, then the satellite is transmitting on 80 K. Close the programand adjust to this value prior to processing the file. It is important
to know that, when the end of the file has been reached, LrptRx willcontinue to run forever unless you manually stop it; so keep an eye
on the progress slider and manually click on ‘Stop’ as soon as theprocess is complete, and close the program. You can see LrptRx in
operation in figure 5 on page 10, with a good-quality constellation(4 green dots) showing in the square window at centre right.

Step 2: Decoding the Soft Symbol file into Images

Now that the symbol extraction is complete, we can proceed tothe imaging step. As mentioned earlier, in order to process a soft
symbol file and extract the images sent in LRPT format, we need
Oleg Bekrenev’s LRPTOffLineDecoder [5]. It is highly recommended touse the latest version published on his website.

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Figure 2 - The SDRsharp window with the Meteor-M N2 LRPT downlink at the centre of the spectrum.

Figure 3 - A view of Audacity and a WAV recording of Meteor-M N2 after the re-sampling process

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Open Oleg’s decoder and proceed to click on either the ‘72K’ orthe ‘80K’ button, depending on which speed the satellite was using.
Normally it should be 72K. The program now asks for the file toopen, browse and look for the .RAW file generated by LrptRx. If you
cannot immediately see this file in the browser panel, select ‘All *.*’
in the file type filter dialogue, and the program will show all the files
in the specified folder. Figure 6 shows LRPTOffLineDecoder during
processing, with images building up.
Right after opening the file, the program will start processing it andthe constellation points will be shown as a reference. There are
two progress bars: the upper one indicates the current positionin the file, while the lower one shows the status of the internalbuffer. Under normal conditions the buffer indicator should be full,or almost full, until the end of the file, and it should take around
one second of processing to decode 20 seconds of data. But theamount of time required does depend of the data quality. It may
take up to 2 minutes to process a typical 12‑minute pass. The
process can be aborted any time just by clicking at the ‘Stop’ button
which will be disabled when processing is complete.

GEO Quarterly No 44

Next, you require a program named Universal USB Installer [4] which
will allows you to install the Linux system on the pen-drive. Connect
the empty flash-drive and run the installer program. It first asks
you to agree with its terms of use, so click the ‘I Agree’ button
to proceed. In the following window, first select ‘Ubuntu’ from thedrop-down list then click the ‘Browse’ button and select the ISO
file previously downloaded. Next, select the drive letter of the flash
drive where you are going to make the installation. Enable the‘Format’ check box and move the slider to create a ‘persistence
file’ which will store changes made during operation; otherwise
any configuration will be lost after reboot. This file should not be
too big or Linux will run slowly. A recommended size is between
500 - 1000 MB. Finally, select ‘Create’ and wait for the installation
process (which will take several minutes) to run. Once completed,
you can run Linux any time you want just by configuring yourcomputer to boot from the USB port while the Linux flash drive isconnected.

LRPTOffLineDecoder only allows you to save single images derived
from the output of the combination of three channels. Therefore, if
you want to save a colour RGB image, you must select the desiredchannel for each colour and then click on the Generate RGB button.
If the transmitted images were the three visual channels, they arechosen by default; otherwise you will need to assign a channel toeach colour using the RGB selection panel.
If you want to save an individual channel in grayscale, just selectthat same channel for R, G and B. This channel selection andimage manipulation can be done many times without the need toreprocess the file again. When you press the Generate RGB button,a preview window will be shown, where you can inspect the outputof the colour composite process. If you want to write this image
to your hard disc, it is essential that you click ‘Save’ at the top left
corner of this frame. The picture will be saved in BMP format, in thesame folder as the input file. The composite output preview window,
showing an RGB colour composite from the three visual channels
is shown in figure 7. The two white bands are caused by a defect in
the LRPT Adapter unit aboard Meteor M N2.
Whether decoding takes place successfully or not, several log files
will be written in the same folder for debugging purposes. Thesefiles are not needed and can be deleted unless you need to inspectthem to troubleshoot decoding issues.

Figure 4 - Universal USB Installer main window with parameters selected

However, the Meteor-M LRPT receiving program is not included in
the Linux system and you have to download the LRPT Soft-Symbol
Receiver fromhttps://www.dropbox.com/s/8kc89wriludrrb8/meteor_qpsk_rx_rtl.zip

Decoding Revisited

Provisionally, store this on the computer’s hard-disk (not on theLinux flash drive): later, it will be copied into Linux (see later).

Users unfamiliar with the Linux environment usually think it may
be just too difficult to use and install. But luckily, the GNURadio
community [3] has compiled a preconfigured version which
already possesses all the required dependencies, and which canbe installed in an empty flash drive without the need to change
anything on your computer: not even installing it on the hard-disk.

Now, turn off your computer and connect both your RTL-SDR
dongle and the Linux flash drive. Turn the power on again andconfigure your PC to boot from USB. Depending of your motherboard manufacturer and model, different key combinations may berequired, so check your PC’s instruction manual if you are unsure
how to do this.

The symbol-extraction program currently available for Linux is a
modified version made by the author, based on a decoding script
originally written by Martin Blaho. The great advantage of thismethod is that the three stages done under Windows—recording,resampling and symbol extraction—are all done simultaneously,
in real time, during the satellite pass. So we reduce the amountof time and effort by a factor of three. Just run the program at the
beginning of the pass, then close it and copy the output file forsubsequent processing. No other step is needed other than toadjust PLL tracking sensitivity and the common RTL parameters.

If everything is correct, Linux will start loading from the USB flash
drive; when completed, you will find yourself at the Ubuntu/Linux
desktop. Now you must copy the receiving program (temporarily
stored on the PC hard-disk) into Linux. Look at the left panel of the
Ubuntu desktop and click the second button from the top (the one
with the file cabinet icon). This will launch the File Explorer, which
is very similar to Windows Explorer. Access your hard-disk andcopy the receiving program (the .PY file) and paste it into the ‘Home’folder. You only have to do this once, because it will be stored in
the persistence file on the pen-drive and can be easily accessed
through a short-cut icon that will be created later.

A simpler faster alternative using LinuxYou will need a USB flash drive with a capacity of at least
4 Gigabytes. Make sure it is empty because it will be formatted
and all data on it will be lost. The Linux operating system can be
downloaded from this URL:
http://downloads.gnuradio.org/releases/gnuradio/iso/Just, look for the most recent file with the ‘.ISO’ extension.

Testing the Receiving Program
To successfully decode any signal from Meteor-M N2, you mustfirst test the LRPT Soft-Symbol Receiver program and your RTL-SDR
dongle under the Ubuntu/Linux environment. It is important to adjust
the proper RF gain values and the frequency correction parameter.
Return to the left panel and click on the third icon from top, whichwww.geo-web.org.uk

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Figure 5 - LrptRx in operation and showing a good quality constellation (4 green dots in the square window at centre right)

Figure 6 - LRPTOffLineDecoder during the processing of a file, decoding images for channels 1, 2 and 3.

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GEO Quarterly No 44

will launch the ‘Terminal’. Now type in the following (without the quotes):“python meteor_qpsk_rx_rtl.py”
and press ‘Enter’. If everything is correct, the program will launch. Tune toa known frequency and adjust the gain value and the frequency correction
for best results. Take a note of the required values (i.e. write them down
somewhere) and close the program. You should be back at the Terminal. Now
type in the following line again“python meteor_qpsk_rx_rtl.py --gainrf XX.X --freqcorrect YY”
where ‘XX.X’ is the proper gain value you have just found (42.1, for instance)and ‘YY’ is the frequency correction ppm value (62, for example). Next time you
run the receiving program, it will use these values. Check that those numbers
are OK, and keep that line in mind, because you will need it to create the shortcut.
Creating the Desktop Short-Cut
The short-cut also only needs to be created the first time: in subsequent boots,
all you need do is to double-click on the short-cut and the receiving program
will launch.
You need to open a text editor program to write the instructions. Go to the left
panel, click the third icon from the top again, type ‘gedit’ into the Terminal andpress Enter. A simple text editor, very similar to Window’s Notepad will launch.
Type in the following lines:#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Meteor-M N2 Rx
Exec=python meteor_qpsk_rx_rtl.py --gainrf XX.X --freqcorrect YY
Categories=Development;
MimeType=application/gnuradio-grc;
Icon=gnuradio-grc
If you now hover the mouse pointer over the top edge of the screen, the File
Menu will appear. Proceed to save the file by selecting Desktop from the left
hand menu as its location so that the short-cut can be found easily. Write‘Meteor-Rx.desktop’ into the ‘Name’ field as the filename, and click the ‘Save’
button at bottom right on the screen. Close the text editor and check if the new
file is now present on the Desktop (where it should appear as ‘Meteor-M N2
Rx’). Right-click on it, go to ‘Properties’ and open the ‘Permissions’ tab and clickthe ‘Execute’ check mark to ‘Allow executing file as program’. Click the ‘Close’
button to apply this change.Now you can double-click on it and check thatthe receiving program launches normally (be patient - it usually takes several
seconds to appear).
Once you have carried out this procedure, all you have to do when you want
to receive a Meteor-M N2 pass is to boot your PC from the flash drive, and assoon as the Ubuntu Desktop has loaded, double-click on this short-cut to run
the LRPT Soft-Symbol Receiver program.

Figure 8 - The spectrum inspection tab of the Meteor-M LRPT

receiving program, with a Meteor-M N2 signal present.

Figure 7 - The image composite output preview
window, showing an RGB colour composite createdfrom the three visual channels.

Figure 9 - A well defined and properly decoded 4-dot QPSK

constellation displayed in the PLL Demodulator tab.

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Recording Meteor .s Files
Every time the LRPT Soft-Symbol Receiver program is run it createsa file on the Desktop with extension ‘.s’. During your series oftests, several of these ‘.s’ files will already have been created.
Delete them, because ‘.s’ files will not be needed unless a real
Meteor-M N2 pass has been received.

concerned, select ‘Properties’ at the foot of the pop-up menu, openthe ‘Sharing’ tab, and click the ‘Share’ button.

When receiving an LRPT signal, initially check the Receiver tab
which shows the incoming spectrum (figure 8). The Meteor-M N2
signal will become stronger as the satellite approaches, and oncethe signal-to-noise ratio is above 10 dB, go to the PLL modulator
and Clock sync tab which shows the constellation (figure 9). If it
is properly formed by its four distinctive dots, even if these are
spread out, you are getting a good copy of the LRPT downlink. If
it looks like a circle, increase the PLL-Alpha value slightly until theconstellation forms, then decrease it back to its minimum (1m) anddon’t change it again. Near the end of the pass, when the signal
is too low and the constellation is not forming any more, you canclose the program.

That’s all: Receiving in Linux is fast and simple. Just executethe program during a pass then copy the file to your hard-disk,
reboot into Windows, and extract the received images using
Oleg’s LRPTOffLineDecoder, which recognises ‘.s files’. This step of
the process is exactly the same as that described above for a
Windows PC.

The decoded file will be stored on the desktop with a name similar
to ‘meteor_LRPT_date_timelocal.s’. You need to move this file to
the PC hard-disk so that it can be accessed from Windows, so rightclick on it and select ‘Cut’. Then open Ubuntu File Explorer, andpaste the file into a desired location on the hard drive.
Note: In some computers, in order to be able to transfer files in thisway, you must first of all enable the Windows folder to which you
are copying the file for sharing. Do this while in Windows, and before
you boot into Ubuntu/Linux.To do this, right-click on the folder

Front CoverThis image, acquired by Raydel Abreu Espinet from an early test
transmission by Russia’s new Meteor-M N2 satellite (launched on
July 8 this year) shows Hurricane Odile over the coast of Mexico,
on September 13. It is a colour composite image created by
combining channels 1, 2 and 3.
Inside Back CoverMike Stevens captured this image of New Zealand fromEUMETCast’s Metop-A data stream on September 28 this year,
using his new TBS-6983 DVB-S2 Tuner.
Image © EUMETSAT 2014
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS
Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Back CoverDavid Taylor sent in this Metop-A image showing Typhoon Phanfone
churning towards China and South Korea on October 4, 2014.

Note that leaving too many of these files on the Linux Desktop will
eventually cause the free space in the persistence file of the flash
drive to run out (which is why the ‘cut’ method is recommended).

Conclusions

During this article we have explored two methods of successfullyreceiving the digital LRPT downlink from the new Meteor-M N2
satellite. Although we were focused on the cheap RTL-SDR dongle
as a receiving hardware front-end, the Windows procedure canbe applied to other types of SDR devices, as well as other SDR
software. The alternative Linux method is only compatible with RTL
dongles (so far), but provides a faster and simpler method once wehave achieved the slightly difficult first boot and configuration stage.
References
1
2
3
4
5

http://sdrsharp.com/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://gnuradio.org/
http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/
http://meteor.robonuka.ru/soft/

Page 37
This channel-1 MODIS image acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite on
October 11, 2014 shows category-5 cyclone Hudhud, the strongestof the season, crossing India’s east coast. Three-quarters of amillion people were evacuated from coastal areas in advance of thestorm, which hit with sustained winds of over 150 kph, and gusts
up to 205 kph, causing 24 confirmed deaths within Andhra Pradesh
and estimated damage of US$1.63 billion.
Image: NASA/GSFC/LAADS Web

Page 38
This just a small part of an RGB123 colour composite image
acquired from Meteor M2 on October 27, 2014 by Jeff Kelly, anotheractive member on GEO-Subscribers. The 1-kilometre per pixel
resolution of this LRPT image shows the folded terrain of theAppalachian Mountains in wonderful detail.

Image © EUMETSAT 2014

Page 19
Alex, a Dutch member on GEO-Subscribers YAHOO! Group,
who posts as ‘Happysat’, sent us this splendid RGB123 colour
composite Meteor M2 image dating from 11:21 UT on September 2,
2014, the very first LRPT image he obtained from this satellite.
Centrefold (between pages 28-29)
To celebrate the arrival of Russia’s new Meteor M2, we haveincluded a centrefold dedicated to imagery from this LRPT satellite.
Many of the images have ben made available by members of the
GEO-Subscribers YAHOO! Group, and we are grateful to them for
permitting them to be reproduced here.
Page 31
Andre T’Kindt captured this NOAA-18 channel-2 APT image of theformer Hurricane Bertha at 13:53 UT on August 11, 2014. Whatis particularly revealing is the extent to which it extended into
continental Europe.

12Page 39
This a section from another Meteor M2 image from Alex, acquired on
October 28, 2014. Stretching from Denmark to the Mediterranean,
you can easily make out the Danish island of Sjaelland, the River
Elbe as it flows from Hamburg to the North Sea, the Frisian Islandsin the Wadden sea to the northwest of the Netherlands and, mostspectacularly, the ranges and passes of the Alps.
Page 40
With the recently launched Meteor-M N2 satellite currently hitting
the headlines, here’s a look back in time to one of its precursors,
Meteor 3-05. This image was acquired on September 2, 2002, when
the satellite was already eleven years old, and shows unusually finerendition of western Europe. The visible light sensor aboard thissatellite was specifically designed to highlight clouds, snow and ice,
rather to the detriment of land detail.

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Mike Stevens
the receivers to receive the DVB-S2 VCM
Transmissions of weather satellite data.
TBS-IP Tools has been upgraded after
having had some of the kinks taken out of
it. Formerly, it was not possible to change
the system IP Address, which was locked
in at 10.100.10.10. With the latest software
you can, allowing you to insert the familiar
192.168.238.238. As you can see in figure 1,
you are now able to see all the Active PID’s
without the fear of a system crash, and SNR/BER now works correctly.

Since my last article on testing TBS PCIe
Cards, there have been several updates todrivers and software, making some of theillustrations and information out of date. For
this I fully apologise, but things have moved
faster than anticipated, and TBS Support
have been very proactive in helping to put
things right.
The TBS-6925 PCIe Card
The TBS-6925 tuner card has, in myexperience, turned out to be a very good
product once updated software was installed,
and now performs excellently on my PC.
Other users have also been impressedwith its performance, particularly when
we remember that this unit was originallydesigned for Satellite HD/SD TV use, not
EUMETCast reception. We have been luckythat TBS Support, with the help of a numberof members, including myself, have assisted
in live trials of the units to get us where weare today. This now offers enthusiasts a real
choice of a less expensive tuner than thoseoriginally recommended by EUMETSAT.
The TBS-5925 USB Tuner
The TBS-5925 tuner is the USB version of
the above, and although some members
are operating them satisfactorily, it has
had some problems. As I write this we arestill in the middle of sorting them out. The
biggest problem is the Blue Screen of Death(BSOD), which is totally unacceptable forserious EUMETCast reception. During
my own test for TBS Support, I also
experienced this, but using a program called‘WhoCrashed’, I have been able to obtain acrash dump that I will send to Support, andI am hopeful that this will enable them toidentify the problem. I hope to have more totell you on that unit next.
The TBS-6983 PCIe Dual-Tuner Card
The ‘New Kid on the Block’ is the TBS6983 Dual Tuner PCIe card, one of which
I have working in my PC, and to date it isperforming extremely well. This unit is not yeton the market as full production has only juststarted. When we originally started testing
there where a few problems with software,
which I and other testers highlighted to
Support. The MODCODES would not stay inproperly, and the SNR/BER did not function

Figure 1 - The TBS Data Services Screen

correctly. However, new updates sooncorrected these defects. I also had a problem
with one of the tuners it would not unlock,so Support replaced it for me: the new unit
now works perfectly. On the plus side, I havenot suffered from any ‘rain fade’, even during
the heavy periods of rain which we recently
experienced. This is probably due to mygeographical position on the south coast andthe use of a one metre dish.
The Testing Programme
These new products have given users and
TBS Support quite a roller coaster ride, notaltogether surprisingly when you realise thatnone of these units was originally designed
for EUMETCast reception. The TBS-6983,
for instance, was originally designed forSatellite SD/HD TV, allowing you to watch
one channel while recording another.
But TBS Support realised they could be
adapted, and several users throughout
Europe, myself included, were fortunate
to be selected to participate in a testing
programme. We soon became aware of anumber of software bugs and reported theissues to TBS, who reacted very quickly
in providing a series of updates to adapt

A lot of work by myself and others, withthe full co-operation of TBS Support, isnow beginning to produce some excellent
products capable of reception of DVB-S2 via
EUMETCast. I have been testing some newsoftware since mid September, and to datehave found no problems at all, so I can saythat I believe the TBS-6925 PCIe Card to
be an extremely good tuner and at a pricewell below those of the units that have been
recommended by EUMETSAT.
Conclusion
Figure 2 shows the TBS Analyser receiving
all the incoming data from Eutelsat 10A,
enabling you to see any packet loss before
reception starts. But remember to switch thisoff so that the TBS-IP program can start up.
In some cases you may have to re-boot as
the tuner sometimes stays locked.
There is nowadays a choice of tuners
ranging in cost from £150 up to £410,
all capable of reception of DVB-S2 VCM
transmissions. It’s entirely up to eachindividual which one you choose. From themany emails I have received, cost is clearlyconsidered the most important factor.
Understandably, some readers may prefer
not to choose the cheaper options, rather
following EUMETSAT’s recommendations
and spending £400 plus for a receiver. It’s
an individual choice, but remember, theAyecka SR1 and the TBS-5925/6925 all use thesame demodulator chip, which means thatyou could be paying a lot more for just a
few extra bells and whistles and the SR1’scomplex network set-up.
I am sure in the future there will be evenmore new tuners to test within the scope of
TBS Support, and if so I will report on themwhen possible. It’s inevitable that, as we
progress with the new system, things will
improve. It may take time but I am sure wewill get there in the end.
Happy weather watch from Portland, and mythanks to Arne and Jean Pierre for their help
in this project, and to TBS Support for being
very proactive.
Finally, remember to occasionally check the
TBS Website for software updates
http://www.tbsdtv.com/download/

Figure 2 - TBS Analyser in operation.

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Mahesh Vhatkar (VU2IIA)
I am Mahesh Vhatkar (VU2IIA)
from Mumbai, India. I have been an
electronics enthusiast for a long time,and receiving and decoding weather
satellite images has been one of mypassions.
I built my first homebrew NOAA APT
receiver in 2008, as a completely
automated system, using a
microcontroller. You can see more details
about my homebrew APT project at
http://noaa-apt-homebrew-rx.blogspot.in

I have found the NOAA APT images tobe very helpful, especially during heavy
monsoon weather.
Two years back, I bought my first FCD
dongle, later followed by an RTL-SDR
one. I started playing with the RTL-SDR
dongle for receiving NOAA images, andwith the recent advent of Meteor-M2,
things have become even moreinteresting.
My Setup
I have placed my RTL-SDR dongle
inside a metal box, with in-built power
supply. It also incorporates a homebrew
137 MHz preamp and homebrew HF upconverter. A 2 pole 6 way rotary switch
manages following modes.
1
2
3

RTL directly to Antenna
RTL through 137 MHz preamp
RTL connects to HF up converter.

The top view inside the author’s Meteor receiver, built around an RTL-SDR Dongle

The Antenna is a homebrew QFH
mounted on a four-storied building.
For Meteor-M2 reception, I am using
GNUradio live, installed on a flash drivein persistent mode, which runs the
script written by our good friend Raydel(CM2ESP). His script has really made mylife easy. You can see more details of myMeteor setup at
http://vu2iia-meteor-m2.blogspot.in

Shortly, I plan to improve the design bymaking it fully automatic setup.
Thanks to all members of the GEO groupfor being so helpful, and to the Meteor
M2 Team for a wonderful satellite.

The receiver front panel

This segment from an image acquired on October 23, 2014 shows clear detail of the delta of the Indus

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GEO Quarterly No 44

Meteor‑M2 captured this image of Cyclone Nilofar crossing the Arabian Sea on October 27, 2014.

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Francis Bell
There is a standing invitation for GEO
members to submit for publicationinteresting satellite images of volcanoes.
In the past I have submitted several
Meteosat and Envisat images which
I have received via my own homereceiving station. However, this time
I am offering images of two different
volcanoes which have been obtained
via the new Sentinel-1A satellite.
These images came via the Internet
but it is my understanding that in
the near future these Sentinel-1A
images will be available directly via
the EUMETCast DVB-S2 VCM highdata rate transmissions. Hence, any
GEO member upgrading their station
to this new standard may anticipate
reception of images such as these
volcano examples on a regular basis.
I’m not sure of the time scale here,or the requirement for post reception
processing. We will have to await
EUMETSAT’s announcements.
Sentinel-1A now Operational
Sentinel-1A, the first of ESA’s new
Copernicus fleet of Earth observation
satellites, was declared operational on
October 6, 2014. Launched on April 3,
Sentinel completed commissioning on
September 23. This important processensures that the satellite, instruments,
data acquisition and data processing
procedures are working well. Not only
did Sentinel pass these tests and reachits target orbit on August 7, eightanticollision manoeuvres to avoid
space debris were performed during
this phase. The satellite will now begin
delivering radar scans for an arrayof operational services and scientificresearch.
With the commissioning of Sentinel-1Acompleted and the satellite’s transfer tothe team in charge of its exploitation, its
data are available to all users fromhttps://sentinel.esa.int/web/sentinel/home

You do have to register to accessSentinel-1A data, but there is nocharge. Likewise, there is no charge
for the data itself. To register, andsubsequently access data, you must
visit the Sentinel-1 Scientific Data Hub at
this URL
https://scihub.esa.int/dhus/

To register, click on the question:‘Are you interested entering
Sentinel Data Hub system?’at the foot of the opening screen.

16

A Sentinel-1A interferogram showing Mount Etna

Copyright Copernicus data (2014)/ESA/DLR Microwave and Radar Institute–SEOM Insarap study

This initiative marks the beginningof the satellite’s operational life,
delivering radar coverage for an array of
applications in the areas of oceans, ice,changing land and emergency response.
Volcano Images
I do have a slight personal interest in
volcanoes because, in my travels, I haveseen some of the 1,500 active volcanoesof the world, sometimes bathing intheir hot waters and smelling theirsulphurous emissions. I have seen
Mount Etna but not Mount Pinatubo;
perhaps one day I can add thisinfamous volcano to my list.

quality, demonstrating the sensor’s
excellent capability for interferometricapplications.
Mount Pinatubo
The image featured on the page opposite
was acquired by the Sentinel-1A radar
satellite on June 6, and shows partof the Philippine island of Luzon with
Mount Pinatubo prominent. This active
volcano experienced a major eruption
on June 15, 1991—the second largest
terrestrial eruption of the 20th century
after the 1912 eruption of Novarupta

Mount Etna
The image depicted above is aninterferogram, created by separate
images captured by Sentinel-1A’s
radar using its ‘Interferometric Wide
Swath’ mode while flying over Sicily on
August 9 and August 21.
The rainbow-coloured fringes mainly
denote differences in topography—
hence the steep slopes of Mount Etna
can be seen clearly. The second image
was acquired after the first cycle of theSentinel-1 satellite in its reference orbit.
The interferogram shows a very good

www.geo-web.org.uk

The Ash Cloud of Pinatubo during its 1991 eruption
Image: D Harlow /Wikimedia Commons

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

Mount Pinatubo, Philippines
Image: ESA

in the Alaska Peninsula—which injected more particulatematter into the atmosphere than any eruption since Krakatoa
in 1883. In the months following, aerosols formed a layerof sulphuric acid haze around the globe, ozone depletion
increased and global temperatures dropped by about 0.5°C.

showing part the southwestern coast of the Netherlands, with
Rotterdam, Europe’s largest port extending to the left, andthe Nieuwe Maas river running through the city. You canalso see, at upper left, radar reflections from ships at sea,
appearing like stars in a night sky.

In the upper-central part of the image, the dark area is Lake
Pinatubo, which formed in the summit crater following the1991 eruption. The water level has been rapidly increasing
since its formation, putting pressure on the crater walls,
which threaten to collapse and cause flash floods. The
Philippine government has taken measures to alleviate thepressure with controlled draining.
South of Lake Pinatubo, near the centre of the image, is
Mapanuepe Lake, which also formed as a result of the1991 eruption. When mud mixed with water and volcanic
rock fragments flowed down from Pinatubo, it blocked thedrainage of the river. The valley—including the settlements—
was inundated. These mud and volcanic debris flows are stillvisible stretching west towards the South China Sea.
Other features visible in this image include the bright radarreflections from a shipyard on the Subic Bay to the south,
and the vast expanse of aquaculture on the edge of Manila
Bay in the lower-right corner.
Of course, Sentinel can image much more than justvolcanoes. Below is an early radar image dating from April 3,

This radar image of Rotterdam was imaged by Sentinal‑1A on April 3, 2014
Image: ESA

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Francis Bell
Last June, GEO was invited to participate in a SpaceLink open day
held for schools. Both David Anderson, our GEO Membership
Secretary, and myself attended the event, held at Broadwater
College near Guildford. The GEO stand which we established was
visited by each school in turn, and the students were shown live
demonstrations of images being transmitted from the ISS, as well
as some weather satellite images and animations downloaded via
the EUMETCast service.
During the day, surprisingly, two schools were identified
as having their own EUMETCast receiving equipment, but
not in daily operation. In both cases, the teachers who wereaccompanying their students were encouraged to recommission
their school’s receiving stations. The Open Day included talks
to the students: these included one from Helen Sharman who
related her experiences while flying aboard the Russian MIR
space station some years ago. She also demonstrated the re-entry
space suit she had to wear when returning to Earth from Space.
The SpaceLink organisation is willing to make visits to schools
to offer a day of space related activities and information to
students of almost any age. If you would like to learn more about
SpaceLink, I suggest you visit their website at

Francis Bell talking to a small group of students who
visited the GEO stand at the SpaceLink meeting. Liveimaging from the ISS can be seen on the monitor.

www.spacelink.org

Students attending the SpaceLink schools’ day.
All the students I spoke to seemed genuinely interested in
the day’s events, and not just having a day off school.

Astronaut Helen Sharman demonstrating the re-entry
suit she used when returning to Earth from the MIR
space station.

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The GEO stand awaiting student visitors.

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Francis Bell
Regular readers of GEO Quarterly may recall the
publication of some HDTV images I received on pagefour of the previous issue. Just to remind you how toreceive these images, here is the URL for the Internet
site I use, which, as best I know, is available to anybody
interested in Earth observation without any registration ofsubscription.
www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload

Locating the position of the ISS at any time is made very
easy by online software which displays a map of Earthshowing the current position of the ISS plus the path of
the next orbit. One of the best sites is ISS Tracker at
http://www.isstracker.com/

You can also use
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html

which, as well as showing the HDTV images, carries someaudio between the astronauts and the ground. However,a slight disadvantage with this site is the lack of theground track map showing the real time position of theISS.
The images being transmitted come from four commercial,
off-the-shelf, high-definition video cameras, located in apressurized and temperature controlled box bolted to theoutside of the Space Station’s Columbus module. Thesecameras are:• a Hitachi GV-HD30 pointed forward• a Toshiba IK-HR1 pointed nadir• a Sony FCB-EH4300 and a Panasonic AGHMC150, both
pointed aft,Hence if you want to look at something specific, you havea chance of anticipating an image of the area, but with
the qualification that the cameras may not be in operation
at that particular moment. There is an element of luckhere.
I have found it interesting following the ISS images but
recognise that they are experimental and perhaps not
as detailed as those images from polar orbiting weather
satellites or Earth observation satellites—but still new
and fun to observe.
The images shown opposite are screenshots recorded
while running live reception of ISS images. The full screenmode can be achieved by clicking the bottom right handcorner icon on the incoming live image.
Image Guide

each giving a different view from the space station. I
also notice that, from time to time, the direction of one
or more cameras can change, sometime showing part of
the ISS in the foreground. I tend to prefer the downward
views because of the higher resolution they offer; however
the perspective of a forward or backward view gives theimpression of the space station’s orbital path.

Figure 1 - Orbital Path of ISS
This is a screen shot showing the location of the ISS whiletransmitting HDTV images. It can be part of the screen
display while receiving the images or it is turned off when
the full screen image mode is being used. At the moment
this screen shot was taken the ISS was approaching
Central America.

The use of these cameras is experimental, with theprimary objective of assessing the potential radiation
effects to the camera equipment. But in the meantime,
the stream of images they produce gives the equivalent ofa live eyeball view of the Earth below.

Figure 2 - Nile (Called South Lake Nasser)This is a vertical view from the ISS showing thecourse of the Nile together with associated agriculture
approximately from Aswan in the south to Luxor in thenorth.

It can sometimes be frustrating, when anticipating someviews of the Earth, because of the switching between
cameras ,compounded by the fact that they are notalways operational because of the communication links
between the ISS and the ground stations, not to mention
that, for half of each orbit, there will be nothing tosee because the Earth below is in darkness. However,there are times when the ISS is delivering interesting
Earth images of excellent quality: but remember, theseare HDTV images not digital images from purpose
designed high resolution instruments covering specificwavelengths. This is commercial HDTV, but still I judge
the images produced to be interesting and worthwhile.

Figure 3 - The Strait of Gibraltar
This is a view looking west from one of the ISS’s rear
viewing cameras, showing Spain, Morocco and the Straitof Gibraltar. From this camera angle a large part of theISS can be seen.

Up to now I have tended to take an interest in images
showing coastal boundaries, lakes and rivers. This isbecause I can make out features within the images which
may otherwise be difficult to recognise. My plans for the20

future are to be more attentive to weather systems as
identified by cloud cover and structure, which show up
clearly on the ISS’s images.

Figure 4 - The Canary Islands
This is a forward view looking east and showing theCanary Islands in the foreground with the coast of Africa
and Morocco across the middle of the image.
Figure 5 - The Southern Red Sea
This is a near vertical view showing the southern part of
the Red Sea. Eritrea is on the left and Saudi Arabia on
the right. The lighter colours around the islands show
the presence of shallow water and extensive coral reefs.
Note the view is partly obstructed by part of the ISS’s
structure.

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The Group for Earth Observation

Figure 1 - Locate the ISS with ISS Tracker

GEO Quarterly No 44

Figure 2 - The River Nile

Figure 3 - The Strait of Gibraltar

Figure 4 - The Canary Islands

Figure 5 - The Southern Red Sea

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Nigel Heasman
During my annual trip to the UK this summer, I
decided to take the plunge and get geared up for theforthcoming EUMETCast move to the DVB-S2 standard on
Eutelsat 10A (10°E).
My first step was to order the required new receiver, and I
opted for the Ayecka SR1 from the GEO Shop. I chose thatone because it was in use by EUMETSAT and was getting
good reports on the MSG-1 user group. It was a bit of aninvestment, but I wanted a proven receiver rather than go out
on a limb with an uncertain (at that time) choice. Things have
moved on over the last few months and now there is a better
choice of DVB-S2 receivers.
Thanks to experimentation by Arne van Belle and others,
it appeared that I was going to need a better LNB than I
currently had in North Cyprus, where the Eutelsat 10A
footprint was showing that I was in a lower signal area thanthe existing Eutelsat 9A (9°E) DVB-S service.
Various comments and observations on the user groupencouraged me to opt for the Inverto Black Ultra modelfrom eBay and I chose the twin output version to allow for
any future expansion of my system. I decided to stick withmy existing 1.4 metre, prime focus, dish unless it became
obvious that I needed a bigger one.
Whilst I was in UK, my faithful XP computer, running theexisting EUMETCast reception system (at home in North
Cyprus) decided to die. Still, it had done quite well, running
24/7 for the last 4 years. A quick ‘google’ around led me toOverclockers, who had an Asus H81M-K motherboard, Intel i5
processor and 8 GB RAM on special offer, which I purchased.
I had a spare 2 TB hard disk at home and would buy the caseand power supply for my new computer when I got back to
North Cyprus—so, lots to do upon my return home.
The assembly of the new PC went well and I installed
Windows 7 (64 bit) on it, splitting the hard disk into twopartitions—one for the operating system and programs; theother for the EUMETCast data. I installed a 300 MB RAMdisk(as per EUMETSATs current recommendation), using
Dataram and David Taylor’s notes at:
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/Dexatek/RAMdisk.html

That went well and I then changed its drive letter to ‘Z’. There
are quite a few steps to setting this up, so I would advise
anyone using this RAMdisk to carefully follow all the steps
that David gives.
The next stage was to get to grips with the Ayecka SR1
receiver. This was an interesting exercise as it involved setting
up a separate network for the data flow into the reception
computer. First step was to access the SR1’s configuration
menu, using the supplied USB cable, the USB-UART drivers
and a PuTTY or Telnet session. EUMETSAT have produced acomprehensive PDF setting-up guide which covers all of this,and also showing various network configurations (I used thesimplest one). A quick ‘google’ for “setting up the SR1” will
get you the document. The Telnet session user name andpassword is “telnet” unless you change it!
David Taylor has also produced notes on his setup at:
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/index.html

22

I had to read both these documents several times tounderstand the concepts, so take your time and read all you
can about the setting up.
It’s important to make sure you have the latest softwareand firmware installed in the SR1 before making any
configuration changes—details are in the EUMETSAT guidebut I found David’s notes here easier to follow:
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/sr1-upgrade.html

You can see the currently installed versions when you firstconnect via the Telnet session—if they are not the latest
recommended ones, follow the notes above to bring them up
to date.
Once I had access to the SR1 menu I set the various
parameters by hand, as a way of understanding what wasgoing on. EUMETSAT have produced a couple of files and autility (SR1CFG) that can automate the setting up process, if
you prefer. Full details are in their PDF guide.
I set RX Channel 1, Configuration set 1 to the existing DVB-S
values and set that as active.
For the required ‘Data’ network connection, from the Traffic
port on the SR1 to the reception computer, I used an Edimax
EU-4208 USB Ethernet adaptor as recommended by David as
my new motherboard only had a single built-in Ethernet
port which was already in use on my home network forInternet access, SR1 management, etc. I could have installeda PCI Express card inside the computer, but as the Edimax
adaptor performs very well I went for that option.
I ended up with the network connections on the SR1 set up
as follows:• Management port with an IP address of 192.168.1.100
connected to my house LAN via a Netgear GS-605 switch• Traffic port, with an IP address of 192.168.10.102 connectedto the Edimax EU-4208 to which I had given an IP address of
192.168.10.103
I then installed, on the computer, the SR1 Control Program. I
had read about it in David’s notes and sent off a message toSpace-Band.net, using their web site form at
http://www.space-band.net/contact-us.html

and within a day they had emailed me a copy. I had tochange the extension of the file they sent me to ‘jar’ and thenit ran using java:‘java -jar Sr1Control.change2-1.jar’

after changing to the directory where I had stored the file. It
quickly reported ‘Not Locked’ and then shut down, which hadme stumped for a little while.
I discovered that by clicking on the strange icon in the
top right hand corner, I could set the IP address of the
management port on the SR1 (192.1681.100 in my case) andthen it stayed running—but ‘Not Locked’ was still shown
because I hadn’t yet connected the aerial feed from my dishto the SR1’s rx1 input.
I had run a better quality cable (due to the potentiallylower signal) from the LNB into the house and fitted it withwww.geo-web.org.uk

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compression type ‘F’ connectors. These are claimed to bewaterproof and stay fixed on the cable when being screwed
on to the LNB and receiver: the cheaper screw‑on connectors
can be a real pain in both respects. Obviously, it helps tokeep the cable run as short as possible and I’ve managedwith just 10 metres. The cable, connectors and crimping tool
were bought from Satellite Super Store, ( no connection apartfrom being a satisfied customer) :http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/satellitecable.htm
http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/
satellitecable.htm#fconnectorscompression

And so the Big Moment Arrived
I stopped the existing DVB World USB receiver and tc-recv
then changed just one line in my recv.ini file (under the[parameters] section) to read

Figure 1 - A laser pointer attached to the dish mountinterface_address=0.0.0.0

I did try inserting the IP address of my Edimax EU-4208(192.168.10.103) there, but it didn’t work for some unknown
reason. However, using 0.0.0.0, apparently causes tc-recv tolook for the incoming data and that worked for me.
I then restarted tc-recv and, to my great relief, the SR1 locked
on to the signal and the SR1 Control program showed an
Es/No value of 11.1 and power of -24.0. Traffic was flowing ataround 30 Mbps.
I let the system run for a full day to be sure that the data
was coming through OK—it seemed fine, and I noticed a big
reduction in the number of lost packets compared with the‘old’ DVB World USB receiver. That was very encouraging,and the following day I decided to try and receive the DVB-S2
signal from Eutelsat 10A.
The Switch to Eutelsat 10A
My first step was to enable the Configration set 2 for RX
channel 1 (SR1 menu 1.1.2.I) and also change the RX
channel operation mode (SR1 menu 1.5.2) to ‘Dual’. Thisapparently stops the SR1 trying to deal with the High VolumeService data, which can interfere with the Basic Service
reception when the signal level drops due to rain etc.
With those set, I then took my laptop out to the dish (still
within range of my wireless router) and started up the SR1
Console program on it. With the receiver now set to takethe DVB-S2 data, it had lost lock, as I was still pointing
at Eutelsat 9A. I then slowly moved the dish towards
Eutelsat 10A and eventually saw the signal strength increase
and the receiver lock on to the transponder. It was great tosee the data flow start up again.
Before moving the dish, I had fixed a laser pointer to
its mounting bracket (figure 1) and marked on a wall,
2.6 metres away from the dish mounting axis, the spot forEutelsat 9A.
I then marked a line 4.5 cm to its left as an approximate
guide, which represents 1 degree around the circumference of
a 2.6 metre radius circle [2*pi*260 divided by 360].
www.dishpointer.com

will show you the relative azimuths of the two satellites fromyour location. Here, the difference was actually 1.3°.
To stop the dish slipping down its mounting pole whilst
moving it, I fixed a big jubilee clip to the pole, tight below themounting bracket.
It took me quite a while to get the pointer spot exactly rightfor Eutelsat 10A as the dish mounting bracket is not very well
suited to small precise movements, but eventually I got there(figure 2). I also had to increase the dish elevation by half a

Figure 2 - Aligning the laser spot for Eutelsat 10A

degree—not helped by the very sloppy elevation adjustment.
I also found that, when I slowly tightened the mounting
bracket clamp bolts, the dish pointing (as seen on the SR1
Console) changed slightly. It really was a matter of patienceand ‘slowly slowly catchee monkey’ to get it right.
The final tweaking—to get the best possible signal—involved
adjusting the skew and focus of the LNB. This also took awhile and had to be done in very small steps until the best
setting was found.
The skew I ended up with is about 1 degree less than forEutelsat 9A, not a big change, but it certainly made an
improvement to the received signal. The LNB focus wasn’tquite so critical as there is only a limited amount of inand out movement available, but I did manage to find the
optimum position, eventually.
I found the SR1 Console program a very big help—anordinary satellite finder meter was not sensitive (cleverenough?) to differentiate between Eutelsat 9A andEutelsat 10A.
I am seeing some drop-off of the received signal andsubsequent packet loss, when it rains, but generally thereception here in North Cyprus is very acceptable and theSR1 seems to be a good receiver.
EUMETCast Europe: Traffic and Signal Level Graphs
You can view my MRTG performance graphs on David
Taylor’s website at these URLs:
http://www.satsignal.eu/mrtg/
performance_eumetcast-europe_ link_margin.php
http://www.satsignal.eu/mrtg/
performance_eumetcast-europe_levels.php

My location, Kayalar, is at the bottom of each list of graphs.

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Peter J Bradley

Figure 1 - The three Volcanos of the Kilimanjaro Group, from left to right: Mawenzi, Kibo and Shira.
Photo © Piers and Elizabeth Gazzard

In GEO Quarterly No 4, I wrote about the East African Glaciersand Ice Fields, including Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and thedecline of their ice fields; so what is the situation ten years later?
A prediction that the ice would have disappeared from the major
mountains of East Africa within fifteen years or so was becoming
the concern of people from the academics to the tourist industry.
This is a very complex subject and what follows is but a brief
synopsis of this unfolding event.
Professor Lonnie Thompson, the eminent glaciologist from Ohio
State University, reported in 2002 that the ice on Kibo, the highest
summit of Kilimanjaro, would have gone within a few years at its
then rate of disappearance, owing to the changes in the global
climate. The Kilimanjaro group, (figure 1), is made up of three
volcanoes, Mawenzi, which is of similar age to Mount Kenya, Kibo
the summit of the main mountain and the youngest of the group
and Shira Plateau, the extinct remnant of a former caldera.
Compared with the first photographic survey in 1912, the ice
on Kibo had declined by 35% by the early 1960s, when I was
privileged to climb it, unencumbered by porters and guides The
rate of decline had been approximately 1% per annum between
1912 and the early fifties, but between 1989 and the beginningof this millennium, the decline rose to around 2.5% per annum.
The reason for accelerated loss from the early fifties is not overtly
discussed in the research, but the likelihood is that it owes much to
an increase in ablation (ice removal) through temperature increase
and deforestation.

Figure 2 - The Kilimanjaro Snowfield
Photo © Piers and Elizabeth Gazzard

24

By 2002 it had declined by a further 45% since the early 1960s
and was predicted to disappear totally some time between 2015 to2020. Of the ice remaining in 2000, 26% has already disappeared.
Prof Thompson had made the observation that there is no evidence
to show any similar rapid decline since the ice fields came into
existence over 11,700 years ago.
There had been two phases of ice decline during that time, which
in one case was put down to a very dry period lasting 300 years
in which the carbon dioxide levels had never exceeded 250 ppm.
But the present situation is quite different. During the fifties, there
was little concern about the ice fields: if anything, the observablechanges were put down to seasonal effects, and often when themountain was covered in ephemeral snow (figure 2). This was seen
as evidence that the snows/ice were safe, when in fact they were
slowly disappearing.
However, since Thompson’s research, the subsequent growing
contention about the causation of ice loss—whether throughsublimation or melting, climate or deforestation—was becoming
more vociferous. To put things into perspective, measurement of theice had, up till that time, been almost entirely by areal rather thatvolumetric methods. The earliest reconnaissance was photographic
and there is little or nothing in the various earlier research articles
suggesting detailed analysis of the volume of ice on Kibo or anyof the other East African mountains (Mount Kenya and Mount
Elgon in Kenya, and the Ruwenzories in Western Uganda) until thesixties. Out of interest, the area changes that have taken place arestaggering. In 1912 there were over 12 square kilometres of ice on
the summit and slopes of Kibo: by 2003 this had fallen to 1.5 km2,
and by June 2011 to 1.1 km2.
The quantities of ice were originally so vast that its disappearance
was probably unthinkable until this first serious academic report on
it’s demise. The few lone researchers’ reports were probably viewed
as comments of the then status, and overlooked as academic
papers. Recent arguments about the causes have introduced new
ideas about the ‘why’ and ‘how’, and whether the ice decline could
be arrested: recent researchers have suggested that deforestationof the slopes to gain land for agriculture has reduced humidity
because the moist air normally found over the forest area had
disappeared. Updraft winds were now carrying drier air up themountain, carrying much less moisture to deposit on the higher
slopes. These issues, it had been argued, had upset the delicate
balance of the mountain climate, but Thompson’s additional
research suggested that, whilst these were significant, Climate
Change was more important.

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disappearance of ice.
There have been growing moves to resolve
this very worrying situation. The Tanzanian
government was rightly very concerned
when the original Thompson report cameout. Kilimanjaro is a mountain that many
people dream of climbing sometime
during their lives, and its value to thetourist industry is enormous, of the orderof $50 million per annum. Many tourists
admit that reaching the summit ice isthe main attraction for the climb. In 2006
the Tanzanian government, stopped all
deforestation and a program of reforestation
was implemented. More research was
initiated at various levels on the mountain,
particularly at the summit, to monitor any
changes to ice depth. Now there are almost
weekly digests of the ephemera and theimplications. The seasonal snow, which isthe primary sustainer of the ice fields, does
appear to be lasting fractionally longer now,
attributed in some quarters to the increased
humidity over the lower slopes, although
there are questions about this hypothesis as
being too simplistic.

Figure 3 - The new rift in Kibo’s northern ice field viewed by NASA’s EO-1 satellite.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using ALI data from the NASA EO-1 team.

New theories about high altitude winds
bringing precipitation from the Indian
ocean had also come into the equation,and elaborate methods to measure
diurnal changes in the ice—and the wholeclimate model—had been introduced totry to establish what was really going on.
Instruments using laser technology were
installed to measure the daily rate of melt
and refreezing at the summit and aroundthe ice fields.
Continuing research had shown subsequently that there have certainly beenchanges in the ice fields on Kibo and theother mountains in tropical belts sinceThompson’s first research papers, where
he had postulated that, because othermountains in the mid tropics were showing
very similar trends, this was indicative ofa common cause. Deforestation was notcommon to all this tropical belt throughout
the world, though it was fairly common
throughout East Africa. This common cause
was and is the concentration of CO2 in theatmosphere. This CO2 increase over thelast few decades has significantly exceeded
levels recorded in the previous ice melt
phases, which accounts for the increased
tropical region mountain ice melting overrecent years.
To an extent, once under way, ice retreat
becomes self perpetuating. When snow
is present, its high albedo reflects the
sun’s rays and thus reduces ice ablation
by temporarily protecting the underlying
ice. But less snow has been depositedin recent times as a result, in part, of thedeforestation and warmer temperatures,
nullifying the advantage of reduced ablation.
It has been argued that this is unlikely to
improve until the lower forests are restored,
and with them the humidity which helped
to sustain the longevity of the snow on thehigher slopes in earlier years. The reductionof the ice fields themselves has further
exacerbated the problem as the albedo of
exposed volcanic rock is low, allowing it
to absorb the sun’s rays, in turn leading tofurther melting and retreat of the ice.
The Northern Ice Field started to develop
a hole in 1970 and was observed to havebreached in September 2012. Figure 3
shows this rift, taken by the NASA Earth
Observation‑1 satellite’s Advanced Land
Imager (ALI) on October 26, 2012. The
Western ice field, according to most recent
predictions, will have disappeared by
2020. The famous Furtwangler glacier,which was melting and water saturated in
2000, was drilled and found to have lost
50% of this in 2009. This loss was also
indicated by a thinning in it’s structure.
Mount Kenya has now only eleven glaciers
compared with nineteen at the beginningof the 20th century, though it has to be said
that probably only five of could be truly
regarded as glaciers now as the remaining
six are rapidly diminishing to very small
ice fields. Mount Elgon has not seen any
ice for hundreds of years, and now very
occasionally has a small amount of snow
which lasts for no more than a few hours or
so; the Ruwenzories have seen continuing

www.geo-web.org.uk

The current thinking on the ice situation
appears mixed: local ecologists statethat it is stabilising, other ecologists andglaciologists suggest that the disappearance
is still significant. Speculation over thecomplete disappearance of the ice now
suggests it may occur by 2060.
There is a plethora of information now
available on the web and those interested
can try to decipher the research. Whether
there is an apparent temporary slowing
down of the ice melt is questionable, but thesituation of increasing carbon dioxide levelsin the atmosphere presently at 400 ppm(and the increase in methane) has notmade the situation more encouraging, as
the atmosphere warms further. The tourists
still come to climb the mountain, and haverecently even played cricket in the craterarea below the summit Kibo, where there
was once an ice field. But there is little
doubt that the remaining ice will eventuallydisappear within the next 50 years or so
regardless of efforts to reduce the effect.
Next update, ten years from now.
Acknowledgement
The author wishes to accord his grateful
thanks to Piers and Elizabeth Gazzard forthe use of their photos of Kilimanjaro
Bibliography/Reference
1 Thompson, L.G. et al. 2002
Kilimanjaro ice core records. Evidence of
Holocene climate change in tropical Africa.
Science 298 589-593
2 Thompson, L.G. et al. 2009
Glacial loss on Kilimanjaro continues
unabated.
Proceedings National Academy of ScienceNo 47 Vol 106
3 Kilimanjaro’s Shrinking Ice Fields
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.
php?id=79641
4 Kilimanjaro Climate and Glaciers
http://kiboice.blogspot.co.uk/

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Report compiled by Alan Banks from original work by David Taylor and others
GEO members should by now be well aware that EUMETCastplans to migrate its data stream transmission format from
DVB-S to the DVB-S2 standard at the end of 2014. This has
serious implications because, from January 1, 2015, existingreceiver hardware will no longer be able to decode the newdata, and will need to be replaced if you plan to continue
receiving imagery via EUMETCast after this date.
EUMETSAT have tested a number of receiver options, andthe only ones found suitable so far have been listed on theirwebsite. You can find more details by visiting
http://www.eumetsat.int/

and following the prominent link to EUMETCAST EUROPE
near the foot of the page.
As these receivers operate differently from the existing
SkyStar PCI cards and DVB World USB boxes, GEO has
been testing a number of them using the new EUMETCast
data stream in order to understand the system architecture
differences, and to be able to make recommendations as
to the most suitable receivers and how to get the best fromthem. GEO has procured two Ayecka SR1 receivers whichhave been tested by several GEO members. Tests are also inprogress with the Novra S300E receiver.

solution. It’s not an expensive item either. But do remember
to set the power settings for your PC not to turn off USB
devices.
The Ayecka SR1 Advanced DVB-S2 Receiver
The Ayecka SR1 is an advanced DVB-S2 receiver with agigabit Ethernet (GigE) interface to support full DVB-S2 VCM
reception. It has been designed with satellite reception in
focus, leaving routing to be handled by external devices. SR1
implementation is based on advanced engineering methods
that eliminate the bottleneck caused by CPU load andsupports payload rates of up to 120 Mbps.
Figure 1 shows the various components on the front panel ofthe SR1. These are, from left to right:• power input (12 Volt DC, 2 A)
• Power LED• Mini USB• Management Port (RJ45 10/100 BaseT)• Traffic Port (RJ45, 100/1000 BaseT).

At the time of writing, early October 2014, TBS have both
PCIe cards and USB boxes available for DVB-S2. However,compatibility of their hardware and software is notuniversally perfect, and we recommend that you seek advice
before purchasing one of their units. Keep up to date with
the MSG-1 Yahoo Group and EUMETSAT’s Web pages for thelatest information. Omicom are also supplying a PCIe card but
this has yet to be tested.
Introduction
Early testing was undertaken by David Taylor in November
2013, when he had the opportunity to test out an Ayecka
SR1 DVB-S2 receiver (and later, a Novra S300 receiver). These
receivers differs from those we have used in the past, whichhave typically been PCI cards to fit into a desktop PC, or USB
boxes plugging into a USB 2.0 port on a laptop or desktop PC.
Both the Ayecka SR1 and the Novra S300E are network
devices which can be connected to a network port on a PC,
delivering EUMETCast packets over the LAN. In fact, existing
PCI/PCIe cards or USB boxes also deliver their data overthe network, but their network drivers simulate a network
interface inside the PC rather than using a physical network
interface like these IP receivers.

Figure 1 - The Ayecka SR1 Front Panel

The rear panel, shown below in figure 2, supports two F-type
Female Connectors (labelled RF1 and RF2) for RF input to thetwin) demodulators, each with an associated indicator LED(labelled Lock1 and Lock2) to indicate status. The LEDs show
as follows:• Receiver is locked (Green)• Receiver is not locked (Red)• Receiver in lock process (blinking RED)You may need a second network card ..
.. or you may try a very simple and high-performance network
card which is available, and based on a USB 2.0 connection.
DT was dubious about the potential performance of such a
device at first, but when he bought one, and connected it
to a test PC (where there was no room for a second networkcard) he found it had even better performance than the LAN
connection built into the PC. This was because the device hadsuperior drivers, which handled the DVB-S2 signal better; so
if you are looking for a second LAN card, the Edimax EU-4208
USB 2.0 to 10/100 Mbps Ethernet Adapter may be a suitable

26

www.geo-web.org.uk

Figure 2 - The Ayecka SR1 Rear PanelDecember 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

Ayecka SR1 Configuration Guide
EUMETSAT have published a configuration guide to the
Ayecka SR1 which I recommend you read. The URL is far too
complex to reproduce here, but entering ‘EUMETSAT Ayecka’
into a Google search will take you straight to the download
link for PDF_DVB_SR1_GUIDE.pdf. EUMETSAT also publish
an automated configuration utility, and you will find the
download address in this guide. (Note that the IP addresses
from the EUMETSAT configuration utility will differ fromthose given below).
Talking to the SR1 to Manage it
Use the USB interface in the SR1’s front panel as it requires
no reconfiguration of the network: the company point to
3rd-party USB drivers which are required to connect to theserial-over-USB interface. Run the driver installer, configure
the COM port for 115,200 baud, and connect a USB lead (notsupplied) from the PC to the SR1 to get communication rightaway. Press ‘0’ (zero) to start the menu system. One person
has reported that the Ayecka box must be connected to the
PC for the COM port driver installation to work.
Network Addresses
Once the device has been configured (perhaps with
the EUMETSAT software, see later), there is no need tomaintain a USB connection at all. You can configure thetwo Ethernet ports to be on separate LANs, so that in mycase, for example, the Traffic port is set to an address on a
new private ‘Traffic’ LAN (192.168.10.x), with the SR1 being
set to 192.168.10.102, and the Management Port set to afree address on your existing network. In my case, this was
192.168.1.67.
Using the SR1 to Receive EUMETCast
Most testers would recommend the use of a second LAN
card. This is because, if heavy LAN traffic is mixed with the
EUMETCast traffic, there will be an increased chance of
missed packets and data loss. Equally, other users of thehouse LAN may see a drop in performance.
Testers concluded that a separate network for EUMETCast
traffic from the SR1 to the TelliCast PC was an essential
requirement for satisfactory operation. For a portable PC,
the main connection would likely be via Wi-Fi and the
EUMETCast connection via a wired LAN connection. For a
desktop PC fitting a second network card may be essential.
For simplicity, choose an address one greater than that of
the SR1 box by default (192.168.10.102). That led to thefollowing LAN card configuration:
192.168.10.103
Address:
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway:blank
DNS:		
blank
I then connected the PC’s LAN port to the ‘Traffic’ port on theSR1 using a standard Ethernet cable, and I could then ping
the SR1 on its LAN address of 192.168.10.102.
Having established basic communication, configure the SR1
to pass the PIDs used by EUMETCast: 100, 300, 301, 302,
500, 509 and 510, and it should show data flowing (from the
management menu 5.1). Check that the LAN multicast is set
to ‘On’ so that any EUMETCast data being received is sent to
the Traffic LAN port. The EUMETSAT ‘config’ utility sorts all
this out.
On the PC, the only change needed in the EUMETCast
configuration was in the [parameters] section of the recv.ini
file, where one can comment out ‘interface_address’ with the‘#’ character, thus:
Original:[parameters]interface_address=192.168.238.238

GEO Quarterly No 44

Updated:[parameters]# interface_address=192.168.238.238
The use of Windows XP is not recommended as it may have
networking limitations which may prevent it working properlywith a IP receiver such as the SR1. Also, as XP is no longer
supported by Microsoft, I would strongly advise against its
use with the Ayecka SR1.
Data from the house LAN to the SR1 receiver and to the otherhouse PCs is bidirectional, of course. Data from the SR1 overits ‘Traffic’ port consists only of outgoing broadcast UDP data,and is sent to all PCs on the Traffic LAN.
EUMETSAT Comments
A proper networking setup is essential for loss-free reception.
Professional users should use dedicated multicast networks
or directly link to the reception PC on dedicated network
cards. We also experienced some problems with the 1GBinterface. Using the 100 base port resolved this. Here aresome more features of the SR1 which might be useful:• If multicast is dumped on the network, the receiverend does not have to be on the same subnet. The
SR1 interface can even be left open (0.0.0.0). Only for
managing the device the subnet must be the same.
• You can connect both port (data and management) andretrieve the multicast from either interface.
• You can use the built-in switch to ‘extend’ yoursingle network port on the PC: i.e., connect the PC
to the data port (GB) and connect the MGMT port toyour home network (Multicast=’ON’ on the data port,
multicast=’OFF’ on the MGMT port). This way, you can
use your home network and receive multicast without asecond network card. There should not be any multicast
traffic congestion on the data interface since thebottleneck will be at the MGMT interface.
And we have developed an application (.NET based) toprogram the SR1 over the USB interface using an ASCII
control file.
Powering the LNB from the SR1
Requirements:• Polarity Horizontal/Left (high)• 22 kHz on (LNB 10600 MHz)
There are three SR1 parameters to set:
• LNB power Off, 13 V or 18 V - 18 V for horizontal
polarisation• LNB compensation (off, it’s +1 V for long power cables)• 22 kHz On
I discovered that 18 V, 22 kHz was already set, so I could justswap the SR1 lead from the non-pass to the DC pass port.
Simple, and it worked just as expected.
David Simmons Notes
I now have the other SR1 up and running. It was very easy
to set up using the USB method on Windows 7. I found thedrivers to the COM port relatively easily and installed them;then, using PuTTY as the terminal program, it was easy toprogram the SR1 to receive EUMETCast.
Now to the more difficult bit, and something that we will haveto sort out. The way this receiver sends out the data on to the
network is by broadcast protocol—which is fine as long as it
is contained in a sub-network. I have set up a sub-network
here, consisting of a router which connects the SR1 to all thecomputers that receive data from EUMETCast.
At the moment I have just one computer on this network
receiving data. Earlier in the day I had the SR1 plugged into
my main network and several computers were using the data.

www.geo-web.org.uk

27

GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

However, as it broadcast data it caused overload, and otherequipment—like VoIP phones—ceased to function reliably.
All the computers receiving data missed zero packets. Also ofinterest, the receiver’s status gives exactly the same results
as my very expensive satellite meter in regards to the error
rates and signal strength and quality of signal.
David Taylor commented about it getting hot: I would say it
is certainly warm to the touch, but not excessively hot. In mycase it is powering the LNB.
David Simmons Notes (Updated)
I have discovered a slight problem with the SR1 in thatthe management port cannot be directly connected to thegigahertz network which supports 10/100/1000 MHz. I
have some other devices plugged in that work faultlessly
on various switches around the house. The SR1 is notrecognised by these switches, and this caused me a bit of aproblem until I connected the SR1 to an old switch, which
only supports 10/100.
To have multiple computers running behind the SR1, I haveused a simple 5‑port TP Link switch which is broadcast
packet compatible.
I’m certainly going to keep this receiver, as it is exceedingly
easy to set up and get running, and all of its diagnostics are
absolutely correct as regards signals.
Ayecka SR1 Tests by Francis BreameThanks to GEO, I have had the opportunity to test the
Novra S300E and Ayecka SR1 receivers. In general, I agreewith the findings of the other testers, in that there isn’t a lot
to choose between them from a reception point of view. The
ultimate choice lies with relatively minor issues and how
you intend to use the receiver. Personally, I prefer the SNMP
facility and dual Ethernet ports of the Ayecka. Support fromboth suppliers was good.
Test configuration• 80 cm and 1.2 m dishes• AMD 4-core PC running Windows XP• AMD 6-core PC running Windows 7 Pro• Dedicated NICs (network cards) on both
• I didn’t try using the house LAN other than to the
Ayecka management port.
These were used in all combinations.
Both PCs had a variety of other software runningsimultaneously, the full EUMETCast processing suite in
the case of the 6-core. Both receivers were set up using the
EUMETSAT configuration files. Packet loss was comparable
and could be attributed to PC issues, although unfortunately
I wasn’t logging this before and therefore have no basis forcomparison. It was insufficient to cause problems.
Ayecka Issues
As others have reported, the management port may fail towork with a Gigabit 10/100/1000 switch/router/NIC (thestandard these days) although it should auto-adjust. I am
fortunate in using some surplus HP professional switches
which can have the port speeds manually configured, whichworks fine, but is probably not possible on domestic switches.
10/100 switches are still available, but this may become anissue in the future.
David Taylor has the management port connected to a
Netgear GS608 8-port gigabit switch and sees no problems.
David Simmons has seen a similar issue, and EUMETSAT
also comment on this. It has been reported to Ayecka.]Further Notes on the Network Issues
I’ve done bit more testing regarding the problem whichDavid Simmons and I experienced in connecting the SR128

December 2014

management port to an auto-speed sensing Gigabit switch.
The conclusion is therefore that some switches will auto
sense correctly, some won’t.
Briefly, my network consists of a Draytek Vigor 2830n ADSL/
router, which is expanded by connecting to three HP ProCurve
1800-8G 8-port switches. All are Gigabit. If the SR1 isconnected to the HP switch with the port in auto mode,connection fails. If however I connect to a spare port on the
Draytek router, it correctly connects at 100 Mb, as also does
the HP switch if I manually configure its port to 100 Mb.
Similarly, if I put a Netgear GS608 switch (same as David T)
in series with the SR1 and the HP switch (set to auto), all isokay. The conclusion is therefore that some switches will
auto sense correctly, some won’t - in my case the HP won’t nor evidently will whatever David Simmons (and apparently
EUMETSAT) is using.
It will be worthwhile bearing this in mind in case other SR1
users run into a similar problem, as it is not at all obvious.
Comments and Notes• A separate LAN for EUMETCast data is likely to berequired, although that does mean that multiple PCs canthen receive the data. Each PC would need a TelliCast
software and an eToken.
• It’s likely that a dual-core processor is needed at aminimum, with quad-core being desirable.
• There is a limit at the moment of 9 PIDs on this device(PID 509 is hard-wired in the firmware). However, thisis not expected to be a limit as the new DVB-S2 service
uses fewer PIDs than the previous DVB-S service.
• The SR1 may not support all the DiSEqC commands
required by complex satellite reception installations.
• Although the device performs well, a USB box directly
connected to a PC may present a slightly lower CPU load,and could have fewer missed packets.
• With a 12 V, 2 A power consumption, the box does getquite warm (just warmer than a DVB World box which
is driving an LNB). When not driving an LNB, the box
consumes less than 0.5 A according to the supplier, sothat should not be an issue.
Box CoolingJames Brown wrote: I don’t know whether this would beof any interest to folk, but as the unit seems now to be atnominal working conditions, I have now positioned theSR1 just a few inches above floor level on a skirting board:sideways on, with the body vertically mounted and theventilation slots horizontal. When I had the unit flat on mydesk in order to be able to watch the traffic and management
port LEDs, it ran quite a bit warmer. I realised that withventilation holes running down both of the long sides it might
be worth while mounting it differently. My thinking was thatthe heat being generated would hence draw in fresh air fromthe underside holes and discharge it from the upper ones. It
has certainly cooled the casing right down again, and I canimagine that the swifter exit of hot air off the components willassist in a small way. I don’t think any components are using
the case as a heat sink, so probably all the heat is just fromthe components themselves.
DVB-S2 Service - Configuration for the Early Tests
Because I operate two Ayecka SR1 receivers, I gave then bothindividual private LANs, even though #1 is connected to threereceivers and the #2 box to just a single test receiver. The
first one was set up on network 192.168.10.x and worked
without problem. The second one was set up on network
192.168.20.x, and initially would not respond to PING
requests. I discovered that this was because I had not set thebuilt-in router to an address on that network, and doing so
resolved the problem. From the main menu, this is Network(3), Router IP address (E). I ended up with:www.geo-web.org.uk

This image from Meteor M2 was captured by Raydel Abreu Espinet on October 25, 2014. The Great Lakes show up well in the north,but look at the detail of Pamlico Sound on the coast of North Carolina, separated from the Atlantic by a chain of sandy barrier islands.

iFerruccio Paglia from Italy obtained this striking image showing the River Nile’s green, irrigated corridor snaking through Egypt on October 24, 2014.

Enrico Gobbetti obtained this image showing the Black Sea and Caspian Sea on October 23, 2014.

This small section from an image acquired by Raydel Abreu Espinet on October 25, 2014 shows the Gulf of Venezuela,
and the Dutch island of Curaçao. It’s also just possible to glimpse Lake Maracaibo through the cloud.

iiThanks to Jeff Kelly for notifying us about this October 31, 2014 image of Europe acquired by Ennio D’Onofrio in Italy.
Apart from its superb definition throughout, this image is particularly noteworthy as one of the very few that has not been marred by white bands.

iii

The resolving power of Meteor M2 is revealed in this clip from the November 1, 2014 LRPT image captured by Enrico Gobbetti. Despite the lateness ofthe season, and the low angle of the sun as evinced by the cloud shadows over eastern England and Brittany, the quality of imagery remains high.

iv

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

Default gateway: 192.168.11.10
Command port: 2048

LAN address: 192.168.20.101
Router IP address: 192.168.20.100
IP address of PC card: 192.168.20.102
Douglas Deans found two configuration issues when setting
up by hand for the early tests of the actual DVB-S2 signal.
Of course, these settings should be set by the EUMETSAT
configuration utility once it is released with the appropriate
DVB-S2 settings.
• The Coding Mode needs to be set to ‘VCM’. This is in the
RX configuration menu, option 4.
• The ISI needs to be set to ‘1’. This in the RX
configuration menu, option D. I found that, with the
Telnet interface, I needed to type ‘D1’ to set the ISI to ‘1’.
You may need to update either the firmware or the software
if you purchased an early SR1 receiver. Details of how to do
this can be found at the following URL
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/sr1-upgrade.html

Only carry out such an update if you are advised to do so by
EUMETSAT or Space-Band/Ayecka.
The Novra S300E box

and then the PC’s network card was set to:
IP address: 192.168.11.12
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
EUMETSAT supply a ready-made configuration file which canbe downloaded from:ftp://ftp.eumetsat.int/pub/OPS/out/user/EUMETCast_Support/

which I loaded using the ‘without network settings’ option.
Conclusions - Novra S300E Box• For best function, a stand-alone PC or separate LAN isrequired. Communicating with the rest of the network
via a second LAN card or USB Wi-Fi dongle is fine, but
the Novra box and PC interface card must be on theirown distinct LAN. The network port is only 100 Mb/s.
• The box is noticeably noisy in a quiet office environment,
but runs cooler than the Ayecka SR1.
• Dual-core minimum or quad-core preferred.
• DiSEqC commands not supported.
• The management software runs on Windows on the local
PC, so the device cannot be managed from any desired
PC on the network• There is no SNMP management option possible• At first glance, performance appears very similar to the
Ayecka SR1 box.
Novra Tests by David Anderson
For the purpose of the tests, using the same Novra S300E
IP receiver as above, I added an additional network card forconnection of the Novra receiver. I downloaded and installed
the latest version (V65.3.10.0) of the Novra management
software.
Rather than change the subnet of my existing PC’s, I changed
the IP address of the Novra receiver to 192.168.1.202 throughthe management software. The IP address of the network
interface card was set to 192.168.1.201. However, even after
installing the receiver on the same subnet as my LAN, themanagement software would not auto-detect the receiver,
although I could log in through the record I created in theManaged List.

Figure 3 - The Novra S300E Front Panel LEDs
Power (Red) - Lock (Green) - Data (Blue)

Figure 4 - The Novra S300E Back Panel Inputs
RF input - Ethernet (RJ45, 10/100 BaseT) - Power (24 V DC, 800 mA)

David Taylor started testing this box in January 2014 andnoted that it was quite a noisy unit, and fitted with a small
fan at the rear, runs much cooler than the Ayecka SR1 box.
Initially, I found it impossible to communicate with, eventhough I knew its IP address and could ping the box correctly
and could see the yellow LED flashing with each ping. Thereappears to be no ‘factory reset’ function. The communication
issue was resolved by downloading a more recent version of
the management program than the one recommended in thefirst issue of the EUMETSAT install guide.
Management software is available from this link
http://novra.com/support/

You can download EUMETSAT’s own configuration guidefrom this FTP site.
ftp://ftp.eumetsat.int/pub/OPS/out/user/EUMETCast_Support/

Therefore the S300E was set to:
Receiver IP address: 192.168.11.11
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

I agree that the fan was noisy, and Novra sent us areplacement (which was only slightly quieter). Also, the locklight on the receiver is actually blue—not green as shown inthe documentation. When I updated the recv.ini file with thereceiver IP address, I was unable to connect to the TelliCast
Software (the TelliCast icon turned red, and the TelliCast
log did not show any errors). When I removed the interface
statement from recv.ini the receiver connected OK.
In conclusion, it appears that once the receiver was installed
and configured it performed well without any noticeable
downgrading of other applications on my LAN.
David Taylor noted that the IP address to be set in the recv.ini fileis that of the PC connected to the Novra (or Ayecka) box. He
also made the same mistake as I did in thinking that it was theaddress of the IP RX box which was needed. It isn’t! The softwareneeds the address of the local PC, the one with the new network
card, and specifically the address of that network card.
Novra Tests by Francis Breame
Test configuration (used in all combinations):• 80 cm and 1.2 m dishes• AMD 4-core PC running Windows XP• AMD 6-core PC running Windows 7 Pro• Dedicated NICs (network cards) on both.
• I didn’t try using the house LAN other than to the
Ayecka management port.

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29

GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

Both PCs had a variety of other software runningsimultaneously (the full EUMETCast processing suite in
the case of the 6-core). Both receivers were set up using the
EUMETSAT configuration files. Packet loss was comparable
and could be attributed to PC issues, although unfortunately
I wasn’t logging this before and therefore have no basis forcomparison. It was insufficient to cause problems.
Novra Issues• The LAN voltage (polarisation selection) can be set toeither 11-15 or 13-18 V. All LNBs I’ve ever seen (I’m open
to correction) use 13-18 V; however, the EUMETSAT
configuration sets it to 11-15 V. I changed it to 13-18 V.
I don’t know whether this makes any practical difference.
• CMCS, the command line status/configuration utility
used in place of SNMP, didn’t work with Windows,
although the Linux version was OK. Apparently the
S300E box sends back a slightly different response
which wasn’t recognised. However, Novra quickly
provided a new version.
• Update from Novra (May 17) Firmware update to v 1.0.1.
Download from support at

Frequency

December 2014
Polarisation

Symb
Rate

CodingStrength
ReportQuality
Report10784

Vertical

2480

7/8

S:64

Q:52

11346

Horizontal

27500

3/4

S:71

Q:88/9112512

Horizontal

1447

3/4

S:68

Q:61/64

12738

Horizontal

2604

5/6

s:63

Q:64/67

Table 1 - Transponders on Eutelsat 10A

Novra S300N Requirements

www.novra.com

Recommendations• Either the Ayecka SR1 or the Novra S300E are suitable
for the EUMETCast service.
• Both are easy to set up, and EUMETSAT configuration
guides are available for either.
• The Ayecka appear to be the more advanced unit, andoffers good monitoring using MRTG and SNMP.
• Windows XP should be avoided for this application.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to David Taylor for all initial testing and writing
down his findings; to Nigel Evans and Francis Bell at GEO for
procuring these test boxes, and for the chance to try one out;
to David Anderson for his test report; and to David Simmons,David Anderson, Alan Banks, Francis Breame and Arne van
Belle for their valuable comments.
Much of the content above derives from a comprehensive
web page on David Taylor’s website, which includes a set of
informative FAQs. The URL is
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/

Figure 1 - The Novra GUI Console• the Novra Users Manual and their GUI Console software(illustrated), obtainable fromhttp://novra.com/support• the EUMETSAT Guide and Configuration Utility to get you
up and running. To obtain this, visit the EUMETSAT
website at
http://www.eumetsat.int/

and click the link to EUMETCAST EUROPE near thefoot of the page (it’s a graphical link bearing the imageof a dish antenna). Three-quarter way down the (long)
page that follows is a table listing approved, compliant
DVB‑S2 receivers. Click the link S300 Setup Guide opposite
Novra, and download the PDF document.
You will find more help fromftp://ftp.eumetsat.int/pub/OPS/out/user/EUMETCast_Support/

Setting up the Reception System
In picking one of these two receivers, ensuring that the baserequirements are met, using the documentation and softwarefrom their suppliers and the guides from EUMETSAT, setup
should be straightforward. Further help can be found in the
MSG YAHOO! Group at
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MSG-1/info

It would appear that the main issue for many users is how
well the antenna and LNB perform, particularly if yourstation is located near the edge of the satellite footprint.
The new DVB-S2 signal from Eutelsat 10A is much weaker
than we are used to and more susceptible to the effects ofpoor weather (rain). A larger dish may help, though many,
including myself, would find it impossible to fit a larger dish.
Arne van Belle has tested a number of LNBs and concludes
that better performance comes from the Inverto 40mm 0,2dB
Black Ultra (IDLB-TWNL40-ULTRA-OPP) Twin LNB. EUMETSAT
also suggest renewing your cabling if it has been in place forsome time, and renewing exterior antenna plugs.
By far the most critical factor appears to be antennaalignment. I have a digital meter which doesn’t see the
EUMETCast signal, presumably because of its VCM aspect.
Alternative transponders (reported by David Taylor) on thesatellite are shown in Table 1.

where you can choose the xml file that suits your Novramodel (S300N or S300E), and whether you want to receive
DVB-S or DVB-S2. In practice you probably needs both files
for your model.
• a Windows PC (running Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8)
with a 100 Mb Ethernet port for configuring the receiver.
• the EUMETCast antenna pointing must be performed
correctly, aligned to Eutelsat 10A for DVB-S2 reception.
(For DVB-S2 reception, antenna pointing and LNB
quality are crucial).
• obtain an EKU from the EUMETSAT user help desk.
• the reception host PC requires the latest EUMETCast
reception software to beinstalled.
• the Novra receiver must have software version 2.0 or
later installed.
Ayecka SR1 Requirements• the Ayecka SR1 User Manual v 1.9 for more details andrequired GUI console software fromhttp://www.ayecka.com/files/userMenual/SR1.doc• The EUMETSAT Guide and Configuration Utility will get you
up and running (same as under the Novra requirements).
From the FTP site, choose the zip folder that meets
your requirements in the title. In initial setting up you
probably needs both
• SR1CFG_DVBS_ACTIVE.zip and• SR1CFG_DVBS2_ACTIVE.zip
Continued on page 51

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GEO Quarterly No 44

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December 2014

Les Hamilton
Enrico operates Space Receiving Station IW2AGJ, with a dedicatedItalian language website at

You are likely to hear a great deal about Russia’s new
meteorological satellite Meteor M N2 in the months ahead. This new
orbiter, which transmits LRPT imagery in the 137 MHz weather
satellite band, with a ground resolution of one kilometre/pixel atnadir, has aroused the excitement of amateur enthusiasts aroundthe globe, and opened up an energetic new thread on the GEOSubscribers YAHOO! Group.

dealing with all aspects of his activities over the years. You canview excellent translated versions of his web pages by pasting their
URLs into Google Translate Web athttps://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/info

http://itools.com/tool/google-translate-web-page-translator

http://www.iw2agj.altervista.org/index.html

You can read more about this new satellite on page 33.
Last October, I received an email from an enthusiast in Italy, Enrico
Gobbetti, attaching infrared images he acquired from these Meteor
transmissions, and these are reproduced on this page. Enrico
also gave permission to reproduce some of the Meteor images heregularly archives on his web page at
http://www.iw2agj.altervista.org/immagini.html

Enrico, amateur radio callsign IW2AGJ, lives in Soiano Del Lago,just to the west of Lake Garda, near Brescia in Italy. As a youngster,
he was inspired by the Gemini and Apollo Space programmes,
which generated an interest in receiving signals from Space, mostparticularly, the reception of Meteorological Satellites.
Over the years, Enrico has received APT, Meteosat SDUS,NOAA HRPT, and of course, more recently, the new generationof Meteosats via EUMETCast. In the early days, like many GEO
readers, Enrico bought and modified surplus receivers obtained atamateur radio rallies in order to receive APT, built his own antennas
and rotators, and constructed circuits for decoding and viewing
images.

This channel-4 IR segment from the 07:32 pass on October 8 clearly shows
the Sea of Azov, the island of Cyprus, and part of the Red Sea.

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The Meteor M N2 Images
The images reproduced on these pages have come from the earlycommissioning phase of Meteor M N2, which commenced in late July.
Initially, images were transmitted only in the visible and near IR
channels, and examples appear on the page opposite. Currently,
problems in encoding the LRPT aboard the satellite result in theappearance of broad white bars on the images. The first image,at top left, illustrates the raw images transmitted by Meteor: these,
like NOAA HRPT, have 1 m/pixel resolution, but show distortion
at the edges due to the Earth’s curvature. I have produced asmall program, Smooth Meteor, which makes a reasonable job ofrectifying this, and can be downloaded fromhttp://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/wxsatellite/meteor3m.htm

The image of Spain beneath is a rectified section of the sameimage. The two larger rectified colour images illustrate the excellent
detail available from the satellite.
Since late September, activity has turned toward the three infrared
channels, and the images on this page come from the mid-IR
channel-4 sensor. Visual imagery resumed in early October.

This channel-4 IR segment from the 08:52 pass on October 9 shows
the whole of Italy and, across the Mediterranean, Tunisia.

All images © Roscosmos
www.geo-web.org.uk
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GEO Quarterly No 44

A rectified RGB123 colour composite from the Meteor M N2 pass at 09:06 UT on August 29, 2014.

This unrectified RGB123 colour composite image
is from the 09:07 UT pass of Meteor M N2 on
September 13, 2014, showing the geometricdistortion at extremities of the received image. Thiscan be rectified by software.

For comparison, this is a rectified portion of theimage shown above.

This small RGB123 image section from the Meteor M N2 pass at 10:05 UT on September 5, 2014highlights the one-metre/pixel resolution imagery carried by the satellite’s LRPT data stream.

All images © Roscosmos
www.geo-web.org.uk
2014, courtesy Enrico Gobbetti

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David Taylor
This is a brief note about making the transition
from an existing EUMETCast system using
the DVB-S service which has been aroundfor over ten years to the new DVB-S2 system
which replaces it at the end of 2014. The
steps are establishing a new receiver on theexisting DVB-S service, moving to the newsatellite, and setting the receiver for DVB-S2.
There are many resources to help you in thischange, both in the GEO Quarterlies, andon the Web. EUMETSAT have a migration
page listed in the resources at the end of thisarticle, and they provide a migration guide
linked from that page.

Step-1 - A New Receiver
Any new DVB-S2 receiver suitable for
EUMETCast will also have the capabilityof working with the existing DVB-S service
from the 9°E satellite, so the suggested
approach is to get the existing service
working correctly on your new receiveras the first step. Follow the EUMETSAT
user guides to get your receiver working.
You can use a low-cost ‘Satellite TV’signal-splitter to run the new receiver inparallel with the old one while you are
testing. Be sure to get a splitter where
one port is DC isolated, otherwise the two
22 kHz band-change signals may cancel
each other out.
There is a choice of receivers available,
which are listed elsewhere in this GEO
Quarterly, but briefly, here is a list of
those receivers I know about as at
September 2014, in order of approximate
price. My own preference is for an Internet
Protocol (IP) receiver, as these can feed
more than one PC from the same receiver.
PCIe Cards: ca. £200
There are three cards which work withEUMETCast:• TBS 6925 (old version)
This works, but there havebeen problems with it on certain
motherboards. Suck it and see is thebest advice I can give.
• TBS 6983 (new version)
This is a dual-tuner, and likely to beslightly more expensive. It works well
(as far as I know) and fewer problems
have been reported, but the card has
only just come on general release.
• Pro Omicom 16/32 PSK card
Currently waiting for a unit to evaluate.
USB Box: ca. £250
• TBS 5925
This works, although several testers
have found their TBS softwarecrashing with Windows-7, -8

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and -10 preview, but others haveseen no problems. The testers who
experienced these problems found
3rd-party software which works withoutcrashing, but is more limited and may
not perform as well. Problems may
arise when using 3rd party software inpoor signal conditions.
IP receivers: £350-£400• Novra S300E
This box has been extensively tested
by both GEO and EUMETSAT, andworks well. It has fewer management
facilities than the Ayecka SR1 but is ashade cheaper.
• Ayecka SR 1
This box has also been rigorously
tested by GEO and EUMETSAT andworks well.
Configuring your PC to talk to the IP Receiver
If you are using a PCIe card or USB box,
follow the instructions in the setup guidefor your receiver to install the device into
your PC. You should be able to see data
flow using the utility provided by the device
vendor. You may need to configure thedevice at this point.
If you have chosen an IP receiver, you may
need to add a second network card to yourPC, or configure the PC’s main connection
to your house network to be over Wi-Fi anduse the PC’s LAN port to connect to the
IP receiver (the Traffic port for the SR1).
A further alternative is to use an EDIMAX
USB-to-Ethernet adaptor to provide your PC
with a second network port. This particulardevice is recommended as it has thebest available drivers for the EUMETCast
service. It is available in both USB 2.0
and USB 3.0 versions, both of which workwith EUMETCast. You can configure the
Ayecka SR1 over the direct USB connection
using the EUMETSAT-supplied configuration
files. They have a rather nice way of setting
the parameters for both the DVB-S and the
DVB-S2 service from a single file, allowing
you to choose between them dynamically.
Common Receiver Tasks
You will need to set up the IP address ofeither the second network card or the PCIeor USB device. I suggest disabling all the
protocols supported on the card or device
except IPv4. Note the address, as you may
need it later. Ensure that this address isdifferent from that which you use for yourexisting DVB-S receiver.
You should now have both your old andnew DVB-S services available at your PC,
and you can, for example, run DVB-World

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to receive the old service. Stop the DVBWorld program, and edit the TelliCast ‘recv.
ini’ file so that the Interface Address now
points to the new IP address which you set
above. You can actually set the address to
0.0.0.0, or even omit that line altogether,and TelliCast will determine for itself where
its data is coming from. But it is better to
use the correct address if you can. Connect
the DC path to the antenna, to the new
DVB-S2 receiver, and you should now beable to restart TelliCast and restore the data
flow.
That’s the first part complete—you havechanged to a DVB-S2 receiver. You may
want to run this for a while to make sureeverything is stable, and of course there
may be a few issues to resolve along theway.

Step-2 - Changing the service

Antenna
What has become apparent is that dishalignment, choice of LNB and its alignment
and, depending where you live, dish size,are very important factors in obtaining good
reception. Up here in Scotland we haveneeded to move from the 80/85 cm dishes
we were using to 100/120 cm dishes. I
haven’t seen comprehensive reports fromthe south of England, but my best estimate
would be that you will need a minimum ofan 80/85 cm dish. I repeat, intentionally, that
accurate alignment of dish in both azimuthand elevation, and adjustment of the LNB
skew and focus are critical.
Antenna Size
Its possible that you may need to change toa bigger antenna depending on the signal
you get now, your location, and your aims
in receiving the new service—whether the
Basic Service contains all you need orwhether the High Volume Service is also
something you want to get. You need alink margin of 4-5 dB, so take a look at
the Europe-wide link margin page listed in
the Resources section below: check what
antenna size people near you are using,and use this to make your judgment. A
good LNB such as the Inverto Black Ultra
is recommended, following tests by Arne
van Belle. Once you have purchased yournew antenna and LNB, get it working on theexisting DVB-S service using either yourexisting DVB-S or new DVB-S2 receiver.
You should see an increase in signalto-noise ratio (Es/No) compared to yourexisting antenna and LNB.
Realigning the Antenna and LNB
This may be the most critical step of all. As
the new service is weaker, you will needto have the antenna correctly aligned inazimuth and elevation, and the LNB skew
(axial rotation) and focus (distance from thedish) should be optimised. Look up one of
the satellite position calculators (e.g. my
own WXtrack or Satlex) and compare theazimuth and elevation of the geostationary
satellites at 9°E and 10°E (Eutelsat 9A andEutelsat 10A). In Edinburgh, the satellites areless than a degree apart in azimuth, and a

December 2014

quarter of a degree or less in elevation, verysmall differences.
Configure your DVB-S2 receiver for the
DVB-S2 service and, very carefully, movethe antenna a very small amount in azimuth
towards the new satellite location while
watching the signal level and Es/No very
carefully. Repeat the movement in azimuth
until the new signal is found. This may
require a number of iterations, as you won’t
get a reading until you are quite close to thecorrect position: don’t move too far.
If you are monitoring a service otherthan EUMETCast, or just using a simple
level‑meter, you will probably move theantenna on to the much stronger signals
from the 13°E satellite. Having got theazimuth correct, tweak the elevation for best
signal, then adjust the skew on the LNB
for best Es/No. What you are really trying
to achieve here is to orient the LNB suchthat signals coming from the satellite withthe opposite polarization are rejected asmuch as possible, thus maximising the Es/
No. Repeat the adjustments until no further

The Group for Earth Observation

improvement in Es/No can be obtained.
Even after aligning your dish on the new
10A satellite, you will probably still get agood enough signal to receive the DVB‑S
service from 9A. This may be useful if you
need to check back, or to compare settingsand signal.
What Next?
The good news is, that once you have the
DVB-S2 data flowing in, there should be noneed for any further adjustments. None of
the software—the TelliCast software or any
other subsequent processing software—needs to change. You are now set to enjoy
the data on the new DVB-S2 service andthe switch-off of DVB-S won’t affect you atall.
Some Hints
If you are using the Ayecka SR1 receiver,you can improve the amount of data
received by altering the link margin
thresholds. For the Basic Service alone,
you can try a lower setting of -0.5 dB andan upper one of -0.3 dB. Yes, those are

GEO Quarterly No 44

negative values. These numbers were
established during the recent solar outage
during the Autumn of 2014. For both theHigh Volume Service (with or without the
Basic Service), try lower: +0.5 dB, upper:+0.6 dB. Of course, your receiver may
perform slightly differently, and slightly
different settings may produce the best
results: i.e. the longest period with gooddata, and the shortest period with no data.
If you are taking just the Basic Service(perhaps your signal level is too low for theHigh Volume Service), you can optimise
your reception by setting your receiver toaccept only the Basic Service MODCOD(8PSK3/5). This can be directly configured
in both the Ayecka and Novra receivers(you may need software 250 or later for
the Ayecka box), and in the TBS IP Tool
software for the TBS units.
If you have problems ...
Ask on the MSG-1 YAHOO! group at
https://groups.yahoo.com/
group/MSG-1/info

Resources• EUMETSAT DVB-S2 migration
http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/TechnicalBulletins/EUMETCast/DAT_2082113.html• EUMETCast User Forum
http://www.eumetsat.int/website/home/TechnicalBulletins/EUMETCast/DAT_2266023.html• DVB-S2 receiver evaluation notes
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/index.html• EU-4208 USB 2.0 Fast Ethernet Adapter
http://www.edimax.com/au/produce_detail.php?pd_id=445&pl1_id=5&pl2_id=26
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EU-4208-100Mbps-Ethernet-Adapter/dp/B0094D4X5C• USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter EU-4306
http://www.edimax.com/edimax/merchandise/merchandise_detail/data/edimax/us/network_adapters_usb_adapters/eu-4306/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Edimax-EU-4306-Gigabit-Ethernet-Adapter/dp/B00CDTIGV6• Europe-wide Link Margin page
http://www.satsignal.eu/mrtg/performance_eumetcast-europe_link_margin.php• Inverto Black LNB - dual and quad versions
http://www.inverto.tv/products/product.php?section=1&id=68
http://www.inverto.tv/products/product.php?section=1&id=78• WXtrack
http://www.satsignal.eu/software/wxtrack.htm• Satlex satellite calculator
http://www.satlex.de/en/azel_calc.html

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A NASA Earth Observatory Report
It is easy to see why, in 1910,
German colonists made Rabaul
the capital of what is now known
as New Britain (formerly German
New Guinea), the largest islandof Papua New Guinea’s Bismarck
Archipelago. The town sits along
the edge of a spectacular natural
harbour and offers ships shelter
from the many tropical storms thatchurn through the area. But there
was one important factor that theGerman planners overlooked: they
were building inside the Rabaulcaldera. This harbour, which madethe area so attractive as a port,
was formed when the sea partiallyflooded a volcanic caldera createdfollowing a cataclysmic eruptionsome 1400 years ago.
The town of Rabaul, the largest
on the island of New Britain, hasbeen paying for that mistake
ever since. In 1937, an explosive
eruption from Mount Tavurvur
obliterated much of the town,
killing 500 people. In 1994, two
nearby volcanoes—Mount Vulcan
and Mount Tavurvur—burst to life
simultaneously. A quick evacuation
plan meant that just five people
lost their lives, but so muchash piled up over buildings that
almost two-thirds of the town wasdestroyed.
Since then, eruptions havecontinued to rattle Tavurvur every
few years, most recently when
the stratovolcano roared to lifeon August 29, 2014. Although theeruption was modest by historicstandards, it sent lava shooting
hundreds of metres into the air
and created a plume of gas andash that billowed to an altitude ofeighteen kilometres.
Activity has since subsided, andalthough the eruption only caused
minor damage, it did spread ash
far and wide. The Operational Land
Imager aboard NASA’s Landsat
8 satellite captured the upper,
annotated image prior to theeruption on April 27, 2014. The
lower image shows a brown layerof ash covering the landscape near
Mount Tavurvur on September 2,
2014. Forests unaffected by theash show as green, while ashcovered forests are brown.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen,
using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological
Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland.

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Les Hamilton
For a number of years now, it has seemed that direct amateur
reception of weather satellite transmissions was nearing
its end. NOAA-19, the last of the APT/HRPT satellites waslaunched in February 2009, and it is the last of its line: there
will be no more of its like. It was through these satellites,
allied with the abilities of enthusiasts to create home-brew
antennas, receivers and decoding software, that our hobby
developed. It seemed inevitable, once the last of the NOAAs
was decommissioned, that the era of direct reception would
end, to be replaced by the much less satisfying EUMETCast
era based on commercial hardware and software.
But this all changed on July 8 this year when Russia
launched the latest satellite in their Meteor 3 series,
Meteor-M N2, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
This latest hydrometeorological Earth observing satellite now
occupies the traditional, low Earth, 98.8°, 825 kilometre sunsynchronous orbit. Although it does not offer the HRPT/APT
modes of the American NOAA satellites, it does provide six
channels of LRPT imagery from its MSU-MR multi-channel
imaging scanner. This transmits on the same 137 MHz band
frequencies as NOAA-18 and NOAA-19, and provides one
kilometre per pixel imagery. Within a month of Meteor M-N2’slaunch, enthusiastic amateurs were already successfullyreceiving test signals from the satellite’s commissioning
phase transmissions, and decoding them into images.
Figure 1 is a colour composite image created from channels
1, 2 and 3—received on 137.100 MHz at 72 kSymb/s—byRaydel Abreu Espinet of Havana, Cuba. His receiving setup
consisted of a homebrew QFH antenna with 25 dB preamp,an RTL-SDR dongle receiver, GNU-Radio under Ubuntu
Linux for QPSK symbol extraction, and Oleg Bekrenev’s
LrptOffLineDecoder software under Windows-7 to create theimages. According to Raydel, spatial resolution of the images
is near 1 km/pixel near nadir, but becomes a lot worse
towards the edges due to heavy geometric distortion arisingfrom the curvature of the Earth. At the time of writing, theimages received all suffer from white bands that appear at
6½ minute intervals during transmission. Hopefully, this is
a problem that will be overcome before the satellite becomesfully operational.

Figure 1 - This image of the Caribbean was obtained from a Meteor-M N2 test
transmission on July 31 by Raydel Abreu Espinet (CM2ESP) from Havana in
Cuba. The image is shown after being corrected for geometrical distortion.

Historical Background
Meteor-M N2 is the latest in a long line of over seventy Meteor
series spacecraft dating back to the launch of Meteor 1-01
in March 1969. An image received by James Brown from
Meteor 1-30, which was launched in early 1980, wasreproduced on page 23 of GEO Quarterly No 39. Many readers
will have fond memories of Meteor 3-05 in particular, still
the longest-lived of all the Meteor craft, which successfully
plied the heavens for a record 12 years between 1991 and2003. This satellite transmitted just a single visible channel,
designed to highlight snow and ice (figure 2).
The Satellite and its Instrumentation
Meteor-M N2, which is increasingly being referred to more
simply as Meteor M2, has been designed to operate in orbit
for five years. It is the second spacecraft in the Meteor-3M
series, complementing the troubled Meteor-M N1 launchedon September 17, 2009. The spacecraft consists of a large
cylindrical body structure, two deployable sun-tracking solar
arrays, a large deployable synthetic aperture radar antenna
and a rectangular payload deck that hosts the majority of
the instruments—and instrument apertures being pointed to
Earth for observations. Meteor M N2 is three-axis stabilised,

Figure 2 - This Meteor 3-05 image was transmitted on March 30, 2001

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December 2014

with attitude sensing provided by a star tracker (referred to as
BOKZ-M) that provides pointing accuracy of 0.1º. Power of 2 kilowatt
is provided by the twin solar arrays, which are continuously sun
pointed for optimum power generation. Each solar panel has an areaof 23 m2, and a span of 14 metres.
Most of the instruments onboard Meteor-M N2 are similar to thosecurrently flying on Meteor-M N1, except for the IR-sounder (IRFS-2).
This new instrument will be used in numerical weather prediction
schemes together with MTVZA-GY data, thereby supplementing thepresent sparse aerological sounding coverage.
The most significant distinction between this satellite and its
predecessor is that both passive and active instruments are
installed on the same platform: the MTVZA-GY sounding microwave
radiometer and the Severjanin side-looking radar. Together, thesedevices will now permit all-weather sea ice monitoring for the Arctic
and Antarctic regions.
The ground segment for the Meteor-M N2 satellite consists of three
regional SRC Planeta/Roshydromet centres, which are responsible forreceiving, processing, disseminating and archiving the satellite data.
These are a European station in Moscow-Obninsk-Dolgoprudny,a Siberian one in Novosibirsk and a Far-Eastern station at
Khabarovsk. These three centres will together provide full coverage of
the Russian territory and neighboring states.
Meteor-M N2, has been designed to monitor a wide range of features
relating to Earth and its environment by• providing global and local images of clouds and the Earth’s surface,
including ice and snow cover in the visible, infrared and microwave
ranges• collecting data to determine sea surface temperature and the radiation
temperature of the underlying surface• providing radar images of the Earth’s surface• collecting data on the distribution of ozone, and its total content, in theatmosphere• monitoring the geophysical conditions in near-Earth space• providing data for determining total trace gas components of theatmosphere• collecting data on the spectral density of the energy brightness ofoutgoing radiation to determine the vertical profile of temperatureand humidity in the atmosphere, as well as for the evaluation of theradiation balance of the Earth and its atmosphere• gathering information from data collection platforms (DCPs) andtransfering them to ground stations for receiving and processing
information.

Meteor‑M N2 launches from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on
July 8, 2014, aboard its Soyuz-2.1b/Fregat launch vehicle
Image: Roscosmos

In summary, the 2.7 tonne Meteor‑M N2 will provide timely
information for weather forecasting, particularly monitoring ocean
surface temperature and ice conditions to facilitate shipping in polar
regions; it will also monitor the ozone layer and radiation conditions
in near-Earth space. The instrumentation carried by Meteor‑M N2 issummarised in the panel below.
The Meteor‑M N2 Instrument Suite
The satellite’s seven payload components are the• MSU-MR Scanning Radiometer, a 1 km spatial resolution
multichannel scanning unit with 6 channels in the VIS/IR• KMSS VIS Scanning Imager, carrying 6 channels implemented by
3 cameras, providing 50 m and 100 m spatial resolution• MTVZA-GY Imaging/Sounding Microwave Radiometer, a module fortemperature and humidity sounding of the atmosphere, with
26 channels in the range 10.6-183 GHz• IRFS-2 Infrared FTS (Fourier Transform Spectrometer), an
IR atmospheric sounder, spectral range 5-15 µm, spectral
resolution ~0.5 cm- 1, also sometimes referred to as IKRS-2• GGAK-M Heliogeophysical Complex, a package of five instruments tomonitor electromagnetic solar radiation, corpuscular radiation and terrestrial
magnetic fields.
• Severjanin X-band Side-Looking Radar providing both 500 metre and1000 metre resolution• DCS, the Data Collection System)
The Instrument suite carried by Meteor-M N2

42www.geo-web.org.uk

The Soyuz-2-1b rocket with the Meteor-M N2 satellite aboard,
shortly after its rollout to the launch pad on July 5, 2014.
Image: Roskosmos

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The Group for Earth Observation

The MSU-MR Scanning Radiometer
The instrument that is
causing all the excitementin the amateur Earthobserving community is
the MSU-MR scanningradiometer, designed anddeveloped by the Federal
State Unitary Enterprise/
Russian Scientific Instituteof Space Device Engineering(FSUE-RSIDE), in Moscow.
The instrument’s objectives
are global and regional
cloud cover mapping,and measuring both sea
surface and land surface
The MSU-MR Instrument
temperatures.
Image:FSUE-RSIDE-Roshydromet-Planeta
The optomechanical MSU-MR instrument provides imagery
in six bands in the VIS and IR spectral regions, with a swath
width of 2800 kilometres, functionality almost identicalwith the AVHRR/3 instrument carried by the American
NOAA satellites. Table 1 provides a comparison between the
AVHRR/3 and MSU-MR while table 2 provides more precise
details of the MSU-MR.

GEO Quarterly No 44

NOAA AVHRR/Meteor LRPT Wavelength Comparison
NOAA AVHRR/3

Meteor MSU-MR

Channel 1

0.58 - 0.68 µm

Channel 1

0.50 - 0.70 µm

Channel 20.725- 1.00 µm

Channel 20.70 - 1.10 µm

Channel 3A 1.58 - 1.64 µm

Channel 3

1.60 - 1.80 µm

Channel 3B 3.55 - 3.93 µm

Channel 43.50 - 4.10 µm

Channel 410.30 - 11.30 µm

Channel 510.55 - 11.50 µm

Channel 511.50 - 12.50 µm

Channel 6

11.50 - 12.50 µm

Table 1 - Comparison between the AVHRR/3 and MSU-MR radiometers

Meteor-M N2 MSU-MR Channel Specifications
Band

Wavelength

Type

Channel 1

0.50 ± 0.2 - 0.70 ± 0.2 µm

VisibleChannel 20.70 ± 0.2 - 1.10 ± 0.2 µm

Visible/Near IR

Channel 3

1.60 ± 0.5 - 1.80 ± 0.5 µm

Short Wave IR

Channel 43.50 ± 0.5 - 4.10 ± 0.5 µm

Mid Wave IR

Channel 510.50 ± 0.5 - 11.50 ± 0.5 µm

Thermal IR

Channel 6

11.50 ± 0.5 - 12.50 ± 0.5 µm

Thermal IR

Table 2 - MSU-MR Wavelength BandsThe MSU-MR instrument transmits all six channels as HRPTon 1700 MHz, but with a very different data frame structurefrom the NOAAs. The Meteor Ground Segment than selects
three of these channels, applies JPEG compression, andtransmits them as an LRPT frame on 137 MHz.

Future Develoments
Roskosmos plans to launch five similar satellites withthe same payload as Meteor-M2, (Meteor-M2-1 throughMeteor-M2-5), the goal being to create a system of identicalmeteorological satellites in the morning and afternoon orbits.

Meteor-M2 Delivers its First Image
On July 25, 2014, Meteor-M2 delivered its first image using
its low-resolution scanning device, the MSU-MR. Accordingto Roskosmos, the instrument, operating in all its six spectral
ranges, demonstrated good performance. On August 9,
2014, Roskosmos announced that the activation process for
all instruments onboard Meteor-M N2 had entered its final
phase and all payloads had undergone testing.

Acknowledgement
Thanks to Raydel Abreu Espinet for providing additional
information on the MSU-MR instrument.
References
1 http://www.russianspaceweb.com/meteor_m2.html
2 https://directory.eoportal.org/web/eoportal/satellite-missions/m/
meteor-m-2

This image of the Black Sea from Meteor-M N2 was obtained with the satellite’s MSU-MR instrument on July 30 2014, and illustrates the resolution available.
Credit Roskosmos

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

NASA Earth Observatory
On October 17, 2014, the eye of category 3
Hurricane Gonzalo passed right over Bermuda,
knocking out power to most of the islandand causing between $200–$400 million
in property damage. The potent storm also
stirred up sediments in the shallow bays
and lagoons around Bermuda, spreadinga huge mass of material across the North
Atlantic Ocean.
The Operational Land Imager on theLandsat 8 satellite acquired these twonatural-colour views of Bermuda. Figure 1
was acquired on October 2 and figure 2 on
October 18, one day after Gonzalo passed
through. Following the storm, visible plumesof sediment stretch up to 30 kilometres from
Bermuda. The suspended sediments weremost likely a combination of beach sandand carbonate sediments from around theshallows and reefs.
Coral reef and carbonate island
environments such as Bermuda produce
large amounts of calcium carbonate(CaCO3), mainly in the form of aragonite
and magnesium calcite, and a single island
can produce as much CaCO3 as several
hundred square kilometres of open ocean.
But unlike the calcium carbonate producedin the open ocean by coccolithophores,
foraminifera, and pteropods, that produced
by reefs remains on the reef flats, building
up over time to forms islands.

Figure 1 - Bermuda, imaged on October 2, 2014, before the arrival of Hurricane Gonzalo.

These stores of calcium carbonate sedimentcan be transported from shallows to thedeep ocean by storms or density flows. The
strong winds of storms like Gonzalo canmove large amounts of sediment off theshallow islands in a single event. Density
flows can occur when the shallow water on
the reef flat is cooled by a weather system,
making it denser than the surrounding
ocean water, so that it sinks to the deep
ocean, carrying sediments with it.
Such storm-induced export of carbonate
sediments into the deep ocean—where theymostly dissolve—is a significant process
in the ocean’s carbonate and carbon
cycles. It’s also important for the eventual
neutralisation of excess atmospheric carbon
dioxide entering the oceans because of its
increasing concentration through fossil fuelcombustion.
The dissolution of calcium carbonate is an
important process in the carbon cycle: itis one of the means whereby the oceansnaturally balance the addition of carbon
dioxide to their waters. However, as more
CO2 is added to the surface waters due
to rising atmospheric concentrations, it is
becoming increasingly difficult for coral andcoralline algae to make calcium carbonate.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen,
using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey.

44

Figure 2 - Plumes of sediment around Bermuda on October 18, 2014.

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December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

David Williams - williad@optusnet.com.au
We recently received an interesting letter from David Williams of
Sydney, Australia, who made a number of observations, as wellas raising several interesting questions. David would be happy toreceive emails from any members able to assist him.
In the June 2014 Quarterly there was an article and picture of “TheRichat Structure”. When I saw the picture, I was reminded of asimilar looking structure on Ascension Island called “The Devil’s
Riding School”. You can see it on Google Maps at -7.958028°,-14.379167°. I was on Ascension Island with Cable & Wireless inthe early 1980s for a couple of years, working on the two Earthstations there. We supported the NASA tracking station, called
the Devil’s Ashpit, by sending their voice and data to the USA bysatellite. Ascension Island is of volcanic origin and is on the MidAtlantic Ridge. I don’t know what caused the Devil’s Riding School
structure, but I did walk around it a few times while I was there.
On to the September 2014 Issue
I was totally blown away by the centrefold image of Europe absolutely stunning! This quality cannot be shown on a computer
monitor. My thanks to EUMETSAT, Mike Stevens and to you forbringing it to us.
I am a little disappointed to have read that GEO is moving tothree PDF and one paper magazine from 2015. I do understand thecost pressures when there are only around 300 members, but I do
prefer a paper magazine as you can read it almost anywhere, andthey can be easily stored. You cannot beat the quality of a good
picture printed in full colour in a magazine.
A little bit of background about me. I became interested in weather
satellite reception when I heard about Timestep in, I think, 1985. I
wrote to them for information on their receivers and they sent mesome nice brochures, but said that they only sold to educational
establishments. Later, I came across an article for a built-and-tested
VHF receiver board in the Maplin Electronics magazine: you just
had to box it up and add the surrounding parts. I bought one ofthese, which used a ‘tuning knob’ to tune across the satellite band:no scanning or preset channels there. They also offered a crossed
dipole aerial kit, which I also purchased.
I migrated to Australia in 1988. I remember having the crossed
dipole leaning against the trampoline and the Maplin receiver on the
trampoline mat when I received my first satellite. I later worked outthat it was a Russian Meteor—by its sound. I only had a BBC B+
computer at this time and bought the Cirkit interface to connect the
Maplin receiver to the BBC. When I tried this out it didn’t work very
well: nothing was recognisable. I don’t know if this was due to thepoor resolution of the BBC B+, the fact it only had four shades ofgrey or whether the BBC B+ was interfering with the receiver. I did,around this time, join RIG, ordered all the available back issues,and started to learn all about framestores as well as all the otherinteresting weather satellite information in the RIG Journal. I also
got to read about Henry’s events on his farm. I installed my crossed
dipoles on the roof and finally obtained a 386 computer with a
VGA card—a major step forward—640 x 480 pixels with 256 shadegreyscale.
My satellite prediction at this time consisted of telephoning abulletin board and writing down the TLEs, from which I could workout the equator crossing times. Then I used a track printed on clear
plastic which I rotated over a map to match the equator crossing,from which I could then read off the approximate rise and set times
for the satellite for my location. I learnt of this tracking techniquefrom the book The Satellite Experimenter’s Handbook by Martin

GEO Quarterly No 44

Davidoff. I photocopied the satellite track on to a clear plastic sheet,
which I then laid over a polar view world map, with a drawing pin
through the plastic and the north pole of the map. I could thenrotate the plastic sheet so that the track lined up with the equatorcrossing. On the track were tick marks showing the time since theequator crossing. Although it may seem crude, it was close enoughfor APT reception of the NOAA and Meteor satellites.
I bought an Australian-made interface to use with the 386 computer,and used this with the Maplin receiver and the well known program
JV-FAX. This was an eye-opener, as I could now recognise what
I was looking at. The downside was that as the Maplin receiver
could not scan, so I had to set it to the specific satellite frequency
and then leave the software running until the satellite arrived andopened the squelch.
My next upgrade was to a 486 computer and the Timestep Prosat
for Windows LC interface. I also bought the Dartcom receiver kit.
This was, for me, a very good APT reception system and I amvery happy with it: I still use it for APT reception. Unfortunately,
the neighbour’s trees have grown, which restricts my view to thenorth. It was amazing to be able to measure temperatures all overAustralia using it and to see how hot the ‘Outback’ gets in summer.
My next step was to buy the Timestep GMS receiver, coffee canfeed and LNA. I bought a 6-foot satellite TVRO dish and modified
it to take the Timestep feed. Using the Prosat for Windows LCinterface, I was now able to automate reception of the GMS wefax
pictures. I had a dedicated computer receiving the full disk every
three hours. With the animation software it was amazing to see theway the clouds developed and moved across the globe. Then a few
years later wefax was replaced by LRIT. That was the end of my
MTSAT reception.
When NOAA said that they would be replacing APT with LRIT
they also said that LRIT would be ‘inexpensive’ to receive, and it
should be possible to use a PC to decode it. With the changeoverto the EUMETCAST system, it seems that most of Europe nolonger received the pictures from the weather satellites, but by
the EUMETCast system. Here in Australia we don’t seem to haveanything like this. There was a FENGYUNcast system but I havenot been able to find out much about this. I sent a few emails
to China to learn more but never received a reply. I understandDartcom developed a LRIT receiver, but when I asked them it wasover £1,000, too much for me to spend on a hobby.
Queries
I was wondering whether any of the GEO members can suggest
how I can receive the MTSAT LRIT or HRIT signals? Is there any
software/hardware around that perhaps can use the low cost USB
DVB digital TV dongles for LRIT?
Does anyone know if NOAA ever developed an LRIT software
receiver? Trawling the web only brings up Quorum in the USA but
they appear to be reselling the Dartcom system.
Are there any designs for home-built LRIT receivers anywhere?
I would love to be able to receive the LRIT or HRIT signals fromMTSAT.
I see that the GEOS system in the USA is moving to HRIT only inthe future.
I know some receive their weather images over the Internet—which
is a possible option for me, but to me it is not quite the same as
actually receiving the signals direct from the spacecraft.
I have enjoyed reading the articles about the upgrades to the
DVB-S2 system for the EUMETCast distribution. It would be nice tobe able to see the satellite from here and be able to use it.
Regards,
David Williams, Sydney, Australia
williad@optusnet.com.au

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

NASA Earth Observatory
If you frequently look at satellite imagery or astronaut photography,
you will probably have noticed bright patches of light that makecertain bodies of water gleam with unusual colour. That gleam
is caused by sunglint, an optical phenomenon that occurs whensunlight reflects off the surface of water at the same angle asa satellite sensor views it. This produces a mirror-like specularreflection of sunlight, off the water and back to the satellite sensor.
If bodies of water were perfectly smooth, a sequence of nearly
perfect reflections of the Sun would appear in a line along the trackof the satellite’s orbit. But in reality, water surfaces are irregular andoften in motion due to wind, waves and currents; so the sunlightbecomes scattered in many directions, leaving blurry streaks oflight in the swaths of satellite data. Notice the recurring instancesof sunglint around the globe in figure 1. All the data for this mosaic
were collected by the MODIS instrument flying aboard NASA’s
Aqua satellite on July 3, 2014.
The combination of sunglint, wind patterns, and island shapes
around Crete and the Aegean islands made for a particularly
spectacular scene that day (figure 2). Although sunglint washes
out many features, it also reveals details about the water andatmospheric circulation that are usually hidden. In this case, thesunglint exposed wakes caused by north and northwest winds thatroughened and smoothed the water surface behind Crete and theother islands.

Figure 2 - Spectacular sunglint south of Crete captured by the MODIS
instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua Satellite at 11:15 UT on July 3, 2014.
Image: LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC

Figure 1 - Repeated instances of sunglint are apparent in this Aqua mosaic dating from July 3, 2014.
Image: LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC

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Figure 3 - Sunglint around Cape Cod seen in astronaut photograph
ISS028-E-9979, acquired on June 27, 2011.

GEO Quarterly No 44

Figure 4 - Sunglint from streams and lakes in the Amazon flood plain in
astronaut photograph ISS017-E-13856, acquired on August 19, 2008,

Image: NASA

Image: NASA

The islands create a wind shadow—
blocking, slowing, and redirecting air flow.
That wind, or lack of it, piles up waves andchoppy water in some places, but calms
the water surface in others, changing themanner in which the sunlight is reflected. In
addition, sunglint revealed what appeared to
be atmospheric gravity waves downwind ofmany of the Aegean Islands.
While sunglint often produces visuallystunning images (figures 3, 4), thephenomenon can create problems for remotesensing scientists by obscuring features thatare usually visible. This is particularly true
for oceanographers who use satellites tostudy phytoplankton and ocean colour. As aresult, researchers have developed several
methods to screen sunglint-contaminatedimagery out of data archives.
Despite the challenges posed by sunglint,
the phenomenon does offer some uniquescientific opportunities. It makes it easier, forinstance, to detect oil on the water surface,whether derived from natural oil seeps or
human-caused spills. This is because a layerof oil tends to smooth water surfaces.

Figure 5 - Sunglint around the Canary Islands as imaged by the MODIS instrument on NADA’s Terrasatellite on June 15, 2013.

In the final image, the MODIS instrument
carried by NASA’s Terra satellite looked
down on the Canary Islands on June 15,
2013. Over much of this image (figure 5)
the waters of the Atlantic Ocean have asilvery or milky colour due to sunglint. The
prevailing winds in the area come from thenortheast, and the wind shadows created by
the islands produce the wavy, windsock-liketails seen stretching to the southwest fromeach of them.

Image: LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC

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GEO Quarterly No 44

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December 2014

David Taylor - david-taylor@blueyonder.co.uk
Do you want to get more out of your Ayecka SR1 EUMETCast
receiver? Did you know that the SR1 offers comprehensive
monitoring facilities?
I have put together a set of notes on using MRTG tomonitor the SR1, so that you can check things like Link
Margin (critical for correct operation), Signal Level and soon, and monitor them on a long-term basis. This meansthat both day-to-day events such as heavy rain storms,
or more gradual changes to your system such as cable
deterioration, or tree growth shading your dish, can be moreeasily detected. You may already use MRTG for monitoringother features of your system. One of the advantages of thismonitoring software is that it can reside anywhere on yournetwork, and not necessarily on your EUMETCast PC. A
number of folk have helped me to develop the current set ofrecommendations which you can find at this URL
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/dvb-s2/sr1-mrtg.html

where you will find numerous configuration files relating to
the Ayecka SR1 receiver. There, you will find useful code
examples that you can cut and paste into your own files.

What parameters can be monitored
and what do they mean?
Signal Level
On the Ayecka SR1, the level is monitored at the input tothe demodulator. It is not the RF level into the receiver! The
absolute value of the signal will depend on the footprint of
the EUTELSAT 10A satellite at your location, your dish gain
and alignment, the LNB gain, and the length of cable to yourreceiver. It will differ between various stations. Useful formonitoring either long-term or short-term changes, but the
SNR and Link Margin are better measures.
Signal-to-noise ratio - Es/No
While the signal level is not comparable between stations,
the SNR is. You can now start to compare your station’s
performance versus those of others, and this parameter is theone shown on the Ayecka Console utility, and can be used
for optimising your dish and LNB alignment. Typical values
for Europe are around 12 dB, although stations with smaller
antennas may see 10.5 dB, while those with large antennas
in the centre of the footprint may see 14.5 dB or greater. Notethat the value also depends on the noise level, so if the LNB
skew is not correctly set, cross-polarised signals on nearby
frequencies may increase the noise and reduce the SNR.
Hence its usefulness in aligning your system.
Although you may think of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in the
DVB-S2 world this is rather more precisely definedas: Es/No, which is defined as: ‘The ratio of the energy per
symbol over the noise density’. This is used because it is aconstant value independent of whether the lower rate Basic
Service or the higher rate High Volume Service is in operation
at any particular instant. SNR is easier to say, though. You
can find more information at this URL
http://www.16apsk.org/wordpress/?p=301

Link Margin
Although you may have an SNR of 12 dB, you cannot expect
a DVB-S2 receiver to work down to a level where signal

48

and noise are equal. The Link Margin is a guide to how
near you are to the SNR where data cannot be recovered.
A link margin of 4 - 5 dB under clear-sky conditions is
recommended for 99.98 % data availability.
As the high-volume service requires a better quality signal for
successful decoding, the link margin will be different between
the basic and the high-volume services. This requires alittle bit of extra decoding, as the values emitted by the SR1
reporting will have both basic and high-volume link margins,
and a dummy value, all mixed together in the reports astime progresses. Fortunately GEO member Francis Breame
has written program which reads the values from the SR1
and presents the results for the two link margin values in aformat which MRTG can read.
Within the SR1, the link margin values are mathematicallyderived from the SNR and MODCOD characteristics of theservice, so the values follow the same trends as the SNR, but
as the values are lower than the SNR they provide a moresensitive measurement of system performance.
BER - Bit Error Rate
BER is a concept with which most readers will be familiar,
and its typical use will come during the spring and autumn
periods when the sun appears within the beamwidth of yourreceiving dish. So far, I have not often seen non-zero values
for BER. Again, this is provided directly by the Ayecka SR1
through its SNMP interface.
Bad Packets and Bad FramesThis refers to the DVB-S2 packets received, and not to the
TelliCast packets which are covered later. The DVB-S2
packets are assembled into DVB-S2 frames (see Alan
Sewards’ article in GEO Quarterly 43), and the number ofbad packets and frames is reported by the SR1. The MRTG
script for these parameters records the difference between
the values for consecutive calls, and thereby plots the rates ofbad packets and frames. Typically these are zero.
Receiver Output Rate
The next parameter we can measure is the receiver output
rate. This will depend on what data the receiver is set toaccept, and that will typically be either the Basic Service data
(at up to 50 Mbps) or the Basic and High Volume Service data
(at up to 77 Mbps). So if you are taking just the Basic Service,with the standard EUMETSAT PIDs, your data rate fromthe receiver should be the same as any other station withthe same receiver options. Note that this does not depend
on what data you choose to accept by means of editing the
TelliCast recv-channels.ini file. Should your data stop flowing,
you can check with other stations in Europe to see whether
the problem is local or not.
As EUMETSAT specify the throughput in bits per second, bits
rather than bytes are used for plotting this parameter. The
traffic to and from the Management Port on the SR1 can also
be plotted for interest.
PC Input Rate
Although the output from the SR1 is the same for all stations
with the same receiver settings, the input to the PC will
differ as it depends on the TelliCast settings. For example, if
you are only receiving data from the Rapid-Scan service ondata channels 5 and 6, then, when data for other channels

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December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

Ayecka SR1 receiver #1
10 A DVB-S2 service
Es/No db

Ayecka SR1 receiver #1
10 A DVB-S2 service
Link Margin dB
Basic and High Volume service margins

Ayecka SR1 receiver #1
10 A DVB-S2 service
BER - bit error rate 10E-7

Ayecka SR1 receiver #1
10 A DVB-S2 service
Bad packets

Ayecka SR1 receiver #1
10 A DVB-S2 service
Bad frames

Traffic from SR1 receiver #1

Traffic to PC Feenix from #1

Ayecka #2 Management port I/O
Input: mostly general network activity
Output: responses to SNMP requests

is available from the receiver, the PC will not connect to thatdata and the channel will not be joined. This means thatno data is accepted by the PC and hence there is nothing torecord. So the PC input rate is something which is useful for
local monitoring, rather than something you might comparewith other stations in Europe and expect and exact match. As
MRTG is normally used for network monitoring, a standard
MRTG configuration can be used for this variable. For
consistency with the receiver output rate, this variable is alsoplotted in bits.
TelliCast Packets
A good measure of the end-to-end performance of the
EUMETCast system can be had by the number of data packets
which are missed and then, through error correction, either
recovered or lost. This can be very sensitive to PC settings andthe use of a RAMdisk. Both the missed and recovered packets
can be monitored using a program available from my website.
It is also possible to use a script which subtracts the recovered
packets from the missed packets to get the lost packets:

however, this may only be an estimate, as it is possible thata missed packet noted at the time of measurement may
have been recovered by the time of the next measurement.
But both values are useful when plotted together with othermeasurements of PC performance such as network I/O, CPUload, and disk I/O to assist in correlating the losses against
other PC activity.
A Europe-Wide Network
This monitoring has now developed into a Europe-widemonitoring network which is even used by EUMETSAT to keep
an eye on the DVB-S2 service. Perhaps you would like to add
your station to those reporting here?
http://www.satsignal.eu/mrtg/
performance_eumetcast-europe_link_margin.php

Please contact me if you do so. My thanks to all those whohave made suggestions on the optimum presentation of thisdata and who have discovered facilities in MRTG which I never
knew existed!

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GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

Les Hamilton
Some years ago [1] we carried afeature on the NASA QuikSCAT satellite
which launched in June 1999. This
craft carried the SeaWinds radar
scatterometer, which measured theroughness of the oceans, thereby
indirectly determining the speed anddirection of the winds blowing above
them. QuikSCAT greatly exceeded
its design lifetime, and was only
decommissioned when failure ofbearings in the mounting of its spinningantenna finally signalled the end of its
mission in November 2009.
So essential were QuikScat’s
measurements that NASA waschallenged to devise a speedy and costeffective replacement. Building a newsatellite from scratch would have beenprohibitively expensive, but scientists at
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)in Pasadena, California came up with
an elegant solution. A suitable hostplatform for the new instrument alreadyexisted: the International Space Station(ISS), and in the summer of 2012,
NASA’s space station program manager
offered scientists at JPL a mounting
location on the ISS for a replacement
instrument, plus a free ride into
orbit aboard an ISS resupply mission
in 2014. The entire ISS-RapidScat
mission was subsequently built in justeighteen months—an extraordinarily
short timeline compared with mostspaceborne missions.
In line with NASA’s Reduce-ReuseRecycle policy, the ISS-RapidScat
team adapted and reused mothballed
hardware from the 1990s, that was
built for ground-based testing of
QuikScat. Thus, they created a new
instrument at a fraction of the cost
and timescale that was required toconstruct and launch the original
mission. Despite their advanced age,those components offer all the capacity
the mission needed, and passed every
test.
The resulting ISS-RapidScat windwatching scatterometer took off from
Cape Canaveral on a Falcon-9 launcher
on September 21, 2014, as part of thescience cargo aboard the commercial
SpaceX Dragon CRS-4, ISS resupply
mission, successfully berthing at the
Earth-facing port on the ISS’s Harmony
module on September 23. RapidScat’s
two modules were then assembled
and attached to the exterior of thestation’s Columbus module between
September 29-30, the first science
payload to be robotically assembled inSpace since the ISS itself.

50

The ISS-Rapidscat (inset) and its location on the ISS
Image: NASA

RapidScat is the first scientific Earthobserving instrument to have been
specifically designed and developed
for mounting on the exterior of theInternational Space Station, andushered in a new era of research for the
ISS as an Earth observation platform.
Figure 1 shows RapidScat’s instrument
assembly on the left, shrouded in white;on the right is the Rapid-Scat nadir
adapter, a sophisticated bracket thatpoints the scatterometer toward Earthso that it can record the direction andspeed of ocean winds. The two units
are shown stowed in the unpressurised
hold of a SpaceX Dragon cargospacecraft at Cape Canaveral.
Instrument Overview
NASA’s ISS-RapidScat mission has
been designed to observe ocean windspeed and direction over most of the
globe, bringing a new eye on tropicalstorms, hurricanes and typhoons. The
scatterometer is a radar instrument that
sends out microwaves at a frequencyof 13.4 gigahertz, essentially the same
low-energy microwaves you use to warm
food in a domestic microwave oven.
In use, these microwaves are directed
towards ocean surfaces, and thereflected signals that return to the
instrument are measured with a
precision comparable to that of
QuikSCAT, and analysed to calculate
both wind speed and direction overthe sea. This is possible because theroughness of the ocean surface varies
in a predictable manner that is directly
related to the speed and direction of
the wind. ISS-RapidScat’s observation
swath of 900 kilometres covers most of
Earth’s ocean surfaces between 51.6
degrees north and south latitude—
approximately from London, Englandin the north to the southern tip ofPatagonia in the south—every 48 hours.

Figure 1 - The RapidScat two-part payload in thehold of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft at
NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
XImage credit: SpaceXwww.geo-web.org.uk

Reference
1 NASA’s Eyes on Ocean Winds - GEOQ 9page 26

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GEO Quarterly No 44

Evaluating DVB-S2 Receivers
Continued from page 30

and use them as instructed in the guide.
Further refinements can be made when up and runningand asking for current advice on the MSG1 YAHOO! usergroup
• A Windows PC (as above), but with a USB-2 interface
available for configuring the SR1• the Windows PC must have an Internet connection, or
alternatively, you must have a copy of the USB-to-COM
emulator application available• the EUMETCast antenna pointing must be performed
correctly to Eutelsat 10 for DVB-S2 reception (crucial).
• an EKU has been obtained from the EUMETSAT user
help desk• the reception host PC has the latest EUMETCast
reception software installed• the Ayecka SR1 has software version 1.5b232 installed.
This version improves the reception performance for
8PSK when the link margin is too low for 16APSK to bereceived error-free• the Ayecka SR1 firmware version 2.02b922 is installed.
This version has PID 509 hard-coded, which allows thereception of all the 9 PIDs on EUMETCast DVB-S andthe reception of all 7 PIDs on EUMETCast DVB-S2.
Testers have found the ‘Console’ utility from Ayecka (figure 2)
essential in setting up dish and LNB alignment. At present this is
still in beta. It is not generally available. I understand Ayecka hopeto make it available in the very near future. They also provide a
Web-GUI which could be viewed on a smart-phone while adjusting
the antenna.

Figure 2 - The Ayecka SR1 Console

Receive NOAA APT and Meteor M2 LRPT
with an SDR-RTL dongle
Too late to be included in the GEO Shop Page, we are now
stocking this TV28T dongle for SDR DAB, DAB+ and FM radio, made by
Newsky. Its architecture is RTL2832U/Rafael Micro R820T.
The working frequency range stretches roughly from 24 MHz to1700 MHz (it usually starts at around 23,500 MHz).
The dongle kit comes complete with
• SDR Driver CD• 2 MCX-SMA aerial patch leads• 5 adapters (SMA/BNC male and female, BNC-SO239, and
SMA male/SMA male
UK Members

EU Members

£20

£25

Orders can be made from the Shop Wep Page at

http://www.geo-web.org.uk/shop

The SDR RTL Dongle kit, complete with patch leads and adapters

www.geo-web.org.uk

51

GEO Quarterly No 44

The Group for Earth Observation

December 2014

NASA Earth Observatory
Located in the Brabazon Range of southeastern
Alaska, Yakutat Glacier is one of the fastest retreating
glaciers in the world. It is the primary outlet for the810-square kilometer Yakutat ice field, which drains
into Harlequin Lake and, ultimately, the Gulf of Alaska.
Landsat satellites captured this pair of images
showing changes in the glacier and lake. The
Thematic Mapper on Landsat-5 acquired the upper
image on August 22, 1987; the Operational Land
Imager on Landsat-8 captured the lower image on
August 13, 2013. Snow and ice appear white, forests
are green and the brown streaks on the glaciers arelateral and medial moraines.
During the 26 years between the two images,
the glacier’s terminus has retreated more than
5 kilometers. What is causing the rapid retreat?
University of Alaska glaciologist Martin Truffer andcolleagues pointed to a number of factors in their 2013
study published in the Journal of Glaciology [1]. The
chief cause is the long-term contraction of the Yakutat
Ice Field, which has been shrinking since the height of
the Little Ice Age. Once part of a much larger ice field,
Yakutat has been contracting for hundreds of years.
As other nearby glaciers retreated, Yakutat ice field
was cut off from the higher-elevation areas that once
supplied a steady flow of ice from the north. With thatflow cut off, there simply is not enough snow fallingover the low-elevation Yakutat ice field to prevent itfrom retreating.
Beyond this natural change, human-caused global
warming has hastened the speed of the retreat.
Between 1948–2000, mean annual temperatures
in Yakutat increased by 1.38°C. Between 2000 and2010, they rose by another 0.48°C. The warmer
temperatures encourage melting and sublimation at all
ice surfaces exposed to the air.

The 1987 Landsat-5 image of the Yakutat GlacierIn the past few years, the breakdown of a long,
floating ice tongue has triggered especially dramaticchanges in the terminus of Yakutat glacier. For many
years, Yakutat’s two main tributaries merged andformed a 5-kilometer calving face that extended far
into Harlequin Lake. In the past decade, satellites
observed a rapid terminus retreat and the breakup of
the ice tongue in 2010. As a result, the calving front
divided into two sections, with one running east-west
and another running north-south. See Truffer’s blog forphotos and field updates [2].
Image Comparison
You can compare these two images directly with the
dynamic comparison tool at the following NASA Imageof the Day page:
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/
view.php?id=84180&eocn=home&eoci=iotd_grid

References
1 Rapid thinning of lake-calving Yakutat Glacier
http://fairweather.alaska.edu/chris/truesseletal2013.pdf
2 Glacier adventures: Reports from the field
http://glacieradventures.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/
yakutat-glacier-end-of-project.html
NASA Earth Observatory images by Robert Simmon, using Landsat datafrom the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland

52

The 2013 Landsat-8 image of the Yakutat Glacierwww.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 44

Francis BellAMSAT-UK is a long-established group with aninterest in amateur radio communications via
satellites. In the past some of their satellite have
had Earth imaging capabilities, but the main thrustof their activities has almost always concentrated
on transponder facilities for live amateur radio
communication and the associated engineering
requirements. Over a number of years, GEO has
attended their annual colloquium based at Guildfordand given presentations relating to receptionof other Earth imaging satellites. This year the
meeting largely concentrated on the technology
and telecommunications relating to their latest
microsatellite ‘FunCube’: hence GEO did not featurein the programme of presentations but, nevertheless,
we did provide a display stand with literature which
proved to be of interest to almost all delegates.
An overlap of the interest area between AMSAT-UK
and GEO can be illustrated by the common useof their ‘FUNCube Dongle Pro+’. This brilliant little
device was designed for reception from amateur
radio satellites, but has proved perfect for the
reception of APT transmissions from polar orbiting
weather satellites, and I understand some of ourgroup have used it for HRPT.

GEO’s display stand with literature at the AMSAT-UK colloquium

For more information about AMSAT-UK, log on totheir website atwww.amsat.org

and, if you are interested in purchasing a
FunCube Dongle Pro+, visit
www.hamradio.co.uk

The technical support for the meeting’s formal presentations.

This is what happens to your one metre dish if neglected for two
years. This is the dish I used for ENVISAT reception but, after therepositioning of the hanging basket and dish realignment, it has
now been recommissioned for the new EUMETCast S2 reception. I
have been instructed to relocate the dish away from the front door
to a less conspicuous permanent domestic site.

Delegates ready for the proceedings to start.

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GEO Quarterly No 44

EUMETCast On-Line
Registration Guide
If you require to register as a first-time user for
any of the free EUMETCast data streams suchas MSG, NOAA AVHRR, Metop etc., or needto renew an existing subscription, this must be
done on-line.
GEO has produced a step-by-step guide to theentire process at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/eumreg.php
This guide also contains a direct link to theofficial EUMETCast on-line registration form,
which can otherwise prove somewhat tricky tolocate.

GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans

Dunblane, Perthshire, 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
Surbiton, Surrey, ENGLAND.
Meteosat-9 advice: registering for the various
MSG services, hardware and software
installation and troubleshooting. John will
also field general queries about any aspect ofreceiving weather satellite transmissions.
• telephone: (0208) 390 3315
• e-mail: info@geo-web.org.uk
Geoff Morris GW3ATZ
Shotton, Flintshire, NE WALES.
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,coax,connectors, mounting hardware etc. andhas also done a lot of work with the orbiting
satellites. Geoff has been a EUMETCast
Meteosat-9 user for some time and is familiar
with David Taylor’s MSG software. He
should be able to share his experiences with
newcomers to this branch of the hobby.
• Tel: (01244) 818252• e-mail: gw3atz@btopenworld.com
Mike Stevens
Portland, Dorset, England.
Assistance with reception of EUMETCast to
include Metop-A and Metop-B; also MSG Data
reception and set-up within the PC, assistancewith dish alignment and set-up, and installationand set-up of TBS DVB-S2 units.
• email: mikeg4cfz@gmail.com
Guy Martin G8NFU
Biggin Hill NW Kent, ENGLAND
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who wishing
to receive MSG/Metop using Windows 2000 or
XP. Can also help with networking and ADSL
router setup.
• gmartin@electroweb.co.uk
Hector Cintron
San Juan, 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 made at any
time, but we would ask you to respect privacy
by restricting telephone contact to the period
7.00 - 9.00 pm in the evenings.

54

The Group for Earth Observation

Weather Satellite Reports
If there is a single Internet Forum that isrelevant to all weather satellite enthusiasts,
it must surely be Douglas Deans’ Weather
Satellite reports.
Here you will find every conceivable type of
information about weather satellites, whether
polar or geostationary, APT, HRPT, LRIT,
EUMETCast or whatever.
Absolutely everything is covered, and theinformation is updated every week. Special
additional bulletins may be issued if an
important change takes place mid week.
You can read the bulletins from this URL
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/weather-satellite-reports/info
or, even better, elect to have the reports 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 page for eachgroup provides an email address through which
you can request membership. Even a blankemail containing the word ‘subscribe’ in its
Subject line is all that is required.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users of Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder can share information andproblems.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/APTDecoder/info
GEO-Subscribers
This is GEO’s own group, where members can
exchange information and post queries relating
to any aspect related to weather satellite
reception (hardware, software, antennas etc),
Earth observation satellites and any GEOrelated 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 Data Manager,
AVHRR?Manager and the ATOVS?Reader).
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SatSignal/info
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG), where members share
information about the EUMETCast reception
hardware and software.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MSG-1/info
WXtoImg-l
A forum for users of the WXtoImg software
application for receiving NOAA satellite APT
signals, and creating imagery from them.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wxtoimg-l/infowww.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014

Copy Deadline for
GEO Quarterly No 45 is
February 22, 2015
The Editor is always delighted to receive
articles and images for inclusion in
GEO Quarterly, relating to any aspect ofEarth Imaging, especially• Technical articles concerning relevant
hardware and software• Construction projects• Weather satellite images• Reports on weather phenomena• Descriptions of readers’ satellite imaging
stations• Activities from overseas readers• Letters to the Editor• Problems and Queries for our experts toanswerContributions should be original and, where
possible, should be submitted to the editor
in electronic format (email attachment, CD,
DVD). But of course, we will also accept
handwritten and typed copy.
Please note that major articles whichcontain large numbers of satellite images,
photographs or other illustrations should besubmitted as early as possible before thedeadline, so that they can be prepared intime for publication.
Images and Diagrams
Images can be accepted in any of the major
bitmap formats such as JPG, BMP, GIF
and TIFF. Both monochrome and colour
images are welcome. Line drawings anddiagrams are preferred in WMF, EPS or
postscript formats. We can also scan original
photographs, negatives and slides.
Gridding, Overlays and Captions
Please note that readers’ satellite images
should be provided without added gridlines, country outlines or captions unlessthese are considered essential for illustrative
purposes in an accompanying article.
If your article submission contains embedded
images and diagrams, please note that you
must also submit copies of the original
images in one of the formats describedabove.
Submission of Copy
Materials for publication should be sent to
the editor,
Les Hamilton
8 Deeside Place
Aberdeen AB15 7PW
ScotlandThe most efficient way to do this is by email
attachments to the following address
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Particularly large attachments (8 MB andabove) can be transmitted via Hightail
https://www.hightail.com/_________________________
And finally . . .
if you do have material ready for the next
issue of GEO Quarterly, please submit it assoon as it is ready—do not wait till the copy
deadline above: this will simply create an
editorial log-jam and delay publication.

December 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

www.geo-web.org.uk

GEO Quarterly No 44

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GEO Quarterly No 44

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The Group for Earth Observation

www.geo-web.org.uk

December 2014