Group for Earth Observation

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

43
September 2014
Inside this issue . .
GEO Members have beensteadfastly devoted to theMicrosoft Windows operating
system on their EUMETCast
stations ever since GEO wasestablished. But as Windows
falls increasingly out offavour, an alternative is now
being offered by Francis
Greaves, who describes how
to set up your EUMETCast
station using Debian Linux.
As promised last time, Mike
Stevens writes about thesuccessful completion of his
collaboration with the
manufacturers of the budget
priced TBS 6925 TV Tuner
Card for reception of
EUMETCast.
And for readers interested ina deeper insight to the
DBV-S2 broadcast system,
Alan Sewards provides anintroduction.
Finally, Les Hamilton
investigates why, despite
there having been a welldocumented ozone hole above
the Antarctic for decades, wenever hear of a similar
phenomenon afflicting thenorthern hemisphere.
Plus short features on
pyrocumulous, the Proba-V
satellite and North Sea haar.

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
Director and Public Relations
Francis Bell,
Coturnix House, Rake Lane,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB,
England.
Tel:
01483 416 897
email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
General Information
John Tellick,email: information@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton,
8 Deeside Place,
Aberdeen AB15 7PW, Scotland UK.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly Despatch
Peter Green
Membership and Subscriptions
David Anderson,
35 Sycamore Road,
East Leake, Loughborough LE12 6PP,
England, UK.
email: members@geo-web.org.uk
Tel:01509 820 067
Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Shop Manager
Nigel Evans (Assistant: David Simmons),
email: shop@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton,
email: liaison@geo-web.org.uk
Clive Finnis
Carol Finnis

Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company in Englandand Wales, limited by guarantee and nothaving share capital.
The Company Number is 4975597.
The registered office is Coturnix House,
Rake Lane, Milford, Godalming,
Surrey GU8 5AB, England.
Printing
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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.

Les Hamilton
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

We have something radically different for readers in this issue. As computer
users world-wide debate the disaster of Windows 8, and more and more ofthem switch from Microsoft Windows to a Linux operating system, Francis Greaves
describes how he has established a EUMETCast station using Debian Linux.
use Linux extensively myself: indeed, the only major need I still have for my
Windows 7 PC is to compile GEO Quarterly, as the software used (Adobe
InDesign) cannot be run under Linux. All my other PC requirements are met nicely
by Linux Mint. I am not a member of the EUMETCast community, nor do I use
Debian Linux, but I had no trouble following Francis’ instructions and setting up theoperating system on a spare laptop. Francis also details how to instal the LinuxEKU and Tellicast software from the EUMETCast CD.
here have been precious few signs of inventiveness or innovation from GEO
Members for a long time now. Perhaps some of you may follow Francis
Greaves’ lead and break the tyranny of Windows. If so, do let us know of yourexperiences.
s promised in our previous issue, Mike Stevens provides a follow-up article on
using the TBS6925 Digital Satellite-TV Tuner Card for EUMETCast reception.
Mike has spent the past few months testing the unit and advising the manufacturesof problems. As you can read on page 13, following a series of software updates,
this card—which is cheaper than many of the available alternatives—can now be
used for ﬂawless EUMETCast reception.
or readers interested in a more in-depth understanding of how the DVB-S2
system works, Alan Sewards delves into the topic on page 21. This is way
beyond my understanding, but will no doubt resonate with members operating at
the cutting edge of EUMETCast.
nd that’s pretty well all we have for you this time. My pleas last issue formembers involved in testing DVB-S2 receivers from other manufacturers towrite in about their experiences have simply fallen on deaf ears. I’m extremely
disheartened, and can see no future for GEO Quarterly. Apart from receiving
the very occasional APT image on my R2FZ receiver, I’m not involved in GEO’s
activities, and I ﬁnd the continual need for me to plunder websites to create
interesting pages for you to read very wearing. In short, if there is not going to bemeaningful reader input and participation, my days as Editor are numbered. You
have the December issue this year to convince me that there is a need for thismagazine to air readers activities—but I’m not holding my breath. And of course,
anyone who fancies taking on the Editor’s mantle just has to say the word ...

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Copy deadline for GEO Quarterly 44 is Sunday, October 26.

Contents
GEO Report
Receiving EUMETCast using Debian Linux
Massive Thunderstorms Wreak Havoc
Quarterly Question
Why do we rarely hear about an Arctic Ozone
Cover and Full Page Image Details
Setting up the TBS6925 Tuner Card for EUMETCast
Pyrocumulous Cloud over California
Belgium’s PROBA-V Satellite
The DVB-S2 System
NOAA-16 Decommissioned
Rosetta makes Rendezvous with Comet
Satellite Status
Amazing Double Oxbow Feature
Images of North Sea Haar
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
Francis Greaves
Les Hamilton
Francis BellLes Hamilton
Mike Stevens
NASA Earth Observatory
John Tellick
Alan Sewards

NASA Earth Observatory

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September 2014

Francis Bell
Again, GEO has experienced a busy three months: thistime the prime focus of activities has been the change intransmission standard being introduced by EUMETCast. I
think GEO is fortunate in having within the group members
who are technically knowledgeable and practical, and who
can guide us through the changes in the current EUMETCasttransmission standards.
Since our last symposium there has been further testingof those receivers currently able to cope with the new
DVB S2 VCM signal standard. Although expensive, theAyecka SR1 receiver has performed well, and the GEO Shopis currently stocking this receiver for any member now
wishing to upgrade their system. However, this will not stop
our ongoing research relating to other receivers, which in due
course could prove to be equally acceptable but at a much
lower price. Only time will tell here, but in the meantime,
GEO will continue to evaluate any receiver which offers
reliable reception of the new EUMETCast data stream.
As I write, several of our members are planning to attend
the EUMETSAT conference this August, which will deal
with practical experiences relating to the new DBV S2 VCM
transmission standard which, by that time, would have beenrunning for several weeks. Some of our members have been
involved with pilot testing of these transmissions. I verymuch hope that this will be reported both in the December
issue of GEO Quarterly and on our website.
Other events in the past three months have included GEO
attending a Space-Link event at Broadwater School near
Guildford. Ten schools attended this event for a day of
space related activities. There were some high profile guests
including Helen Sharman who is a supporter of GEO and apersonal friend.
Another event attended by GEO was the AMSAT-UK
Symposium weekend, also held in Guildford, where we
fronted a stand throughout the two and a half days of themeeting. Our presence was appreciated by the delegates,
nearly all of whom expressed interest in GEO’s activities.
During the weekend I bought a new APT antenna. I
didn’t specifically need a new antenna, but this one waswell engineered and disassembled to a size that I could
accommodate in a suitcase for my travels. I will give a reporton the performance of this antenna, together with illustrated
reports on both these events in the next issue of GEO
Quarterly.

backwards. There is switching between cameras and the
ISS is not always in contact with a ground station able tocope with the HDTV data hence live transmission can bea little unpredictable. However, if you are patient, some of
the images coming down from the ISS are stunning. Whenwatching the live HDTV remember that half the Earth will bein darkness and that 70% of it is covered with water. But thecompensation is that the ISS orbits the earth 14 times a day,so it is rarely long until there is something interesting to see.
Some of the images I have received are shown on page 4
To receive these images yourself log onto one of the following
sites:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/iss-hdev-payload
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/iss_ustream.html
Note that the second site listed also provides some audio
access to the ISS’s communications.
Note from NASA relating to the access to the ISS
Live video from the International Space Station includes
internal views when the crew is on-duty and Earth views
at other times. The video is accompanied by audio ofconversations between the crew and Mission Control. This
video is only available when the space station is in contact
with the ground. During ‘loss of signal’ periods, viewers will
see a blue screen.
Since the ISS orbits the Earth once every 90 minutes, it
experiences a sunrise or a sunset about every 45 minutes.
When the station is in darkness, external camera video may
appear black, but can sometimes provide spectacular views oflightning or city lights below.
Proposed GEO Visit to EUMETSAT HQ 2015
I am progressing members’ wish to visit EUMETSAT’s HQ
in Darmstadt next year but no definitive plan with a date isavailable at the moment. As soon as a firm date is known, it
will be intimated.

HDTV from the ISS
What has engaged some of my time over the past threemonths has been the new transmissions from theInternational Space Station (ISS). In April this year, an
experiment was started sending live High Definition
Television (HDTV) images from the ISS via UStream using theInternet.
Four cameras have been installed on the ISS with theintention of testing them for radiation and thermal tolerance.
While the experiment is running, HDTV transmissions
are available to anyone logging on to NASA’s websites. A
different view is provided by each camera because they lookin different directions: one forward, one downward and two

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GEO Quarterly No 43

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GEO Quarterly No 43

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Cyprus

September 2014

England/Wales

Italy

Panama4This ISS image shows the river estuary that is the subject of page 9’s
Quarterly Question.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 43

Francis Greaves
I have been a Linux user for many years. The more I use
Windows, the less I like it and, with support for Windows XP
no longer being provided and the new DVB S2 reception fromEUMETCast coming, I decided to start the process of getting
rid of Windows altogether and receiving EUMETCast using
Linux. And you do not need to be an expert with Linux toachieve this.
Now you may say that 90 minutes is a bit ambitious, but I
did cheat a little. I got a working system up and running ina morning, but then decided to start over again so that there
were no unnecessary programs installed or running on mynice clean Debian box. That fresh install, culminating withworking EUMETCast reception, did take me only 90 minutes
to set up.
Getting Started
I began by looking at the EUMETCast CD. In the Linux
directory there is a Readme_first.txt file which lists the
supported Linux distros. I am not too familiar with Redhat,
Fedora or OpenSuse, and not too keen on Ubuntu. PersonallyI mainly use Arch Linux and Gentoo Linux. I finally decided touse Debian Linux, which is well known for it’s stability, andI was pretty sure it would work fine with the EUMETCast
software. Debian is now at version 7, so to begin with I set up
a very basic installation of Debian 7 using the small NetInst
image (280 MB) from their website. In Debian 7, the current
kernel version is 3.2, much newer than the 2.4 or 2.6 kernels
found in Debian 4, so more likely to have the correct drivers
for your motherboard.
My PC is a fairly old 32-bit Pentium-M with a 1.7 MHz
processor and 1 GB memory, and a Gigabit Ethernet
Controller on the motherboard connected to my LAN. I added
a D-Link Gigabit Ethernet Controller into a PCI slot for the
Traffic link to the Ayecka SR1 I had been fortunate to buy
at the GEO Symposium, about which more later. I have two
hard drives installed, a small 80 GB one for the operating
system and another 160 GB drive for the EUMETCast
received data. I do not plug in this second drive until afterI have the operating system installed and working correctly.
This is to avoid accidently installing it on the wrong drive.
Installing Debian
I downloaded the netinst.iso file from the Debian website at
http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

and burned it to a CD. My PC was then booted using this CD,
which installed a basic system (figure 1). Step-by-step detailsof how to do this are on my website [1] at

My description is not exhaustive, and most of it is very
simple, requiring only common sense. The process isdriven by DOS-style menus where navigation through lists
is achieved with the up/down arrows (figure 2), selectionof multiple items by pressing the spacebar (figure 3), andtoggling between ‘Go Back’ and ‘Continue’ buttons using the
TAB key. Anyone with a working knowledge of Linux will feel
perfectly at home running this installation, which is tailored
to provide a minimalist installation: only what you need for
EUMETCast will be installed.

Figure 2 - Selecting your language from the Debian Installer Main Menu.

Figure 3 - Loading selected installer components from the CD.

Once your Debian 7 system is up and running, you will
be working from the command line (figure 4). This can bea bit scary to begin with but gets easier in time, and verysoon you will see the ﬂexibility and power offered by Linux,
something which cannot be matched by Windows. For clarity,commands that you type into the Terminal, and file edits, areshown on a grey background on the following pages.

http://www.themetman.net/content/install-debian-7

Figure 1 - The Debian start-up screen, with Advanced Options selected.

Figure 4 - The author’s Debian Command Line Startup Screen

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The Group for Earth Observation

Apart from the very basic installation, I made sure during the
install that I had the following services installed:• ‘File Server’ which is samba, for sharing on a Windows
workgroup• ‘SSH server’ to allow logging into the server from anothercomputer using ssh from a terminal in Linux, or using
PuTTY in Windows. To log in from another computer inLinux you would typessh username@debian_machine_address_or_hostname• ‘Standard system utilities’, essential on any system.

After the Debian installation was complete, I also installed thefollowing software:• NTP service for accurate time. You can use a Raspberry
Pi as the NTP server, and I have one working well on my
network. David Taylor describes how to do this at
http://satsignal.eu/ntp/Raspberry-Pi-NTP.html

The Network for Ayecka SR1
The Ayecka SR1 is a router and is not installed in the PC,
which is excellent, as there’s no need to worry about DVB
drivers on the computer. The Ayecka SR1, in addition to its
USB/Serial port and twin RX ports, also has two network
interfaces, one for Management and one for Traffic. I havethe Management interface plugged into my home networkand the Traffic interface plugged directly into the D-Link NIC(Network Interface Controller) on my PC. You do not need touse a crossover cable: a normal Cat 6 patch cable will do thejob. The beauty of this is that traffic can pass uninterrupted
to the PC, and any other PC on the home network caninterrogate the management interface. The NICs on the PC
are set up with static IP addresses. You can learn more on
this on the Debian Install page of my website (see above).
Now for EUMETCast
First, you will need to connect up your second hard drive andformat it. I will not show you how to do this as there is plentymaterial on the Internet explaining how to use fdisk. I haveformatted the disc using the reiserfs system, because it ismeant to be faster than the ext4 file system.
Create a subfolder in your home folder with this command:
mkdir ~/EUMETCast/received

Next, set up the mount in your /etc/fstab by editing the fileand adding a line to add the mount points. Here is mine.
Remember, any line preceded by the # character is ignoredand can be used for comments.
#Mount point for received files (all one continuous line)
UUID=3be8f58b-d995-4d07-a9f3-85008a2663de /home/USERNAME/EUMETCast/received reiserfs defaults 0 1
You might as well add the usbfs as well whilst you are at it, as
it is needed by the EKU setup.

6sudo ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid
You can now copy and paste the long number, which
relates to your partition mounted on /home/USERNAME/EUMETCast/received (it might be /dev/sdb1 ) into the correct
place in your /etc/fstab file, and save it.
In Linux, you can select text in the terminal with the mouse:
hold down Shift-Ctl-C to copy the text, move the cursor towhere you want to paste it, and hold down Shift-Ctl-V. Very
handy! You can now reboot.
ssh into the PC again, by typing
and you should see all your mounts, including the/home/USERNAME/EUMETCast/received.
Setting up the RAM Disk
Now to set up the RAM Disk. My thanks to Ernst Lobsiger forthis. Here is what he suggests:“The kernel boot parameters are only used if yourramdrive is compiled into the kernel. Nowadays this is
usually loaded as a module, and it’s name has changed
from rd to brd. So I use the following line in /etc/modules
to load an appropriate RAM drive:
brd rd_nr=1 rd_size=305000 max_part=0“In /etc/recv.ini, I have the line
file_database_size=300000000
which works fine, even if, in the startup scripts,
EUMETSAT still uses the name rd.
“This next bit should be done after the Tellicast
software is installed.
“When the partition is set up in the Tellicast client script/etc/tellicast-client, I changed line 149 to add ‘...... -m 0...’, so it becomes/sbin/mkfs -t ext2 -m 0 $RAM_DISK_DEVICE > /dev/null 2>&1
meaning that I added ‘-m 0’ to prevent a reservationof 5% root-only blocks. If you do not add ‘-m 0’ on
your ramdisk, 5% will be reserved for root-only, and if
your tc-recv is running as a user other than root, thesereserved blocks will not be accessible for the client andthus be wasted.”
Create a directory to mount the ramdrive with the command

Note: In Linux the ~ symbol signifies your home directory,
as in /home/username/, and is a useful way to avoid having totype the full pathname.

Now save the file.

Universally Unique Identifier (UUID)Your UUID number will be different from mine, and you canfind it with this command:

mount• Vim, the text editor, which I prefer to the default Nano
editor. It is worth learning from the excellent tutorial
included with the installation.
• Ssmtp, a simple mail daemon to allow the computer tomail information to you.
• Rsync, to enable synchronising directories both local andremote, and also good for copying files.
• Snmp, for monitoring this PC using mrtg.

# for usb key
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs defaults 0 0

September 2014

mkdir ~/ramdrive
You will need to specify this in your recv.ini file in order for
Tellicast to mount.
File Sharing
Samba is used to share the received files across a Windows
network so that David Taylor’s software can access it. Sambais already installed. Open nano to edit the configuration file,/etc/samba/smb.conf, to share the received files, withsudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
Edit this line in the [global] section
workgroup = <YOUR_WORKGROUP>
and create a share by adding the following:[EUMETCast]comment = EUMETCast Directories
path=/home/USERNAME/EUMETCast
guest ok = yes

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ACTION==”add”, SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”0529”,
ATTR{idProduct}==”0514”, RUN=”/etc/hotplug/usb/etoken”

browseable = yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
force create mode = 777
force directory mode = 777
force security mode = 777
force directory security mode = 777
read only = nowritable = yes

ACTION==”remove”, SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ATTR{idVendor}==”0529”,
ATTR{idProduct}==”0514”, RUN=”/etc/hotplug/usb/etoken”
C11) Missing Symbolic Link for Etoken Libraries
This file, /usr/local/lib/aksifdh.so, should be present on thesystem. Type the following command to check whether it is ornot.

Then start samba withsudo /etc/init.d/samba startls /usr/local/lib/aksifdh.so

and at bootup
sudo update-rc.d samba enable
Finally, check from a Windows PC that you can read andwrite the share.
The EUMETCast CD
Place the EUMETCast CD in the drive of the receive PC andmount it by typing the following commands:sudo mkdir /mnt/cdrom
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt/cdrom
mkdir ~/EumetsatCD
This is where rsync, which you installed earlier, comes inhandy. Use rsync to copy files from the CD to your~/EumetsatCD folder with the command
rsync -avr /mnt/cdrom/Linux ~/EumetsatCD/
The files and folders for a Linux install will now be copied on
to the PC from the EUMETCast CD. Once this is complete,
you can unmount the CD and eject it withsudo umount /mnt/cdrom
sudo eject /dev/sr0
then move the CD to the computer you are sshing from andopen the Linux/readme_Installation.txt file. I ignored the DVB
section, going straight to Section 2 to install the EKU support
because I am using the Ayecka SR1 router.
The EKU software
Read the Readme_debian_ubuntu.txt file in the Linux/EKU_
software folder and follow the instructions. The commands
need to be run as the root user, so to save having to typesudo in front of everything, typesudo -iEnter your password and you will have a root prompt easily
recognised as a # rather than the usual $.
This is where copy and paste comes in handy. You can copy acommand from the readme file, go to the Terminal, and paste
it there using Shift-Ctl-V.
Now you need to follow instructions in the Troubleshooting
Guide (which is found in the Generic folder), to fix a couple ofproblems.
(C9) EKU/USB Problems with new Linux Distributions
Edit the file /etc/udev/rules.d/20-etoken.rules, and add thefollowing two lines:
ACTION==”add”, SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, SYSFS{idVendor}==”0529”,
SYSFS{idProduct}==”0514”, RUN=”/etc/hotplug/usb/etoken”

Most likely, you will find that this file is missing, so you willneed to create the soft link by typing
ln -sf /usr/local/lib/aksifdh.so.1.3-15.84 /usr/local/lib/aksifdh.so
Next, run ldconfig to be on the safe side, by enteringls /usr/local/lib/aksifdh.soand then reboot the station.
The Tellicast Software
Look up the Readme_Tellicast_Linux.txt in the Linux/Tellicast
folder, go to Section 2a, and install the package. You willagain need to be the root user. Once installed, you will needto modify the /etc/tellicast-client script to add Ernst’s little
fix, as described on the previous page.
The contents of the /etc/recv.ini and recv-channels.ini  files
will need to be set according to your own requirements.
There is plenty about this on David Taylor’s website [2]. I havealso found Arne van Belle, Rob Alblas and Ernst Lobsiger’s
websites extremely informative and well worth a visit.
I use the /etc/rc.local file to start the services. To make surethese start in the correct order, add these lines to the/etc/rc.local  file before ‘exit 0’/etc/init.d/etokend start/etc/init.d/pcscd start/etc/init.d/tellicast-client startand issue these commands/etc/init.d/etokend start/etc/init.d/pcscd start/etc/init.d/tellicast-client start
to remove the scripts from the bootup.
With the EKU plugged in you can monitor your Tellicast fromany browser on the network using
http://IPADDRESS_DEBIAN_MACHINE:2517

and look at the license page to see if you have thisover on the right side of the screen. If you do, then the EKU is
working correctly.
I would hope by now you have a trouble free working system.
You can find more details about how I set up my EUMETCast
system on my website [1], and any reader with queries, or
requiring help setting up a EUMETCast station under Linux,
is welcome to get in touch with me by email atthemetman@themetman.net

ACTION==”remove”, SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, SYSFS{idVendor}==”0529”,
SYSFS{idProduct}==”0514”, RUN=”/etc/hotplug/usb/etoken”
However, this syntax is incorrect for Debian7, and theselines should be edited to read as follows:

References
1 Install Debian 7 - http://www.themetman.net/content/install-debian-7
2 Using EUMETCast - http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/atovs/index.html

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GEO Quarterly No 43

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2014

Les Hamilton
For three days between June 9 and June 11 this year, aseries of deadly thunderstorms drenched northern France,
Belgium, the Netherlands and northwest Germany. The
event was initiated by a mass of exceptionally warm airfrom central Europe—with temperatures in the mid 30s—that tracked westwards, where it collided with a cold front,
triggering a succession of violent thunderstorms that lasted
for almost three whole days.
Immediately following a heat wave during the Whitsun
weekend, when record temperatures up to 36°C wererecorded, the strongest thunderstorms occurred over North
Rhine-Westphalia in northwest Germany on the evening ofJune 9 (figure 1) when damaging winds, hail and blinding
downpours cost six people their lives.
In the worst incident, three died in Düsseldorf when atree crashed on to the garden shed where they had been
sheltering. And falling trees killed cyclists in Cologne andKrefeld, and a man who was clearing a street in Essen.
The storms continued throughout Tuesday, when winds of
up to 150 kph were recorded at Düsseldorf airport overnight.
Streets in the city were blocked by fallen trees, damaging
overhead power lines and knocking out the tram system. The
damage resulted in 270 kilometres of traffic jams on roads inthe region during the following morning’s rush hour.
I’m indebted to David Taylor for alerting me to this event, andfor providing copies of the Metop and NOAA-19 images below.
Acquired less than three hours apart, these images illustrate
just how rapidly these thunderstorms developed.

Figure 1
This Metop B channel-3 image acquired at 19:38 UT on June 9, 2014, shows
the fatal thunderstorm located over northwest Germany.

Figure 2
Metop B imaged this storm at 09:42 UT on June 11, 2014.

Figure 3
NOAA 19 imaged the same storm at 12:31 UT on June 11, 2014.

Image: NOAA CLASS Archive

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Image: NOAA CLASS Archive

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Quarterly Question 43 relates to the large river estuary visible inall three images. Although the surface area of this estuary is verylarge, it is for the most part surprisingly shallow, and large ships
are confined to defined shipping lanes. There are two capitalcities on the shores of this estuary both of which I visited in 2011.

Quarterly Question 42
My thanks to all those members who took the trouble to send inanswers to the last Quarterly Question, which related to two satellite
images of lakes, one in Africa and the other in South America. All
the answers I received were correct by identifying the African lake
as Lake Victoria and the South American lake as Lake Titicaca.
Correct answers were received from Elmar Bogels (Netherlands),
Nick T (Australia), Adrian Chamberlain (Coventry, UK) and Andreas
Lubnow (Germany). A summary of information contained in theanswers I received is set out below.
Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia at, an elevation of
3812 metres, is the highest navigable lake in the world: by volume
it is the largest lake in South America, with an area of 8300 km2
and a maximum depth of 280 metres. Ships up to 2000 tonnes andeighty metres in length ply the lake. At the other end of the scale,reed boats and floating island homes are still used by locals. In
1862, the first steamer to ply Titicaca was prefabricated in Englandand carried there in sections on the backs of mules. Today vessels
make regular crossings from Puno, on the Peruvian shore, to thesmall Bolivian port of Guaqui.

This Quarterly Question has a number of parts:• What is the name of this river estuary?
• What are the names of the two capital cities on the shoresof the estuary? Just to help, note that one capital is on thenorth of the estuary, the other on the south side.
• What was the name of the pocket battleship which sank in
the estuary in December 1939?
Any other background information you can provide will beworthwhile. It may be of interest to note that GEO does have amember who lives on the southern shores of this estuary.
Please send you answers, together with any of your own images,
by email tofrancis@geo-web.co.uk

at least a week before the copy deadline for our next Quarterly.

Lake Titicaca is a great tourist destination, surrounded bysnow capped peaks. Forty-one islands, some of them densely
populated, rise from the lake’s waters. Titicaca itself lies in a vastbasin between the ranges that comprises most of the Altiplanoof the central Andes. The snow-covered Cordillera Real on thenortheastern shore contains some of the highest peaks rising tomore than 6400 metres, some of the highest in the Andes.
Lake Victoria, the largest tropical lake in the world at an elevation of1133 metres and a surface area of 68,800 km2, is Africa’s largest
lake by area: it is also the 2nd largest freshwater lake (by surfacearea) on Earth, exceeded only by Lake Superior in North America.
One of the sources of the White Nile, Lake Victoria abuts Uganda,
Kenya and Tanzania, making this area the most densely populated
in Africa with a population of some seven million living within 80
kilometres of its shores. Victoria’s waters fill a shallow depression
in the centre of the great plateau that stretches between theWestern and Eastern Rift Valleys: its greatest ascertained depth
is 82 metres. The lake contains many archipelagos and numerous
reefs, often just below the surface of the clear waters, and is home
to more than 200 species of fish, of which the Tilapia is the mosteconomically important.

The APT image

Plans for gradually raising the level of Lake Victoria’s waters werecompleted in 1954 with the construction of the Owen Falls Dam(now the Nalubaale Dam) on the Victoria Nile at Jinja, Uganda. This
provides hydroelectric power on a large scale and converted thelake into a vast reservoir.

Quarterly Question 43
This Quarterly Question was prompted by my recent receptionof a series of HDTV images, currently being transmitted by theInternational Spaces Station (ISS). I recognised the location of oneof the images because I had visited the area in 2011. I had also
recorded an APT image of the same area while on a cruise ship justnorth of the Falkland Islands. Additionally, I also remembered an
Envisat image of this region, received at home about three years
ago using the Envi-Ham dissemination programme. Very sadly, thisprogramme has finished when contact was lost with Envisat a little
over two years ago, the satellite subsequently being abandoned.
However, I still have a small library of interesting Envisat images,
including the one shown below. The image, as received from theISS is reproduced at lower right on page 4.

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The Envisat image

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The Group for Earth Observation

September 2014

Les Hamilton
The existence of a so-called Ozone Hole over Antarctica is well
documented, and has featured in our pages several times
over the years [1,2,3]. But aren’t both of Earth’s poles equallyaffected by ozone depletion? Doesn’t the Arctic suffer froman annual Ozone Hole too? Three years ago, John Tellick
reported on how, during the particularly cold northernhemisphere winter of 2010-11, when an unusually strong
and long-lived polar vortex was in place over the Arctic, theEnvisat orbiting observatory [4] detected uniquely low levelsof ozone. This was, in fact, the only occasion on record so far
when ozone depletion over the Arctic has become sufficiently
severe to warrant the use of the term Ozone Hole [5,6]. Why is
it then, that an Ozone Hole is such a rarity over the Arctic?
Defining an Ozone HoleTo understand what takes place in the polar stratosphere, itis necessary to be able to quantify the concentration of ozone
in Earth’s atmospheric column. The yardstick used is the
Dobson Unit. If all the atmospheric ozone could concentrated
at Earth’s surface (at 0°C and atmospheric pressure), it would
form a layer just three millimetres deep! To avoid repeatedreference to tiny fractions, this quantity of ozone is defined
to have an atmospheric columnar density of 300 DU (Dobson
Units). The base column density of ozone at which an Ozone
Hole is considered to be present is defined to be 220 DU.
Measuring and Mapping Ozone Concentration
NASA’s Aura satellite carries the Ozone Monitoring Instrument(OMI), which makes observations of atmospheric ozone over
Earth’s poles. These data allow scientists to assess how
much ozone is present at various altitudes, particularly in thestratosphere, by measuring the quantity of sunlight scatteredby Earth’s atmosphere and surface. This information canbe used to create maps visualising the ozone distribution.
Figure 1 shows last year’s Antarctic Ozone Hole when at
its most severe, on September 29, 2013, with an ozone
concentration of just 116 DU.

220 DU threshold for an Ozone
Hole, over the North Pole there
is no magenta, and very little
dark blue, on the map.
For comparison, figure 3
shows the Arctic ozone map for
March 15, 2014: very much a‘normal’ year. Over much of the
Arctic, ozone concentrations
are actually above average (redsand yellows), and there are
only a few small regions (cyan)
where appreciable depletion isobserved.

Figure 3
Arctic ozone depletion on
March 15, 2014

What Causes Ozone Depletion over the Poles?
Ozone depletion in the atmosphere, whether over the northor south polar regions, is confined to a relatively short period
after sunlight has returned to these regions following monthsof winter darkness. The phenomenon is highly dependent
on the presence of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), also
known as nacreous clouds, which can form at altitudes ashigh as 25 kilometres in the stratosphere—provided that thetemperature has fallen to -78°C or less.
These clouds are much more common over the Antarctic,
where temperatures tend to be lower than over the Arctic,
but they are occasionally seen, even at lower latitudes,in the northern hemisphere. Figure 4 was photographedfrom Aberdeen during a particularly fine PSC display,observed over much of Scotland shortly after sunset on
December 9, 2012. Due to the great altitude of these PSCs,
the same cloud pattern was visible from locations as much as
100 kilometres apart, illuminated by sunlight from below thehorizon.

Figure 1
This PSC display was observed over alarge part of Scotland in late 2012.

Figure 1
The Antarctic ozone hole on
September 23, 2013

Figure 2
The Arctic ozone hole on
March 15, 2011

By contrast, the Arctic Ozone Hole, which reached its
maximum depth on March 15, 2011 is mapped in figure 2.
Reference to the colour palette beneath these two maps
shows that, while ozone depletion over the South Poleis represented by a large area of dark blue and magenta
colouration, indicating ozone concentrations well below the10

The main agents responsible for the depletion ofstratospheric ozone are chlorine atoms, derived from CFCs
(chloroﬂuorocarbon compounds) that have been emitted into
Earth's atmosphere following the escape of ﬂuids formerly
used as refrigerants and propellants. CFCs pose no problem
when in the lower atmosphere, where they are chemicallyvery stable. But as they diffuse into the stratosphere, themore intense UV radiation that they experience splits off freechlorine atoms, and it is these that are capable of interacting
with, and destroying, ozone. However, a fact much less wellknown is that, during most of the year, these chlorine atoms
are rapidly mopped up by nitrogen oxides to form stable'reservoir compounds', principally hydrogen chloride andchlorine nitrate. Thus, very little of the chlorine survives longenough to interact with ozone to cause significant depletion.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 43

July 1, 2013

August 1, 2013

September 1, 2013

October 1, 2013

November 1, 2013

December 1, 2013

January 1, 2014

February 1, 2014

March 1, 2014

April 1, 2014

May 1, 2014

June 1, 2014

Figure 5 - Arctic ozone distribution, month by month, during a calendar year.

This is where the PSCs come in. At the exceptionally low
winter time temperatures under which they form, thesurfaces of ice crystals in these clouds catalyse a numberof chemical reactions [7] that would be impossible at higher
temperatures. The two most significant outcomes are that:• chlorine from the reservoir compounds becomes released
as chlorine molecules, and• nitrogen oxides are removed from the surrounding
atmosphere by reaction with water to form nitric acid.
Even so, it is not till the return of sunlight during early
spring that ozone depletion starts to take place. The key
factor is the action of sunlight on the chlorine molecules,
splitting them into highly active radicals (single chlorine
atoms). Due to the reduced concentration of nitrogen oxides
at this time (which otherwise mop up chlorine atoms), thelikelihood of chlorine atoms and ozone molecules interacting
increases, and ozone depletion accelerates.
Why do the Arctic and Antarctic Differ?
The degree of ozone depletion at Earth's poles is largely
determined by geographical considerations. In the southernhemisphere, an ice-covered continent is surrounded by thecold waters of the Southern Ocean while its atmosphereis dominated by a polar vortex. These factors promote theformation of a large mass of very cold air and, importantly,
act as a barrier to atmospheric mixing with warmer midlatitudes: this greatly inhibits the transport from theseregions of ozone which could offset the ongoing depletionover Antarctica. Effectively isolated from the rest of Earth’s
atmosphere, the stratosphere above Antarctica therefore
regularly experiences the coldest temperatures on the planet
during the darkness of winter, creating conditions that are
extremely favourable for the formation of PSCs, and hence
eventual ozone depletion.
In contrast, conditions throughout the Arctic are very
different. Instead of land surrounded by water, the Arctic
consists of an ocean surrounded by land: land that varies
considerably both in shape and topography. This createsvariable wind patterns that mix the Arctic air more effectively,
not only between different layers within the atmosphere,
but also between the Arctic and mid latitudes. This not only
produces more variable and less extreme temperatures, italso means that it is much easier for lower latitude ozone tomigrate into the Arctic stratosphere to replenish any deficit.
Indeed, most of the ozone present in the Arctic stratosphereis produced in, and transported from, the tropics. And whilepolar vortices do form in the Arctic, as happened in March
2011, to block this resupply of ozone, they do not tend tolast so long—or remain as stationary—as their southernhemisphere counterparts. And once the vortex had broken
down and transport from the tropics was resumed, the ozone
concentration rapidly rose back to normal during April 2011.

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GEO Quarterly No 43

The Group for Earth Observation

Whereas a large Ozone Hole is a regular feature in thesouthern hemisphere, ozone depletion over the Arctic
tends to be irregular and patchy, and rarely extends
over a well-defined area. Figure 5 maps ozone column
density for the first day of each month between July
2013 and June this year. Reaching 470 DU, April 1
marked the highest average concentration of ozone over
the region for 2014.
The concentration of ozone over the Arctic varies
greatly from year-to-year, and Ozone Holes do notform consistently as they do in Antarctica. In fact,ozone concentrations over the Arctic have been
relatively higher during the three winters following
the exceptional 2011 low. It is possible that generally
warmer weather over the Arctic this past winter, whenpolar vortices wandered down to lower latitudes, led toless ozone depletion in the Arctic this winter.
Recent NASA Study on the 2011 Arctic WinterA recent NASA study has shown that a combination of
extremely cold temperatures, man-made chemicals anda stagnant atmosphere were behind what was dubbed
the Arctic Ozone Hole of 2011 [5,8].
Even when both poles of the planet undergo ozone
losses during the winter, ozone depletion in the Arctic is
generally milder and shorter-lived than in the Antarctic.
This is because the three key ingredients needed forozone-destroying chemical reactions—chlorine fromman-made CFCs, frigid temperatures and sunlight—are
not usually present in the Arctic at the same time. In
particular, the northernmost latitudes are generally
not cold enough when the sun reappears in the sky inearly spring. Also, uncommon atmospheric conditions
blocked wind-driven transport of ozone from the tropics,
halting the seasonal ozone resupply until the following
April.
Although Arctic ozone levels were possibly the lowest
ever recorded, they were still significantly higher thanthose of the Antarctic, and levels actually remained well
above the 220 DU threshold for defining the ozone loss
as a ‘hole’: so the Arctic ozone loss of 2011 did not, after
all, truly constitute an Ozone Hole.
Video
An excellent video shows the variations on Arctic
ozone over an 18-month period from November 2013.
Unfortunately, you will have to download the video fromthis rather lengthy URL, and run it on your computer.
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/
imagerecords/83000/83831/arcticozone_omi_2014_lrg.mp4

Alternatively, there is a download link for this animation
below the image, at this URL
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=83831

References
1 The Expanding Ozone Hole - GEOQ 13 (2007), p4
2 Montreal Protocol and the Ozone Hole - GEOQ 36 (2012), p18
3 Antarctic Ozone Hole's Gradual Recovery - GEOQ 41 (2014),
p 38
4 Record Loss of Ozone over the Arctic - GEOQ 30 (2011), p 37
5 NASA Pinpoints Causes of 2011 Arctic Ozone Hole
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2011-ozone-hole.html
6 Arctic Ozone Hole
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_depletion#Arctic_ozone_hole
7 The Science of the Ozone Hole
http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/tour/part3.html
8 Long Cold Spell Leads to Arctic Ozone Hole
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=60598

12

September 2014

Front Cover
Although it was June 26 when NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired thisimage of Russia’s Kara Sea coastline, ice is still very much inevidence. The waters of the Kara Sea and the northern stretch of
the Gulf of Ob, though strewn with icebergs, are largely open water.
But the southern reaches of the gulf, like the Gulf of Yenise to the far
right of the image, remain locked in ice, as does the Ob River seen
stretching south down the centre of the image.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Inside Front CoverNASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of the Lena Delta on
Russia’s Arctic Ocean coastline on June 8, 2014. This delta, withits myriad channels, covers an area of some thirty thousand square
kilometres, one of the largest river deltas on Earth. Although it is now
June, ice shelves still hug the coastline, although over the Laptev Sea
to its north, to the north there are large expanses of open water.
Image LANCE-MOIS/NASA/GSFC

Inside Back CoverThis MODIS image from NASA’s Terra satellite shows Arthur, the firsthurricane of the 2014 season, on July 2, 2014. Too far offshore to bea major threat, Hurricane Arthur nevertheless guaranteed a soggy andwindy July 4 for coastal regions of the Carolinas.
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS
Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

Back CoverNASA’s Terra satellite captured this striking scene around the arctic
archipelago of Novaya Zemlya on May 29, 2014. The ice has alreadyretreated from the eastern coastlines and an armada of ice floes isin the process of breaking off the ice front. A series of lee waves hasformed to the west of the two main islands’ mountainous interiors,
and a tongue of these waves has broken through the Matochkin Strait
between them into the Kara Sea.
Image LANCE-MOIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 3
The remnants of Hurricane Bertha obliterate almost the entire British
Isles in this Metop-A channel -2 image acquired at 10.48 UT on
August 10, 2014.
Image: NOAA CLASS Archive

Pages 16/17
Mike Stevens received his first Meteosat image transmitted under thetrial transmission of new DVB-S2 dissemination format, on June 24
this year.
Image © EUMETSAT 2014

Page 18
This is a section from a composite of NOAA-15 and NOAA-18 images
created by Andre T’Kindt, dating from June 26, showing a rash ofthunderstorms active over central Europe.
Page 22
This is a wider view from the June 26 Aqua image featured on thefront cover, which shows broken pack ice still lingering to the east of
Novaya Zemlya, where it is sheltered from the warming influence of
the North Atlantic Drift.
Image LANCE-MOIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 23
Anthony Lowe captured this excellent NOAA-19 APT image showing
western Europe, Great Britain and Ireland enjoying marvellous sunnysummer conditions on July 23 this year. Parts of the eastern coast of
Britain missed out, however, as huge swathes of haar encroached on
to the land (see also page 29).
Page 26
With news of the final decommissioning of the NOAA-16 satellite, here isan early channel-2 APT image, acquired on September 23, 2000, justtwo days following its launch.

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September 2014

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 43

Mike Stevens - G4CFZ
With the imminent changeover of EUMETCast dissemination
to the DVB-S2 standard, we face another update to ourweather satellite systems. This time, the changeover isslightly more complicated, but we have been here before andmanaged to overcome all the obstacles—and we shall again.
In the previous issue I explained that the TBS6925 worked
perfectly with the old DVB-S Mode, but unfortunately, due
to the chip/demodulator, the tuner would not stay locked on
to a DVB-S2 signal, resulting in severe packet loss, and thus
totally unsuitable for the new EUMETCast transmissions.
On reporting this to TBS Support, they confirmed the
problem, which they had experienced during there own
testing procedures. But all is not lost: they have now
developed a new set of drivers that allow the chip to lock into
the DVB-S2/VCM Coding, and this was released on July 25,
in plenty of time to set everything up for the final changeoverto the new standard on December 31 this year.
I installed the new software and immediately found that my
EUMETCast reception started to work perfectly: I was able
to receive the Basic Service without any Packet Loss at all.
Although the High Volume service does not start until 2015,
the new software does allows me to receive the test data thatis currently being transmitted. TBS Support have given us
new software and, considering the relatively small market
represented by EUMETCast, have really gone the extra milefor us. GEO members now have a real choice of tuners, atlower cost and with an easier set-up.
Setting up the TBS6926 Tuner Card in Windows XP
This receiver, to give it its full title, is the TBS6925 DVB-S2
Professional TV Tuner PCIe Card, which is internally fitted to
the PC. If you have never been into the workings of your PC
and do not feel qualified to do so, then I advise you to seek
help from another member or friend to help you with thisoperation. Another point to make is that all the equipment
within the PC is sensitive to static electricity, so I advise ananti-static wrist band to ground yourself to the PC chassis
and this should prevent any problems occurring.

Figure 1 - The TBS PCIe card seated in its PC socket.

Loading and Installing the SoftwareFirst, visit the TBS download page at
www.tbsdtv.com/download

and download the following files:• the Windows Driver (tbs6925-windows-driver_v1.0.1.23.zip)• IP Tool (TBS IP Tool V3.0.4.0 for TBS6925)• TS Recorder (TBS6925 TS Recorder V3.0.0.8)
Now switch on the PC and load in the software. I copied theinstallation software on to a USB ﬂash drive and installed it
into the PC from there.

I’ll start by describing the set-up for Windows XP. Windows 7
is much the same, but there are extra parameters to deal
with, and I’ll explain this later.

First, install the TBS6925 Driver v1.0.1.23, and then the TPS-IP
Tool v3.0.4.0; these are the only items you actually require
for EUMETCast reception. You can also install TS Recorder,
which is test software and very handy to have. Once all thissoftware is installed, you will see two new icons appear on the
Desktop: one is ‘TBS-IP data’ and the other is ‘TS Recorder’.
But I advise checking the TBS Website from time to time forany updates, as new releases will occur as things evolve. You
will note that any updates that you carry out will require you
to reinstall all the relevant information and reboot the PC.

First, select the PC you want to fit the card in and remove
all cables, especially the mains. Lay the unit on a soft sheet
and remove the side cover: it’s usually on the right hand side.
Locate the twin socket on the motherboard that matches
the TBS PCIe card, and to the rear of that you will see aback-plate, either held with a screw or clip (figure 1). Remove
the plate as this is where the PCIe card will be inserted. Oncethe plate has been removed locate the card into the socket
by pushing it firmly in place, but carefully taking care not totouch the board components. You will feel when the card iscorrectly located as the twin connector sockets on its rear will
be lined up with the back of the PC, one of these being your
LNB connection. You can now refit the side cover on the PC
and reconnect all the cables: power, mouse, keyboard etc.
You are now ready to set up and test the system.

This is the point where you will probably need to reset yourdish towards the new satellite, Eutelsat 10A at 10.0°E. It’s
possible that some users will be able to receive both ‘old’ and‘new’ satellites without moving their dish but, for receiving
the best possible signal, I would recommend realigning
the dish to Eutelsat 10A. You can carry out this operation
quite easily if you remember how we aligned our dish when
receiving Envisat Data [1]. The amount of movement towards
the east is very small: for a 1° difference it’s about 15-17 mmon the end of the LNB arm, so don’t get carried away andstart waving the dish all over the place. Also, within the
TBS Tuner screen you have an excellent Signal Strength andQuality Indicator which you can use to fine-tune the system
for Maximum Signal and Quality: and you have SNR and BER
readings to help as well.

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September 2014

Remember that David Taylor’s WXtrack software can be used
to help with the alignment of your dish by giving you thebearings etc.
Another point to consider is that, in some areas of thecountry, the smaller satellite dishes may need to be upgradedto a larger size. I am using a 1 m dish and I am located on
the extreme south coast of England, which gives me a fairly
clear line of sight to the satellite. And I do not suffer from any‘rain fade’. But not everyone has that advantage as reception
does vary somewhat around the country. If you are upgrading
the dish, I would advise that you also take the opportunity torenew your cabling (CT100 or WF100 are the best) and LNB
as well.
I have recently installed a new low noise Gold Technomate
LNB, which has made quite a difference. There are somevery good suppliers on-line who will supply by return withexcellent quality cables. I am also very lucky in that the
beamwidth of my dish allows me to receive both satellites,
so I am able to watch both ‘old’ and ‘new’ transmissions withjust the one dish.
Setting up the Receiver
You are now ready to set up the receiver within the
TBS Tuner Panel. Run this software by clicking on the TBS-IP
Data icon and on the opening screen (figure 2) you will see
the main information panels.

Figure 3 - The MODCODES Panelwebsite to find the PIDs you require. This involves a rather
convoluted path through several layers of menus, thus:• Direct your browser to www.eumetsat.int• Select ‘DATA DELIVERY’• Select ‘EUMETCAST’• Select ‘RECEPTION STATION SETUP’• Select ‘CHANNELS & PIDS’
Here you will find a lengthy listing of all the PIDs in use forthe new DVB-S2 service. Once these are all entered, youmust switch off the tuner and reboot your PC.

Figure 2 - The opening screen of the TBS Tuner softwareFirst you need to enter the correct values for Frequency(11263 MHz) and Symbol Rate (33000 ksps), then click the‘Add’ and ‘Save’ buttons.
Next, click the ‘Set MODCODES’ button to open the panel
illustrated in figure 3. Which items you select depends onwhich service you are going to take but, assuming you aregoing for the Basic EUMETCast Service, tick box 8PSK 3/5
then click ‘OK’ to close the panel.
Back in figure 2, click on the box ‘Lock TP’. You then go to
the top of the TBS Tuner Panel and open the ‘IP over DVB’ tab toreveal the panel where you must enter the EUMETCast PIDs
(figure 4). The PID values for DVB-S2 differ from those you
have been using, so you will have to consult the EUMETSAT

14

Figure 4 - The ‘IP over DVB’ panel for entering PID valuesYour next operation is to make sure that the incoming datais going to be processed by the Tellicast software, so you
must match the Interface Address between Tellicast and
TBS-IP data. First, open the recv.ini file in your Tellicast folder
and, under ‘Parameters’, change the ‘Interface Address’ to
10.100.10.10, then save it. You can only use the Default IP
which is within the TBS Software Screen (do not attempt tochange this IP, otherwise your system will not work).

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 43

To enter this value, follow the following steps:• Open ‘Control Panel’ and locate ‘Network Connections’• Find ‘MPE Decoder Adaptor’• Right-click on this and open ‘Properties’• Move down to ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’• Open ‘Properties’ and insert the Interface Address:
10.100.10.10• Move down to the next box and insert 255.255.255.0 (You may
have to do this operation manually) then click ‘OK’.
During this procedure, your Tellicast Icon should havechanged from Red/Black to Yellow/Black and finally to a
White Square with a Pink ‘T’. Now go to the files folder andcheck for incoming data.
Additional Points to Note for Windows 7 Users
Windows 7 needs to be looked at slightly differently, andthe first thing you must do is adjust your firewall settings
to allow the new software to function correctly. Open‘Allow a program through Windows Firewall’: you can accessthis by typing ‘Firewall’ into the ‘Search programs and files’
input box under the ‘Start’ button. Add in ‘TBS-IP Data’, andclick ‘OK’.
Next, enter All Programs—Accessories—Command Prompt, thenRight Click ‘Run as Administrator’ to bring up the Command
Prompt box. Enter the following code complete with spaces:
Route –p –4 ADD 224.0.0.0 mask 240.0.0.0 10.100.10.10
then press ‘Enter’ (figure 5). It should then read ‘OK’. You
may need to do that or you may find everything works fine
without it. My system would not work without this Command
Line input, but once that was carried out everything cameon-line immediately and the Tellicast ‘T’ Icon changed to Pink
on a White Square. As always with Windows 7, we do have
many variants.

Figure 6 - TBS Recordersignal (figure 6). It basically allows you to check the incoming
signal and set parameters, handy if there is a break intransmission, as it will allow you to see if its origin lies withyou or EUMETCast. But one thing to remember: you cannot
run TBS-IP Data while TSRecorder is active—you must switch
off TSRecorder first. Figure 7 shows details for my Tellicast
files following a four-hour run of my system with the latest
software: zero on both Missed Packets and Recovered Packets.

Figure 5 - The Command Prompt Box

And of course the other feature to remember is to install all
the software into a subfolder inside the ‘Tools’ folder. I madea folder called ‘TBS Software’ and installed into there.
Another parameter you may have to change is within the‘Interface Address’ regarding the ‘Internet Protocol Version
6 (TCP/Ipv6)’: in my system I had to untick this item asotherwise it would not work. But again, you may find thatyou don’t have to do that operation. I would suggest at thispoint that you reboot your computer to enable the softwareand changes to take effect more easily.
When your Computer restarts, you should see an onscreen box displaying the selected Tuner: click ‘OK’, and the
TBS Tuner box will appear on screen (figure 1). If all data
entered is correct you should have green bars showing inboth the Strength and Quality displays. If not, you may haveto re-enter MODCODE or check the PIDs but, all being well,the EUMETCast data should be seen coming into the ‘Packet
Received’ box in the ‘IP Over DVB’ tab. The Meteosat image on
pages 16/17 came from the trial DVB-S2 EUMETCast stream
on June 24 this year.
So now you have incoming data from the new system andsatellite within your Tellicast files, and you will recognisethem as they are familiar files. You can open the SatSignal
software and start to enjoy the new images on the DVB-S2
Transmissions with MSG Data Manager and Metop Manager,
plus whatever else you are looking for. TSRecorder is a very
useful tool which will show all the details of your received

Figure 7 - Tellicast Statistics

I have not dwelled to much on High Volume Data as that
does not start until some time in 2015; and that will, I am
sure, create another article on its own. I hope this article
Continued on page 24

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A NASA Earth Observatory Report
With much of California experiencing exceptional drought,
vegetation in the Golden State is drier than normal and primed toburn. And burning is exactly what happened in August 2014 whenlightning ignited several fast-moving fires. More than 400 km2 werecharred as fires raged through forests and grasslands in northern
California.
The MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured theimage shown in figure 1 at 19:45 UT on August 2, 2014. Figure 2,
from the Aqua satellite, followed about two hours later. Red outlines
show where MODIS detected high surface temperatures associatedwith active burning.
The pair of natural colour images documents the evolution
and rapid expansion of the fires. Many areas of active burning
expanded significantly between the two satellite passes, as smoke
plumes blossomed into towering pyrocumulus clouds. The change
was most dramatic over the Beaver Complex fire along the borderof California and Oregon.
Pyrocumulus clouds—sometimes called ‘fire clouds’—are talland cauliflower-shaped: they appear as opaque white patches
hovering over darker smoke in satellite imagery. Pyrocumulus
clouds are similar to cumulus clouds, but the heat that forces
the air to rise (leading to cooling and thus condensation of water
vapour) comes from fire instead of sun-warmed ground. Undercertain circumstances, pyrocumulus clouds can produce full-fledged
thunderstorms, making them pyrocumulonimbus clouds.
Scientists monitor pyrocumulus clouds closely because they can
inject smoke and pollutants high into the atmosphere. As pollutants
are dispersed by wind, they can affect air quality over a broad area.
In this case, the outburst of pyrocumulus activity lofted a large
quantity of smoke high into the atmosphere, and winds pushed it
north and east over Oregon.

Figure 1 - Imaged by Terra at 19:45 UT on August 2, 2014

Figure 3 is a photograph taken from an Oregon Air National Guard
F-15C by James Haseltine on July 31, 2014, at 16:20 UT, showing
a much closer view of a developing pyrocumulus cloud.

Figure 3
An Oregon Air National Guard F-15C flies
past a developing Pyrocumulous Cloud.

Figure 2 - The same area, imaged by Aqua approximately two hours later.
NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz
LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC

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John Tellick

The Vegetation-1 and Vegetation-2 instruments aboard the SPOT 4
and SPOT 5 satellites, which had been monitoring and mappingworldwide vegetation on a daily basis, were retired last May afteralmost 15 years of service. This functionality is due to be continued
by ESA’s Sentinel-3 satellites but, as the first of these is not due
to launch till mid 2015, this creates a major time gap in the data
continuity.
As a stop-gap measure, Belgium decided to build a small satellite
mission based on the successful PROBA (Project for On-Board
Autonomy) expertise, using state of the art technology. The
mission, launched on May 6, 2013 and called PROBA-V (where ‘V’

20stands for ‘vegetation’), became officially operational on June 1,
and will fulfil—even on its own—all the specifications of thevegetation user community.
This image of central Asia’s receding Aral Sea was acquired by the
PROBA-V minisatellite on May 13 at a resolution of 300 metres/
pixel, and depicts the white salt terrain left behind by the receding
southern Aral Sea (now known as the Aral Karakum Desert). The
greenery to the south represents cultivated land irrigated by the
Amu Darya river. The southern Aral Sea is now probably beyondsaving and may dry out completely by the end of this decade.

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Image: ESA/VITO

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GEO Quarterly No 43

Alan Sewards
Overview
This ‘new’ system, the specification for which was initiatedabout 20 years ago, is designed to replace the older DVB-S
system which has provided the bulk of Digital TV from its
start until the present time. With commendable forethought,
the specification allowed for advances such as HDTV, andrequired significant developments in communications
equipment. Most people are familiar with DVB-S2, in that
it is the means by which HD TV channels are delivered tohomes by Sky and other broadcasters; the version that
EUMETCast are proposing to use for their new service isthat same standard, but utilising some of the more powerfulfeatures such as variable coding and modulation (VCM). A
new forward-looking standard has already been issued forthe future, DVB-2SX, although it is noted that, at present,
equipment to run such a communications channel does notexist.
This brief paper aims to provide a simple description of theway the DVB-S2 system operates, and its main features,
so that readers will have some idea of how their equipment
works and why certain things have happened. I will try
and avoid getting into too much technical detail but, as thesystem is pretty technical to start with, that may not be
possible all the time.
Scope
The DVB-S2 specification covers the equipment that lies
between an input from a digital movie (eg MPEG) or otherdigital streams or packets, and the output which goes to theuplink transmitter of the satellite. In specifying the signal
which results, it also covers the receiving chain required toreceive and demodulate the signal.
Mode Adapter
The first element in the chain, the Mode Adapter, defines
how the input signals are processed and turned into blocksof data bits. These can be of two sizes, around 40,000 bits or
15,000 bits, and the output of this element is data, blocks
consisting of a header (BB Header) and a data field. The
header identifies the type of data (packets or stream) andcontains housekeeping information, including the ISI (Input
Stream Identifier). This is followed by a Stream Adapter,
which modifies the data, padding it if necessary, thenscrambling it for randomisation to make a fixed length block
called the BB Frame. The size of this frame is determined by
the selected FEC rate.
Forward Error Correction (FEC)
The BB frames then go to the Forward Error Correction(FEC) element which adds error correction bits to the data tomeet the specified rate. This is done in two stages: an ‘inner’
coding and an ‘outer’ coding, both of which result in extra
parity bits being appended to the BB Frame to produce an
FEC Frame. These frames come in two sizes, 64,800 bits fora ‘NormalFECframe’ and 16,200 bits for a ‘ShortFECframe’.
The inner code is produced by an LDPC (Low-Density ParityCheck) encoder while the outer code uses a BCH encoder. For
certain modulations (which include 8PSK and 16APSK) the
output of the LDPC encoder is bit interleaved. The object of
the FEC coding is to produce an output which is ‘Quasi Error
Free’, equivalent to a bit error rate (BER) of 10-7 at the rated
signal to noise ratio.
Modulation
The output of the FEC element is a block called an
FECFrame with sizes noted above, which is then bit-mapped

into constellations according to the requirements of themodulation chosen—such as QPSK, 8PSK and 16APSK, somewith prespecified optional code rates.
The input sequence is a FECFRAME, the output sequencea XFECFRAME (compleX FECFRAME), composed of 64
800/ηMOD(normal XFECFRAME) or 16 200/ηMOD (short
XFECFRAME) modulation symbols. Each modulation symbol
is a complex vector in the format (I,Q) (I being the in-phasecomponent and Q the quadrature component) or in theequivalent format ρ exp(jφ) (ρ being the modulus of the vectorand φ being its phase). ηMOD is the number of bits per
symbol of the selected modulation.
Physical Layer
The data XFECFRAMEs are then sent as input to a PhysicalLayer Framing element. This element performs a number offunctions as follows:• generating a dummy PLFRAME when there is no
XFECframe waiting for transmission,• slicing the XFECFRAME into a specified number of slotsof 90 symbols each,• generation and insertion before the XFECFRAME of aheader (PLHEADER) of one SLOT of 90 symbols length
for receiver configuration,• Pilot Block insertion (for modes requiring pilots) every
16 SLOTS, to help receiver synchronization. The Pilot
Block is composed of P = 36 pilot symbols,• Randomisation of the (I, Q) modulated symbols by meansof a physical layer scrambler.
A dummy PLFRAME consists of a PLHEADER and 36 SLOTS
of unmodulated carriers.
The output of this element is a PLFRAME, which is thensubjected to square root raised cosine filtering, before passing
to the quadrature modulator. The PLHEADER provides
receiver synchronization and physical layer signalling.
Note
After decoding the PLHEADER, the receiver knows the
PLFRAME duration and structure, the modulation and coding
scheme of the XFECFRAME, and the presence or absence ofpilot symbols.
Operation of the System
It will be evident from the preceding description that theframe that goes to the transmitter (and appears in thereceiver) has a header which informs the receiver of themodulation type and coding which has been used together
with other information needed by the receiver to decode theframe.
Successive frames may or may not be dummy frames and themodulation and coding specified for successive frames may
be different. As the signal at this point in the receiver is noisy(probably with a bit error rate of about 1 in 100 or 1 in 1000),
the initial decoding of the frame header has to be successfully
done in the presence of this noise. It is only when the FEC
decoder has operated on the data contained in the frame thatthe data emerges with the very low bit-error-rate specified forthe data. So the PL header data, comprising the MODCOD
and type of frame is protected by a separate 64 symbol PLS(Physical Layer Signalling) code which is a non-systematic
binary code of length 64 and dimension 7 with minimum
distance dmin = 32. It is equivalent to the first order Reed-

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The DVB-S2 System

Installing the TBS6925 Tuner Card
Continued from page 24

Continued from page 21

will help you get your new systems up and running. I hadvery interesting days working with TBS Support in trying out
new experimental software, some of which worked and somewhich didn’t. But at the end, those guys in Singapore, alongwith Crazycat Software, have given us a good system to workwith, and I thank them for their efforts.
There is of course one other option if you don’t want to go
into your PC, and that is the TBS5925 USB Box, which isconnected into a USB 2.0 socket. Set-up is similar to that for
the PCIe Card, using the same driver and configuration—andgiving identical results.
You can also use the TBS Set-up from the download centre
for the TBS6925 card, called ‘How to lock Eumetsat VCM
signal with TBS-IP Tool’. Either way will give the same
results. It’s entirely your choice.
Glossary of Termas
SNR - Signal to Noise Ratio-db
BER - Bit Error Rate-bps
VCM - Variable Code Modulation

Happy weather watch from Portland. My thanks to JeanPierre for all his help and assistance, to Ernst for hispatience in explaining the system, and finally to TBS Support,
without whose help and assistance none of this would have
happened.
Reference
1 Envisat DDS with Windows XP - GEOQ 30, page 43.

Muller under permutation. It transmits 7 bits for physicallayer signalling purposes, the MODCOD (modulation andcoding) (5 bits) and TYPE (frame size -large or small) (2 bits).
Estimate of Frame and Data Rates
I will now try and estimate the frame rate that might occur
with the parameters adopted for the EUMETCast system. To
simplify the calculation, I will neglect the times taken up for
the PLHEADER and the pilot symbols, but I estimate that thiswill only result in an error of a few percent. I further assume
that all data is sent with normal FEC frames (64800 bits). I
also assume 8PSK 3/5 modulation and coding for the Basic
Service (BS), and 16APSK 2/3 for the High Volume Service(HVS).
Because of the added parity bits resulting from the Forward
Error Correction element, only about 38688 bits of theframe are data for the BS frames and 43040 bits for the
HVS frames. The 8PSK signal allows 3 bits to be modulated
on to one symbol, while the more efficient 16APSK signal
allows 4 bits per symbol. The time to transmit one BS frame
works out at 655 microseconds (µs), [64800 bits at 3 bits
per symbol, of which 38688 bits are data], and for one HVS
frame, 491 µs [64800 bits at 4 bits per symbol, of which
43040 bits are data], assuming a 33 megasample/sec symbolrate. Thus one frame of BS data containing 38688 data bits issent in 655 µs, and one frame of HVS data containing 43040
bits is sent in 491 µs. From these figures, it can be calculated
that sending a sequence of only BS frames will result in adata rate of 59 Mbits/s, while sending a sequence of only
HVS frames will result in a data rate of 87.6 Mbits/s.
Let us consider a sequence of sending a single BS frame
followed by 2 HVS frames. This takes 1637 µs, i.e. 611 of
the triple frames per second. Overall data rates work out at
23.6 Mbit/s for BS, and 52.6 Mbit/s for the HVS. Similarly,
sending repeated sequences of one BS frame followed by
3 HVS frames will result in an average BS data rate of
18 Mbit/s and an HVS data rate of 60 Mbit/s. Adjusting theratio of BS/HVS frames allows a range of desired data rates
to be obtained.
Note that the actual rates achieved in practice will besomewhat lower than those quoted above, as I have not taken
account of various (relatively small) additional requirements
for housekeeping data that are included in the frames.
Nevertheless, these figures seem to be similar to thosepublished for estimated EUMETCast data rates for the new
system.
email: alan@asewards.net
web site: http://asewards.free.fr

NOAA 16 Decommissioned
ESA’s Rosetta probe, launched in 2004, became the first spacecraft
ever to rendezvous with a comet when it finally caught up with
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on August 6, 2014 after a ten year
journey that required two Earth fly-by assists. This image, takenby its OSIRIS narrow-angle camera on August 3 from a distanceof 285 km shows the comet’s cratered surface at a resolution of
5.3 metres/pixel. The comet is currently 405 million kilometres from
Earth, but rushing sunwards at over 50 000 kph. Currently in a
100 km orbit, Rosetta will be lowered into a final orbit just 30 km
above the comet’s surface.
Image: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

24

Following more than thirteen years in operation, yet anotherof the NOAA satellites, NOAA-16, was decommissioned onJune 9, 2014. The satellite suddenly stopped sending data
to Earth early on June 6, and efforts to rectify the situation
were unsuccessful. The APT service from NOAA-16, which
had a planned operational lifetime of between three and five
years, suffered a failure just seven weeks following launch
in September 2000, but continued to provide HRPT imagery
until last June. NOAA-16 was in fact replaced as theprimary satellite in 2005, but remained active as a back-up.
A channel-2 APT image acquired just two days following thelaunch of NOAA-16 is reproduced on page 26.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 43

ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst is sharing his incredible views from 400 kilometres above on the International Space Station. This
photograph shows Super Typhoon Neoguri as it approached Japan. At its height, Neoguri produced wind speeds of 240 kph, and its eye in thecentre of the typhoon was 65 kilometres wide. Thousands of people in Okinawa, Japan, and elsewhere were evacuated.
Image: ESA/NASA

Reader Marc Peigneux sent in this unusual cloud image which he photographed while travelling through the Touraine district of France.
The cloud looks rather like the mushroom cloud associated with a nuclear explosion, and indeed it does have a nuclear origin. It was
produced during a strong anticyclone, on a particularly calm, wind-free day, by the condensing water vapour cloud emitted by the nuclear
power station at Chinon, in the West of Touraine.
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September 2014

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

Meanders and oxbows are usually associated with gently flowing
rivers passing over soft soil on broad floodplains, much like today’s
Lower Mississippi. But as this image, captured by the Operational
Land Imager (OLI) aboard the Landsat 8 satellite shows, theColorado River boasts some dramatic, serpentine meanders in
addition to its renowned canyons.
This double oxbow, called the Loop, is located in Canyonlands
National Park, about eight kilometres upstream from the confluenceof the Green and Colorado Rivers. Known as an ‘entrenchedmeander’ by geologists, the Loop’s canyon walls are about
150 metres high, about the equivalent of a 50 storey building. The
lower canyon walls are part of the Hermosa Formation, a group of
sedimentary rock layers that formed about 300 million years ago.
At the narrowest point, just 150 metres of rock separate thechannels of the East Loop; the slightly wider neck of the West Loopmeasures about 520 metres. As the Colorado River continues toerode the canyon wall, it will eventually punch through and create a
new channel, leaving an oxbow lake.
Geologists have been intrigued as to how the entrenched meandersof the Colorado River formed ever John Wesley Powell and his
team of explorers passed through the Canyonlands region in
1869. Were the meanders established by ancestral rivers thatflowed on softer sediments long before tectonic forces uplifted the28

Colorado Plateau? Or was it something about the intrinsic rock of
the Colorado Plateau that determined the shape and distribution ofoxbows and meanders?
Geologists consider that both these ideas are relevant, and in a
recent study published in the Bulletin of the Geological Society ofAmerica [1], Deborah Harden, an emeritus professor of geology at
San Jose State University, concluded that meanders like the Loop
got their shape at least partly because of ancestral rivers. Afterconsidering factors such as the steepness of the river bed, theresistance of canyon walls to erosion and the structure of bedrocknear meanders, she found that areas that were relatively flat before
the uplift had the most meanders then—and still do today.
But she also found that the composition of the rock has someeffect on the river’s bends as well. Broader meanders, for instance,
are more common in areas with erodible rock, while cutoffs areconcentrated in areas with transitions from harder to softer rocklayers.
Reference
1 Harden, D. (1990) Controlling factors in the distribution anddevelopment of incised meanders in the central Colorado Plateau,
The Geological Society of America Bulletin, 100 (2), 233-242.
Credit: NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, using
Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Adam Voiland.

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The Group for Earth Observation

On July 23 this year, large stretches of Britain’s eastern
coastline were beset by huge swathes of haar. While muchof the country sweltered in Mediterranean temperatures,the coasts remained obdurately cool and sunless for much

GEO Quarterly No 43

of the day. Three readers submitted satellite images of thesituation, where a huge region of haar stretched across muchof the North Sea. Below are their submissions, along with the
MODIS image from NASA’s Aqua satellite, for comparison.

Anthony Lowe captured this NOAA 19 APT image showing the haar from the
13:18 UT pass on July 23, 2014.

Andre T’Kindt captured this NOAA 15 APT image showing the haar from the
15:46 UT pass on July 23, 2014.

Mike Stevens the 12:30 image from Meteosat 10 on July 23, decoding the new
DVB-S2 data stream with a TBS 6925 Digital Satellite TV Tuner Card.

This is a section from the 12:25 UT MODIS image from NASA’s Aqua satellite
on July 23, 2014.

Image © EUMETSAT 2014www.geo-web.org.uk

Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

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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.html
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, andassistance with dish alignment and set-up.
• 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.

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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 orwhatever.
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
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/
weather-satellite-reports/
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 available to weather satellite
enthusiasts. You can join any of these by
sending an e-mail to the appropriate address,
with a request to subscribe. Indeed, a blanke-mail containing the word ‘subscribe’ in its
Subject line is all that is required. Some of themore useful groups and their contact addresses
are listed below.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users of Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder can share information andproblems.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/APTDecoder/
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.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/GEO-Subscribers/
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).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/SatSignal/
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG), where members share
information about the EUMETCast reception
hardware and software.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/MSG-1/
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September 2014

Copy Deadline for
GEO Quarterly No 44 is
Sunday, October 26.
The Editor is always delighted to receive
articles and images for inclusion in
GEO Quarterly. These can relate to any
aspect of Earth 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 of course be original
and, where possible, should be submitted
to the editor in electronic format (e-mailattachment, CD, DVD). But of course, wewould also accept handwritten or typed copy.
Please note, however, that major articles
which contain large numbers of satellite
images, photographs or other illustrations
should be submitted as early as possible,
so that they can be prepared and made up
into pages in time for publication.
Images and Diagrams
Images can be accepted in any of the major
bitmap formats: JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF etc.
Images in both monochrome and colour are
welcomed. Line drawings and diagrams 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 grid lines,
country outlines or captions unless these areconsidered essential for illustrative purposes
within an 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: these are essential for page make-up
purposes.
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
as soon as it is ready—do not wait till thedeadline above: this will simply create an
editorial log-jam and delay publication.

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