Group for Earth Observation

The Independent Amateur Quarterly Publication for

Number 29

Earth Observation and Weather Satellite Enthusiasts

March 2011

Inside this issue . . .
Details of GEO’s visit to
EUMETSAT, July 7/8
2011, and the GEO
Symposium on May 7
The Great Australian Flood- 2011
DVD World with
Windows 7: Mike Stevens
reports
Arctic Meltdown with Les
Hamilton
Arne van Belle looks atreceiving Envisat DDS andEUMETCast
Anders Höök takes apersonal journey to the
two Dellen lakes
Cultivation in the Sahara
A New Challenge using a
multi-LNB dishRemote imaging ofSiberian Oil and Gas
Installations with David
PainterDavid Taylor sets thechallenge: At what altitude
are the aircraft flying?
Quarterly Question 29 andQuarterly Question 28
answers
Computer Cornercontinues, with Douglas
Deans’ series on the
EUMETCast channels
Plus much more ...

The GEO Quarterly

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
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: info@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Quarterly EditorPeter Green‘Hollowtree’
Eggesford, Devon EX18 7QX, England.
email: geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Assistant GEO Quarterly Editor
Les Hamilton
email: les.hamilton@tiscali.co.uk
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
Fax:
01509 559 015
Technical Consultant (hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Ray Godden
e-mail: ray-geo@lescharriols.eu
Education Coordinator
David Painteremail: education@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Shop Manager
Clive Finnis (Assistant: David Simmons)
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton
email: international@geo-web.org.uk
Nigel Evansemail: nigel@geo-web.org.uk

March 2011
Editorial: Peter GreenAI

nd so, my fellow GEO members: ask not what GEO can do for you - ask what you
can do for your GEO.
t seems each quarter that I have to appeal for submissions for your quarterly. I
would have expected to be have been inundated with images and articles thisquarter with all the dramatic weather events around the world in the last few
months. I have calculated that producing your magazine takes about a working weekof my time every quarter. My day starts around 0430 most days, my wife and I run
our own business which keeps me busy until around 1230, I then have a part time job
every afternoon until 1700 (this includes Sundays), and every Saturday we do the'turn around' on our holiday cottage. So I think you will agree my time is limited.
find doing this job for you enjoyable and I have learned a new skill. However, after
my appeals, inevitably, articles keep arriving after the deadline for submissions.
This causes a lot more work and the inevitable delay of the magazine going to theprinters and out to you. To quote David Taylor "if all the members contributed justone page a year, we could have a 100-page magazine each issue”. That would keep me
busy, but the point is well made. So, please support me and make the next issue, Q30,
a bumper one, with YOUR article and images. My since apologies to JFK for
misquoting him.
n this issue are details of our visit to EUMETSAT Headquarters in July and our
Symposium on 7th May, two articles from members about their receiving stations,
Les Hamilton looks at the Arctic Meltdown. Arne van Belle has two articles, the first
on Receiving Envisat DDS & EUMETCAST on page 12 then on page 21 Arne has A
New Challenge using a multi-LNB dish.
ale Hardy has part 1 of The Great Australian Flood-2011 with some dramatic
images, John Tellick reminisces about his travels to the Sahara and tells us about
Cultivation in the Sahara, and there is much more for you.
ake a look at David Painters article on Remote Imaging of Siberian Oil & Gas
Installations and see how he uses the Envisat images he receives.
hank you to all those members who sent in articles and images, your time, trouble
and expertise is greatly appreciated. I hope you all enjoy this quarterly.

I

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Contents
Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company inEngland and Wales, limited by guarantee
and not having 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
Responsibility
Every effort is made to ensure that thetechnical and constructional articles
published in this Quarterly are correct.
However, the ultimate responsibility is withthe reader to ensure the safety of
constructions and for any interfacing withother equipment. GEO cannot accept
liability for shortcomings in any publisheddesign or any constructions carried out bymembers or other third parties.
Copyright GEO © 2010
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
Observation Ltd. and its contributors.
Copying of text or images, either from theprinted Quarterly or from any electronicallystored source, is forbidden without
permission from the Editor.

GEO Report
Francis BellDVD World with Windows 7
Mike Stevens
Arctic Meltdown
Les Hamilton
Quarterly Question 29
Francis BellMy Weather Satellite Station
Esko Petäjä
Receiving Envisat DDS & EUMETCAST
Arne van Belle
The Two Dellen Lakes
Anders Höök
Cultivation in the Sahara
John Tellick
A New Challenge using a multi-LNB dishArne van BelleGEO Shop
NOAA Satellite Predictions for the UK and Western Europe
Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
Copy Deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterly
GEO Membership Renewal Form
GEO's Visit to EUMETSAT July 7th & 8th 2011
Francis Bell
Quarterly Question 28
Francis Bell
Mount Everest
NASA Observatory Report
Manicouagan crater in Quebec
Robert Moore
The Great Australian Flood-2011 Part 1
Dale Hardy
Ronse Radio Station
Andre T’Kindt
Remote Imaging of Siberian Oil & Gas Installations
David PainterCover and Full Page Image details
The Challenge: At what altitude are the aircraft flying?
David Taylor
Feedback
Computer Corner
Douglas Deans
Full Meridian of Glory: Book Review
Robert Moore

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GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Francis BellMy usual welcome to new GEO members and a thank you to
those of you who continue to support the group by renewing
your membership for a further year. Recently I wrote to about
120 lapsed members reminding them that their membership
had expired and inviting them to renew for 2011. A very
encouraging number did rejoin. This just underlines the pointof not forgetting to renew your membership when you receive
your notice. It takes time, trouble and expense to contact
lapsed members but also in the meantime they may havemissed out on important satellite news.
A further comment about our membership must be very
complimentary. You only have to read some of the articles in
the Quarterly to realise how knowledgeable and talented somemember are: also the recognition that they are willing to takethe time and trouble to share their skills and advise others. I
can look after some administrative areas on behalf of GEO, I
can also wheel and deal with planning events but if I encountera technical problem I go running to the membership for help.
Envi-Ham Project
I have recently been in touch with Stefano Badessi who is the
Principle Investigator for the Envi-Ham project. He informedme that the original 100 licence allocation for this project has
been fulfilled. However, the good news is that ESA/ESRIN
have extended this number to 150, hence the opportunity for
new people to join this exciting project still exists.
Just to remind you, the licence and software for this project
are free and providing you have a suitable computer the only
additional hardware needed are a satellite receiver (cost about£60 ) and a one metre satellite dish. You may apply to join the
project by contacting ESRIN at tta@esa.int. The usual proviso
applies here - please do not apply for a licence unless you arereally serious about Envisat reception, otherwise you may betaking a licence which would be more actively used byanother.
The Envi-Ham project is in its infancy and may be expected tosurvive beyond the life of the current Envisat satellite, that is,in the future, there may be other satellite data disseminated
via this Envi-Ham protocol, an exciting prospect! In our‘Letters to the Editor’ section there is a brief exchange ofletters about Envi-Ham: it’s worth reading by anybody
contemplating applying for an Envi-Ham licence.
For our next Quarterly I will try to publish some statistics
about the numbers and geographical distribution of Envi-Ham
project licence holders.
Other Publications.
I have just received my copies of EUMETSAT’s ‘Image’ and
ESA’s ‘Bulletin’, both excellent free publications. For details of
how to receive your own copy look for the contact details given
in recent GEO Quarterlies.
Timestamps on Images
Recently, an experienced GEO member, Storm Dunlop,
contacted me pointing out that it would enhance the scientificvalue of some of our published images if the time the images
was taken / received was published together with the image.

2

We usually do this but apparently there is an international
standard for publishing time in relation to images and I guessalso conventional photographs. The convention is to give theyear, month, date, hour, minutes in that order. I now try to do
this with images I submit for publication and it would be auseful standard for members to adopt where possible.
Laptop Request !
In GEOQ28 there was brief mention of our need for two
laptops to be used for displays at exhibitions, meetings andshows. I do have two laptop computers for my own for
personal use and in the past I have taken these shows - see
GEOQ28 page 21 featuring our stand at the National Hamfest
in 2010. However, it is a little disappointing to share thesecomputers with GEO business. It is useful to have several
computers on a show stand. Our group has recently purchased
a new desktop computer which we used for live EUMETCast
reception at shows: but it would be great if we could have two
dedicated laptops which could run a library of images anddifferent PowerPoint presentations. These computers need not
be state-of-the-art but just powerful enough to run slide
shows together with a screen large enough for a public stand.
This would mean I could reserve my own laptops for personal
use.
Here comes the request: do you have a suitable spare laptop
computer that you would be willing to donate to GEO or sell
for a modest amount of money? Batteries should not be anissue because we always have mains electricity on our stands.
If you can help out here please email francis@geo-web.org.uk
Finances
I will publish our group accounts for the last year and havethese available at our AGM on 7th May 2011. In broad terms,
our membership subscriptions just cover the publication anddistribution of the GEO Quarterly leaving only a small buffer
for other running expenses. The GEO Shop makes a profit for
us which, when necessary, provides a buffer for us covering
unexpected expenses, for example the purchase of a newcomputer for editorial use. By law I am obliged to submit toCompanies House an annual statement of accounts but thistends to be a summary of the year’s turnover with little detail.
Use of GEO logo
GEO recently received a request from a member to use ourlogo on his amateur radio QSL card. GEO readily agreed tothis request. There is a wider issue here relating to thepromotion of GEO so, if any member wishes to use our logo inan appropriate context this would be welcomed. It could beprinted on letter heads, QSL cards or on a web site. Provided
it is in context there should be no problem, see page 25 for an
example. If you want an electronic copy of our logo, email
francis@geo-web.org.uk
Coming Events for 2011
The dates for the NOAA Direct Readout Conference in Miami
this year are April 4-8. A separate notice relating to thisconference appears on page 3, and should be consulted by allinterested. For fuller details go to NOAA’s web site www.
directreadout.noaa .gov GEO has attended the previous fourNOAA conferences and will try to contribute in 2011 either bywww.geo-web.org.uk

March 2011

personal representation or contributing
to delegate literature and perhaps aposter display. It will be an important
conference revealing NOAA’s future
weather satellite programmes.
17th April - West London Radio andElectronic Show, Kempton. GEO havebooked a stand here. For details see
RadCom or visit ‘Radio Fairs’ web site.
7th May - GEO’s symposium. See theseparate notice in this Quarterly andvisit our web site for details ofregistration for this event.

Group for Earth Observation

All conference participants
welcome to attend.

GEO Quarterly No 29

are

The focus of the conference will be on
current GOES and POES data access,distribution, and preparing users forthe upcoming changes to NOAA
satellite programs. We will present
users with information on APT,
HRPT,GVAR, ARGOS DCS, GOES
DCS, LRIT, EMWIN, GEONETCast
Americas and other NOAA systems.

We will also review the upcoming
GOES-R and Joint Polar Satellite
System (JPSS) Programs.
We hope to build on our earlier
success in 2008 to make the 2011conferenceevenbetter.
Approximately 200 administrators,
managers, and scientists from 29
countries participated in the lastforum that was held in December
2008.

19th June - Newbury Amateur Radio
Rally. For details see RadCom or visit
their club web site. GEO has booked astand.
4th and 5th July - UK Space Agency.
This is the UKSA’s first annual
conference which is to be held in
Warwick. No details are available atthe time of writing. Follow the Details
on the UKSA’s web site.
7th and 8th July - GEO’s visit to
EUMETSAT and ESOC in Darmstadt.
For details see the separate notice inthis Quarterly and visit our web site
for details of registration.
29th to 31st July - AMSAT are holding
their annual colloquium at the Holiday
Inn, Guildford. GEO often havedisplays or make presentations at thismeeting but details are not yet in place
for this year. Visit AMSAT’s web site
amsat-uk.org for details as they
become available.
30th September and 1st OctoberThis is the National Hamfest Newark.
GEO will have a stand and perhaps
make a presentation relating toweather satellite reception at home.
19th March and 14th May - Ourfriend in the Netherlands, Werkgroep
Kunstmanen will be holding theirregular meetings in Utrecht. For detailsof these meeting visit their web site at:www.kunstmanen.nl

2011 Satellite Direct
Readout Conference
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) 2011 Satellite
Direct Readout Conference will host thisyear's conference from April 4-8, 2011 at
the Hilton Miami Airport Hotel in Miami,
Florida.
Prior to the Conference, the NOAA GOES
Data Collection System (DCS) will hold atraining session on 02 April 2011.

Francis Bell
Arrangements have now been confirmed for
GEO's 2011 Symposium, which will be heldat the National Space Centre, Leicester on
Saturday May 7, 2011. Doors will open at
9.00 am for registration and the programme
begins at 10.30 am.

restaurants. The details of the hotel are
Hotel Campanile
St Matthews Way
Bedford Street North
Leicester LE1 3JE
Tel: 0116-2616600

The National Space Centre (NSC) is
located approximately one mile north ofLeicester city centre and is close to the A6road. There are many direction signs to the
NSC in and around Leicester. There is alarge car park at the NSC and parking is
free for our delegates.

The hotel website shows a location map. A
concessionary rate has been arranged for aroom and continental breakfast. If you use
this hotel, please tell them you are with the
GEO group.

On arrival, enter the front door of the NSC
then turn right along a short corridor to thesymposium rooms. Register yourattendance (£12) and you will be given afree car-parking pass, to be displayed onyour car, and a free ticket for entry to the
public exhibition areas within the NSC.
These tickets will be valid all day.
The programme for the day still has to be
confirmed but, at the time of writing, wehope have speakers from        GERB data from the instruments on
Meteosat !   "#   $ %#
Time is available for other speakers. Pleasecontact Francis Bell if you have something
to offer. The day will end with the GEO
AGM.
Facilities for workshops, displays anddemonstrations will be available but details
here must rest with delegates. It is hopedthat many members will be willing to share
their experiences with us in a practical way.
Accommodation
For delegates staying overnight in Leicester,
there are many local reasonably priced
hotels. In the past, a popular choice has
been the Campanile Hotel with its nearby

www.geo-web.org.uk

Registration
If you intend coming to the symposium,
please register via our website
www.geo-web.org.uk

On the first web page there is a link to thesymposium registration form: please use
this form. The £12.00 fee may be paid on
the day but pre-registration helps with ourown organisation. It will still be possible
simply to turn up on the day, but do preregister if you can.
Provided they have an interest in Earthobservation, friends who are not currently
members of GEO will be welcome:hopefully they may be encouraged to join
GEO. Delegates may wish to bring theirown computer memory stick for storage ofany software or presentation material which
may be available during the day. Pleasealso bring something which may be donatedas a raffle prize: the raffle contributes
significantly to covering the cost of the day’s
event. Some food and drinks are for salewithin the NSC.
I hope the symposium will be well attended
and provide the opportunity to shareexperiences and bring ourselves up-to-datewithin the challenging and fast moving
hobby of Earth observation.
For the very latest information visit the GEO
website at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk

3

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Mike Stevens

Well, here we are again! It seems that each time we solve one
problem, along comes another to challenge our brains. This timeit’s Windows-7, quite a different animal from any other operating
system we have known. Windows-7 takes a bit of getting used to,and there appear to be many variations on a theme with thissoftware.
Although we have two Acer PC’s running with Windows-7, theyshow some marked differences in the behaviour of the software
that’s installed on them. So what I am about to tell you should betreated as a guide only, as it could produce different effects on
different computers. But it has worked for me, and it may help you
too. I have an Acer X3300 PC with 5 GB memory and 640 GB
hard drive running Windows-7, a very adaptable PC, and I wanted
to run my new DVB World receiver with it. You might think thatwould be easy enough—but is it?
With Windows XP it’s not much of a problem, but with Windows-7
you have to stop, think and list all the necessary procedures before
you start—and then work through them methodically one by one
until setup is complete. This is just what I did. One important thing I
discovered is that you should not use the mini CD-ROM suppliedwith the receiver for installing EUMETCast: it is just not suitable!
You must instead use the CD-ROM from GEO to install the correct
software. Also, the receiver will only operate correctly through aUSB-2 high-speed port.
Start by inserting the GEO CD-ROM and printing out the
installation instructions for the DVB World Receiver. Have a goodread before you start, to familiarise yourself with the installation
procedures.
The first operation in Windows-7 is to turn off the User AccountControl. If you type ‘UAC’ into the search box it will bring up theControl Panel for this item. There is a slider bar on the left handside of the box which you should move down to the position ‘nevernotify’ then click ‘OK’. On some computers this step does notmatter, but on others is does: so for convenience do it. You canturn it back on again later if you wish. Now you can start the
installation as listed in the guide. Again, you may get somevariations from the guide: not all of the boxes marked came up forme but it still installed OK.
When you are in Windows-7, make sure that the destination folder
for the software is located within ‘C:\tools\DVB World’ because the‘Program Files’ folder in Windows-7 is protected. Once you haveinstalled this software, you have to install two additional items ofsoftware to set up the satellite transponder and data settings for
EUMETCast. This is where I found things becoming complicated.
What you are doing is adding information to the Registry and, onsome PCs, this will be blocked by security programs. You may
therefore have to run them under ‘Run as Administrator’. If eventhat is not so successful you will have to set them up manually.
I entered these two items of software and assumed that the
Eurobird-9 satellite and the correct transponder had been set
because everything seemed to turn out as specified. But in fact it
hadn’t and I had to perform the set-up procedures manually. As a
restart of the system was not required after installing the software,
you can now add the rest of the information.

4

The next item is the IP Address. Follow the guide for this—it is very
explicit and will get you there. Don’t worry if there are some screen
variations: just follow it through. My own IP address came out
eventually as 192.168.238.239, as I had previously had my otherreceiver on the system with 192.168.238.238, and that information
stays within the Registry. Make sure that the 'Subnet Mask' comesout as 255.255.255.0 (it should set itself to this value
automatically).
Assuming that Tellicast is installed, open the Tellicast Client
Configuration file 'recv.ini' and insert the same IP address, i.e.
192.168.238.239 and save. You now have to enter all theremaining settings manually within the DVB World software. Again,
follow the instructions in the installation manual, which are precise
and accurate. Extra care is needed when you come to add the
PIDs. In the PID Information section, click the ‘Add’ button andthen select ‘Decimalization’ (you must do this). Now enter the first
PID value, followed by ‘OK’. If you don’t follow this precisely you
will not end up with the correct PID’s in the system. Now you haveto repeat ‘Add’ and ‘Decimalization’ for every PID separately. When
all the required PID values have been entered, click ‘Apply’ toconfirm then ‘OK’ to exit. At this point, it’s recommended that you
stop and restart DVB World.
Now that all settings are complete, you can locate and start
DVB World. According to the instructions, the Green IP dot in thelower tray of the screen should start automatically, but on my
Windows-7 PC it will not. I have to toggle the IP button in the top of
the menu bar, but in Windows XP it starts on its own—anotheranomaly, but no great problem.
With all this done, the system should start up with the Tellicast icon
showing as a Purple ‘T’ on a white background, indicating that all iswell and that reception has started. But again, mine didn’t! So what
had gone wrong?.
Windows-7 possesses an excellent firewall and that was the key
item I had neglected. You have to go to the search box and type in‘Firewall’. A box appears where you must select ‘Allow a program
through Windows Firewall’. This reveals another box which heads,‘Allow programs to communicate through Windows Firewall’. If‘DVB World’ is not shown within the list you will have to add it
manually. To do so, go to the bottom of the box and click on ‘Allow
another Program’, when a list of all your programs will appear.
Scroll down until you find DVB World, highlight it, then click on‘Add’. It should then show on the list of allowed programs.
Finally, and most importantly, you must tick the first box beside‘DVB World’ then scroll across and tick the ‘Home/Work (Private)’and ‘Public’ boxes, otherwise it will not run correctly. When I did
this, my system immediately sprang into life. Tellicast started,
reception began and everything was working fine.
My conclusion with this is that some Windows-7 systems appear towork differently from others, and that there is no single golden rule
for program installation. Some systems behave as described in the
installation guide whereas others do not. Just do what works foryou. One other bonus I have with the Acer and new receiver is thatit all works without a RAMDisk. Happy weather watch from
Portland.

www.geo-web.org.uk

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Les Hamilton

Figure 1
December average sea ice in 2008

Figure 2
December average sea ice in 2009

Figure 3
December average sea ice in 2010

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

The current winter may prove to be a decisive episode in thefate of the Arctic regions of our planet. As has been reported
previously in GEO Quarterly, there is continuing concern
over the ever-decreasing amounts of Arctic sea ice thatremain at the height of summer 1,2. Now, in early 2011, theextent of winter sea ice in the Arctic stands at a record low
point since satellite measurements began, and may have asignificant influence on events yet to unfold throughout
2011.
The illustrations above demonstrate how extensive this year's
reduction in sea ice is. Normally, by December, Hudson Bay
is entirely frozen over, while Baffin Island and the northernhalf of Greenland are thickly encased in ice (figures 1 and 2).
In December 2010, by contrast (figure 3), much of theeastern portion of Hudson Bay has yet to freeze; Hudson
Strait, south of Baffin Island, remains ice-free; and the Davis
Strait to the west of Greenland remains clear as far as 75°N.
During the summer of 2010, atmospheric conditions over theArctic shifted between warm episodes that favoured melting
and cooler stormy conditions which, while slowing the meltrate, helped to break up the ice.
Early in the melt season, ice extent was relatively highfollowing a long winter dominated by an extreme negative
phase of the Arctic Oscillation (see panel on next page), which
would favour the retention of ice through the summer. But in
June, a combination of high pressure over the central Arctic
Ocean coupled with unusually low pressure over Siberia
resulted in warm conditions over much of the Arctic Ocean,followed by a strong westward ice motion off the Siberian
coast which promoted rapid ice melt.

By contrast, a series of low-pressure systems dominated thecentral Arctic Ocean during July, slowing the melt rate: but
the stormy conditions helped to break up the sea ice cover.
High pressure then returned during August and September
and helped drive the sea ice towards its September 19
minimum of 4.60 million square kilometres (Mkm2). The net
effects of these variations contributed to the ultimate low ice
extent.
Following the 2010 summer melt season, which produced
the third lowest ice extent during the satellite record (theperiod during which Arctic ice has been monitored bysatellites), both the Northwest Passage and the Northern Sea
Route across Asia were declared to be open. Two sailing
expeditions, one Norwegian and one Russian, successfully
navigated these passages.
The average sea ice extent for September 2010 was
4.90 (Mkm2), the third lowest on record, 2.14 Mkm2 below
the 1979-2000 average, but still 600,000 Mkm2 above therecord average September low recorded in 2007. Ice extent
fell below the 1979 to 2000 average everywhere except in the
East Greenland Sea near Svalbard. At the end of summer
2010, less than 15% of the remaining Arctic sea ice exceeded
two years of age, compared with between 50% and 60%
during the 1980s.
Following the September sea ice minimum, the return ofpolar darkness progressed an initially rapid freeze-up and,by October 1, the five-day average ice extent had alreadyrisen almost 20% to 5.44 Mkm2. But by the end of
September, ice growth had slowed, and extensive areas ofopen water still remained in the Beaufort, Chukchi, Kara andBarents seas.

www.geo-web.org.uk

5

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

Another strongly negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation
during November and December dominated the middle andpolar latitudes of the northern hemisphere, resulting inhigher-than-normal pressures over the Arctic region, withcorresponding lower-than-normal pressures in middle
latitudes. With high pressure in charge over the Beaufort andChukchi seas and Greenland, and unusually low pressure
across the Kara and Barents seas, warm air from lower
latitudes inhibited the rate of freezing to such an extent thatthe average Arctic sea ice extent during December 2010
reached only 12.00 Mkm2, 270 000 km2 below the previously
recorded minimum and the lowest ever recorded for December.
Near-surface air temperatures over the Siberian and Alaskanside of the Arctic had been 3-5°C warmer than normal during
November while air temperatures over Baffin Bay were 8°C
above average.
Areas such as Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait and Davis Strait
are normally completely frozen by late November but in 2010
these still contained large areas of open water (figure 3). In
fact, for a spell during mid December, the Arctic ice extent
actually stopped increasing for about a week, an unusual
though not unique event.
January 2011
Arctic sea ice extent for January 2011 was the lowest in thesatellite record for that month. The Arctic Oscillation persisted
in its strong negative phase during most of January, keeping
the ice extent low, averaging 13.55 Mkm2 for the month. Thiswas 50,000 km2 below the record low set in 2006 and1.27 Mkm2 below the 1979 to 2000 average. At the turn of theyear, Hudson Bay, Hudson Strait and Davis Strait still had
areas of open water and Hudson Bay did not completely freeze
over until mid-January, a month later than normal. The
Labrador Sea was still largely free of ice, except in protectedbays along the coast.

March 2011

The Arctic Oscillation
Readers will almost cetainly be familiar with the El Niño-La
Niña Southern Oscillation in the Pacific Ocean, which is now
recognised to have a major influence on weather patterns
world-wide. What may be less well known is that there is also
an Arctic Oscillation related to opposing atmospheric pressure
patterns in the middle and high latitudes of the northernhemisphere.
The Arctic Oscillation exhibits two states. The first of these(the 'negative phase') occurs when pressure over the Arctic is
relatively high whilst lower pressure persists over middle
latitudes centred at approximately 45°N. The second state(the 'positive phase') is active when higher atmosphericpressure at midlatitudes drives ocean storms northwards
and changes in the circulation pattern to bring wetter
weather to Alaska, Scotland and Scandinavia but drier
conditions to the western United States and the Mediterranean.
In the positive phase, frigid winter air extends less far into
central North America as it would during the negative phaseof the oscillation. This keeps much of the United States eastof the Rocky Mountains warmer than normal but renders
Greenland and Newfoundland colder than usual. Weather

Ice extent for the Arctic as a whole increased at an average of
42,800 km2 per day through the month of January, which isabout average. By contrast, regional ice growth was particularly
slow compared with past years. Normally at this time of year,
ice extends several hundred kilometres from the coast all theway from Hudson Strait to Newfoundland.
Figure 4 shows the trend in the daily Arctic sea ice extent as
of February 12, along with daily ice extents for previous lowice-extent years. The lower continuous black line shows datafor 2010-2011, the dashed line data for 2005-2006 (the record

patterns in the negative phase are, in general, the reverse of
those prevailing during the positive phase, as illustrated
below.
Over most of the past century, the Arctic Oscillation alternatedbetween its positive and negative phases. Starting in the
1970s, however, the oscillation has tended to remain in its
positive phase, causing lower than normal Arctic air pressureand higher than normal temperatures throughout much of
the United States and northern Eurasia.
low for January came in 2006), and the broad upper blackline the 1979 to 2000 average. The grey area around thisaverage line shows the two standard deviation range of thedata. The linear rate of decline for January was -3.3% per
decade (figure 5).

Figure 4
Average sea ice comparisonsCredit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

6

Air temperatures above much of the Arctic were some
2-6°C above normal throughout January: warmest areas
were the eastern Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Baffin Bay,
Davis Strait and the Labrador Sea, where temperatures
were fully 6°C higher than average. Over the western
Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Scandinavia, however,temperatures were near average. These elevatedtemperatures arose two sources: unfrozen areas of theocean which continued to release heat to the atmosphere,
and the wind patterns accompanying the negative phase of
the Arctic Oscillation which fed warm air into the Arctic.
Near the end of January the negative Arctic Oscillation
pattern finally broke down and became positive, a factor
that usually favours ice growth.

www.geo-web.org.uk

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Figure 5
The year-on-year trend in average January monthly sea ice extent
Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Potential links with mid-latitude weather
While the Arctic remained warmer than normal, cold andstormy weather affected much of the Northeast US andEurope. Winter 2010-11 paired the anomalously warm
Arctic with cold and snowy weather for the eastern US
and northern Europe. Is there a connection?
Warm conditions in the Arctic and cold conditions innorthern Europe and the US are linked to the strong
negative mode of the Arctic Oscillation. Cold air, being
denser than warmer air, sits closer to the surface.
Around the North Pole, this dense cold air causes acircular wind pattern called the polar vortex , which helps
to keep the cold air trapped near the poles. When sea ice
has not formed during autumn and winter, heat from theocean continues to escape, warming the atmosphere.
This may in turn weaken the polar vortex and allow air tospill out of the Arctic Basin into mid-latitude regions,bringing potentially cold winter weather to lower latitudes.

Figure 6
Arctic sea ice on February 12, 2011. At last Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait
have iced over.The grey line beyond the ice front represents the 1979-2000
average ice extent at this date.
Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center

Open Air Learning Programme OPAL

Some scientists have speculated that more frequentepisodes of a negative Arctic Oscillation, and the stormy
winters that result, are linked to the loss of sea ice in the
Arctic. Scientists at NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental
Laboratory recently noted a link between low sea ice anda weak polar vortex in 2005, 2008 and the past two
winters: these were all years with very low September sea
ice extent over the Arctic. It has also been suggested that
there could be a relationship between autumn sea ice
levels and mid-latitude winter conditions. Anothercurrent theory is that there may be a potential relationshipbetween early snowfall in northern Siberia, a negative
phase of the Arctic Oscillation, and more extreme winterselsewhere in the northern hemisphere.

An Observation Programme which will interest GEO Members.

Continued research on these ideas may shed light onthese possible connections and should have the potential
to improve seasonal weather forecasting.

If you wish to participate in this interesting project with its
practical observations of our climate/weather then follow
these links. You do not have to register you can just send inobservations but if you do register you may ask for the freeobservation pack. Observation will relate to aircraft contrails,
cloud height, wind speed and direction together with apersonal perception of warmth.

References
1

Arctic Meltdown, GEO Quarterly 17, 2008

2

Arctic Meltdown, GEO Quarterly 21, 2009

Contrail spotting and other observations are part of a project
being run jointly between The Met Office, the Royal
Meteorological Society and Imperial College London withsupport from the Natural History Museum and the Field
Studies Council. The programme is being funded by the
National Lottery.
It is possible to participate in this OPAL project if you live inEngland. On application, a free pack is available to assist you
with local observations. The project is scheduled for March to
May 2011 and the programme is looking for as manyobservations as possible.

Go to www.opalexplorenature.org/climatesurvey you candownload the Field Guide, Workbook and Cloud Chart before
the survey starts. If you want to request the free pack email
your request to :-opal@metoffice.gov.uk

www.geo-web.org.uk

7

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Quarterly Question 29
Francis BellI was prompted to ask this question for
two reasons. Firstly, I was impressedwith the detailed interest and thenumber of members who responded to
the last Quarterly Question. Secondly,
there was a little nostalgia on my part.
I was looking through some of the files
in my archive of the early images that
I received when I first joined the EnviHam project and I was attracted to an
image which now forms the substanceof this question. This was one of thefirst Envisat images I received aftermyhomesystemhad
beencommissioned.
In those early days I was so
inexperienced I could not combine themany channels I was receiving into asinge colour composite image, hence
highlighting a particular feature inwhich I was interested. Instead, I had
to choose a single channel, that is oneout of 15, which I thought might beappropriate. I often chose channel 12
as a visible channel. Subsequent

experience now allows me a moresophisticated approach, with colours
and overlays being extracted from theraw image data. Unfortunately, in themeantime, I had deleted the raw image
file which would have allowed further
processing. Instead I was left with mylimited archived file. However, I still
feel the image is striking for its highresolution, lack of cloud cover and thedistinctive coastal outline it reveals.
The file is dated 2010 February 13th
- 08 07.
At the time of writing I am trying toreceive a comparable Met-2 image but
local cloud cover is obscuring thecoastal outline which I want to see.
Havingidentified
thelocation
illustrated in the published Envisat
image, a resourceful member may
wish to submit their equivalent Met-2
image of this area to our editor. This is
an invitation!
Now for the question, which is similar

The Envisat image relating to Quarterly Question

8

www.geo-web.org.uk

to last time: what is the name of theriver shown in the image? The river inquestion flows in an arc fromapproximately east to west across theimage. The broad tributary riverentering from the north is not part of
the question unless you wish to nameit separately.
There are two clues. The river inquestion is reputed to be 1200 km long'(this should give you a scale and thegive-away)' the equator runs acrossthe upper quarter of the image. Oh
and how many words do you know
which contain five vowels and only one
consonant?
Answers by email to francis@geoweb.org.uk before the deadline for our
next Quarterly. The prize for thewinner, who will be chosen at random,
will be attractive postcardsfromIndonesia - not the same country
through which our river flows, but asimilar latitude!

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

My Weather Satellite Station
Esko Petäjä
I have written this article describing my weather satellite
station, and how I got started with the hobby, in the hopethat it may help other beginners.
Station Location
My station is located on the west coast of Finland as
indicated in figure 1. I know of only one private individual
who is receiving EUMETCast here in Finland, although there
are others in the Met Offices and Universities. Sometimes I
feel alone, but I have been trying to raise interest here in
Finland. Figure 2 is an aerial view showing my location.
How I got started
I have been a radio amateur since 1990 (call signal
OH6MQM) and have seen that there are also many otherHams who are members of GEO. I have dreamt of startingwith weather satellites for many years, and finally, at the
beginning off 2010, I started to listen to their signals with
my old AOR 2002 receiver, using Orbitron for satellite
tracking. I waited till the correct time and manually tuned
the receiver to the correct frequency. Quite soon, I realisedthat I needed a dedicated receiver and purchased an R2FX.
For my antenna, I used first used a home-made crossed
dipole, then, later on, a double cross dipole. The receiving
software I used was APT Decoder from Patric Task. At first, I
did not get good results using APT, due to many reasons(antenna location too near to trees etc).

Figure 1 - My Station Location

During this time I also read some articles with information
about EUMETCast but, as a beginner, I found there wasmuch to learn. At this time I purchased a license fromEUMETSAT and my first DVB receiving card, theTechnisat Skystar-2 v 2.8. I also had an 85 cm offset dishfree and used that for reception. Everything was new to me:from how to find the correct satellite PID and obtain a goodsignal on the correct frequency. But I was faced with a'yellow T in T system'. The reason was that I was receiving
the wrong satellite (Hot Bird 13) which has, however, atransponder on the same frequency; a typical, simple, silly
error for a beginner.

Figure 2 - An aerial photo showing my station (red box)

Finally, I did get my system running, using an old Pentium-4
PC workstation for both reception and processing but it
proved to be absolutely too slow for that purpose. Luckily, itsoon 'died' after working continuously with an 80%
processor load. During spring 2010, I read an article in
GEO Quarterly about receiving from Envisat, and fell so inlove with the idea that I applied for a licence the very nextday. After completing the paperwork, I finally got my
Envi-Ham license, No 0067. I also set up a reception system
and got it running, but did not concentrate on it very much
until the autumn. When my first workstation failed, Ipurchased a new one, also updating my antennas and home
network at the same time.
Receiving System
My receiving system is built from the following components,
as illustrated in figure 3.

Figure 3 - Components of the Reception System

Antennas
For EUMETCast reception I used a 1.5 m prime focus dish.
This was an old dish from a friend who is doing satellite
antenna installation; it was lying in his back yard and I
cleaned and refurbished it.

It has a very heavy construction, built from 2 mmaluminium. The signal level it offers is not as high as a large
new dish due to inaccuracy of manufacturing, but the signal
is very steady. Pointing the antenna was very easy and it
tolerates much rain and snow without losing any packets of
data.

www.geo-web.org.uk

9

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

For Envisat, I use a 1.15m offset dish which gives signal
levels from 50-60%. Dish construction and mounting is quite
light and I need to rebuild it during next summer once thesnow has gone. I also noticed that an offset dish performs
less accurately that a true prime focus dish. It would be goodto have that kind off new dish for Envisat too but they arequite expensive to by new.
For APT I use a double cross dipole antenna, home madeaccording to Gerald Marten's instructions. Antenna location
is too much inside trees and I do not get a good signal.
The Reception PC
For a processing PC I use an old AMD 2.0G workstation with
1.5MB RAM. It has three hard drives and 300MB of RAMdisk. The first hard drive is an 80GB IDE type for the
Windows XP operating system. The second is a 1Tb Serial
ATA drive for EUMETCast as is the third. There is also an
external cooling fan which cools all three drives.

Figure 4 - EUMETCast antenna
covered with snow

Figure 5 - Envisat antennaigure 6 - Crossed dipole hiding in thesnow

Figure 7 - The Server Room

The PC has two network cards, one (100MB) which isconnected to my Home Network (1GB) and a second (also1GB) which provides the point-to-point connection to thereception PC. This also has two network cards. This network
is used only to deal with large Envisat files, so as not todisturb and place a heavy load on the 'Home Network'. The
reception PC is located in my 'Server Room' (figure 7), a
small cabinet which has a ventilation tube and fan direct tothe outside air. This leads excess heat outside during thesummer. In winter, I keep this closed, retaining the heatindoors for warmth.
The DVB cards I use are the Skystar 2 v 2.8 for Envisat andthe Broadlogic 2030 for EUMETCast. The latter card was on
ESA's recommendation list for Envisat and I got it from
EBay, as new, for $20. It is very sensitive, but is somewhat
obsolete and does not have drivers for Windows-7.
The Processing PC
My processing PC is a New I-5 based system running
Windows-7. This has 4GB RAM and two serial ATA drives,
the first for the operating system and programs, the second
one for data. I use a standard 21.5 inch monitor which I findgood for showing images. Additionally, I have connected anold 32-inch flat panel TV (which has a broken TV tuner andis retired from its original work) as a second monitor. This isvery good for displaying weather animations.
Displays
Whenever there are multiple PCs, using monitors is always alittle bit problematic. There are three solution available:         
    
Using a remote desktop or VNC saves space but will notcover situations where there is a need to enter BIOS level orother services where Windows is not active. KVM switches
solve this problem but there is no possibility of seeing datafrom multiple sources at the same time. Extended displays
require more space.
Because I wish to use multiple screens, I have started tobuild a 'Super Display', constructed from old flat-screen
monitors which I got from a second-hand market for almost
nothing. I cannibalized these to get out their display units.
These I mount into aluminium frames which are, in turn,mounted into a wooden frame to create my 'Super Display'with six screens. This was then mounted into a wall, saving
space for tables. Each display was then connected to
dedicated PC (each PC is capable of driving two monitors
using a dual-display driver). In this way I can get overviewsof all my satellite data at a glance. If there is something very

10

important, then I can switch
it to the 32-inch monitor
using the processing PC anda remote desktop. Multiple
monitors are used not only forweather data, but also forother data such as APRS and
Planes.
SoftwareFor EUMETCast, I use theexcellent software from David
Taylor while with Envisat I
use Beam software. SatSignal
software has many
possibilities and, after gainingsome experience, I find theprograms easy to use.
There are still many new
thinks to be learned. So far,due to lack of time, I have
only used the Beam software
to display FRS data. One
missing element in Envisat isa good prediction system.
Files just appear without me
understanding which area
they cover.
I use the following programsfrom SatSignal Software:* MSG Data manager* MetOp Manager* GeoSatSignal* MSG Animator* Modis L1 Viewer* AVHRR Manager* Mapping tools

www.geo-web.org.uk

Figure 7 - The 'Super Display' Unit

Figure 8
One element from the display unit
(aluminum frame and screen
element).

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

The Monitoring System
After running my system for a while, I discovered aneed to monitor the station, specifically for thesepoints:      " #   &  &    "
 #   * & " #   +  "
I set up MRTG Manager, which has been described inseveral previous GEO Quarterly articles. It was nice
to work at the DOS prompt and do some simple Perlprogramming. I got my system running and am now
very satisfied with it. I can see long term trends insignal variation and can ensure that systems are
fully operational all the time.
I would recommend for everybody who runs a system
24/7 to use such a monitoring system.
Understanding Data
Once my system became fully operational I was very
impressed with the large colourful images. I now
needed to learn to understand what these images
were showing and how this data could be used foranalytical purposes. I received basic meteorologicaltraining during my Aviation studies and this has
given me some basic fundamentals of weather.
Additionally, I purchased several books from Amazon(see list below) to understand more. The books coverbasic analysis of weather and satellite imagery. I
have also been studying material using Cluts. I havelearned a lot but still feel a little bit weak in thisarea.
I believe that there is a lot of scope for GEO toprovide this kind of training, especially for beginners.
Book Recommendations
1 Watts, A - ‘The Weather Handbook’, Waterline Books, 1994
2 E.D.Conway - ‘An Introduction to Satellite Image
Interpretation’ (Maryland Space grant Consortium)

Tips for Beginners
Starting and learning a new hobby typically requires
trial and error procedures. I always hope that othernewcomers to satellite imaging will not need to makesame errors I did. Here are a few tips based on myexperiences: <    *    
manuals before starting =    >X * Z [from the point of available space =& X   *   \+
makes use of the system much faster and easier.
 ]    * X*    
not cost a fortune.
Future plans
In future, I plan to study more how to analyse images
and then also to understand more from the weather.
Additionally, there is ongoing work with image
overlays. I would like to show, in the same picture,
weather data overlain with planes and gliders. When
this project is at a more mature stage, I plan to write
an article about this.

Figure 9 - Envisat monitoring with MRTG.

The Met Office is inviting amateur weathermen
and women to help them monitor the skies
Weather-watchers are being asked to send information about theirlocal area to a new website due to go live next month.
The Weather Observations Website (WOW), which is also backed by
the Royal Meteorological Society and the Department for Education,
hopes to capitalise on social media and the nation's well-known
interest in the weather to create a "hub" for localised observations.
The idea is that they can fill in the gaps between official Met Officeweather stations and create a more accurate, detailed picture of what
is happening.
A Met Office spokesman said: "The technology has come on leaps
and bounds. There is a lot of equipment around the country, and with
the interest in weather and the interest in social media this is bringing
it together. But the website isn't exclusive to people with expensive
equipment. It could just be someone uploading a photograph or
writing 'It's raining here'."He said that once posted online, the information "will be quality
tested" to make sure it can be relied upon.
The spokesman for the Exeter-based weather agency added: "Onbehalf of the UK the Met Office operates a network of more than 200
weather observing stations, however by their very nature they can
not cover every single corner of the UK.
"This project will enable the public to fill in some of those corners,
providing valuable information that can be shared with otherenthusiasts through the website. Although the observations submitted
to WOW will not be used for input into Met Office weather forecast
models, the purpose of the website is to provide a platform for the
sharing of current weather observations."
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climate/uk/wow.html

Reference

http://www.rmets.org/

http://www.poes-weather.com/media/MARTES.pdf
The above article courtesy Exeter Express and Echowww.geo-web.org.uk

11

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Arne van Belle - EHAM-044, PE1PSJ
Coordinator (Radio Observers) at Werkgroep Kunstmanen, The Netherlands.

Why Receive Envisat DDS and EUMETCast?
EUMETCast delivers images from geostationary weather satellites,
which are positioned all around the world, and ideally suited foroverviews and animations.
But Envisat DDS disseminates Envisat images with a stunning
260 x 290 metre resolution from certain areas, which allows you tozoom in almost endlessly to show details that EUMETCast can not.
Although EUMETCast also supplies polar images (AVHRR, Metopand MODIS), the resolution delivered by Envisat is currently thehighest receivable by amateurs.
Why Use Just a Single Antenna?
As EUMETCast relays data from many meteorological satellites
from a single geostationary TV broadcast satellite (Eurobird 9), so
ESA relays data from the polar-orbiting Envisat through a fixed
geostationary satellite (Eutelsat W2A)—so you don’t need a
tracking antenna to receive it.

Figure 1 - Earth's constellation of geostationary and polar weather satellites

Receiving Envisat DDS and EUMETCast normally requires theinstallation two satellite dish antennas, routing two cables andhaving two receivers connected to two separate PCs. Amateur
users living in residential areas may not have space for mounting
two dish antennas. In some residential areas, planning allows only
one dish. With only one degree of separation between the twosatellites, it should be possible to receive both using the same dish.

Envisat DDS is transmitted by Eutelsat W2A at 10° east on Ku highband. EUMETCast is using Eurobird-9 at 9° east, also on Ku highband. Both EUMETCast (11977 MHz) and Envisat-DDS(12621 MHz) use horizontal polarisation.

Figure 2 - The traditional 2-dish, 2-lead 2-computer system

Figure 3 - A system for using a single antenna

Can both Services be Received Successfully on one Antenna?
First check if you have a free line of sight to both satellites.

A calculation using Satmaster Pro shows that a 1.0 metre dish has
sufficient beamwidth to receive both 9°E and 10°E transponders
using the same LNB. There is some 'off-axis gain loss' on bothtransponders however: in the worst case this can be as much as-1.5 dB (for comparison, -3 dB represents a signal reduction by afactor of two).

www.dishpointer.com

is an ideal tool that produces overlays on Google Earth and canwarn you about possible obstacles in your line of sight.

12

Footprints show that Eutelsat W2A's beam is wider than that ofEurobird-9 but about 2 dBW lower over most parts of Europe(figures 6, 7). This is why a minimum of a 1.0 meter dish is required(1.2 meter is preferred) for Envisat DDS while EUMETCast caneasily be received using a 0.85 m dish.

www.geo-web.org.uk

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Figure 6
The Eutelsat W2A footprint, illustrating why aminimum 1.0 m dish is required for Envisat DDS

Figure 4
A Rectangular Aperture Beam Pattern produced by Satmaster Pro
for uniform illumination, a 1-metre antenna aperture and 12.621000 GHz

For a free demonstration version of Satmaster Pro, go to
http://www.arrowe.com/

By aligning the dish carefully between 9.5°E and 9.8°E, you canreceive almost the maximum signal level from the weaker
Envisat DDS with only a minor signal loss on EUMETCast.
Although a larger dish would yield more gain, it would also have anarrower beamwidth, making the use of a single LNB more difficult.
My test set-up consists of a 1.0 metre offset dish on a portable
tripod in the garden (figure 8). This TRIAX TDS 110 dish is
specified as having a gain of 40.2 dBi at 11.7 GHz. A cheap FaVal
Universal single LNB with typical 0.2 dB noise figure is used. The
coaxial cable used is 25 metres of good quality KOKA799(remember that for Envisat at 12.621 GHz, the IF frequency is
2021 MHz). Any good-quality satellite TV cable should suffice but
good old RG59 will be too lossy for longer runs.

Figure 7
The Eurobird-9 footprint, which allows
EUMETCast reception with an 85 cm dishFeeding two Receivers from a Single LNB and Cable
A signal from the single LNB is applied to both receivers using a
2-way satellite splitter (figure 5). These splitters, which can befound at satellite equipment shops, are specified as having an
insertion loss of less than 6.5 dB at 1750-2400 MHz and an
isolation better than 16 dB at 1750-2400 MHz.
When both receivers are applying both power and a 22 kHz pulsed
signal to the LNB (to activate high band), the 22 kHz signals will
periodically cancel each other out, causing flipping between low
and high band. A DC-blocker is used to block the power supply and
22 kHz pulse from one of the receivers. Alternatively, you can look
for a 2-way splitter with only one 'DC pass' port. Another way ofachieving this, for DIY-ers, would be to open up a splitter andremove the diode at one of the receiver ports.

Can Both Streams be Decoded on one System?
If you do not want to miss any images, you have to receive aroundthe clock, and running two PCs does increase electricity costs andgenerates more heat and noise.

Figure 5 - A typical DC-blocker unit

Nowadays, PCs have enough performance to receive and process
both services simultaneously. But receiving around 30GB of Envisat
data and around 40GB of EUMETCast data per day is quite achallenge. Running two receivers of the same type and brand on asingle system is generally not supported, as you need separate
control over both receivers.

www.geo-web.org.uk

13

GEO Quarterly No 29

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March 2011

Figure 10 - The DVBWorld receiver
Figure 9 - The modified system for using a single computer

That is why I use a Skystar-2 PCI card receiver for EUMETCast
and an external DVBworld USB2 receiver for Envisat DDS. The
DVBworld receiver is used for Envisat DDS because it performs
better on weak signals compared to the older Skystar-2 v 2.6,
especially during rain fades. I used the DVB-S2 version that
performs similarly to the DVB-S version that the GEO Shop sells.
The Skystar-2 PCI (2.6 version) requires a 5 volt full-height PCI slot
whereas the DVBworld unit requires a USB 2.0 port and is poweredby an external 9V, 2A supply.
The TelliCast client software for EUMETCast and the DDS Receiver
software run happily together on the same PC as long as each
receiver has its own fixed IP address.
 Skystar 2/TelliCast was set at 192.168.238.238
 DVBworld/DDS receiver was set at 192.168.238.239
Figure 12 on the following page is a screenshot showing dataflow
from both receivers.
Figure 11 - The Skystar-2 PCI card receiver

Choosing a Suitable PC
Most EUMETCast data is directly processed on the same
(receiving) PC using David Taylor’s MSG Data Manager, AVHRRManager and Metop Manager software.
Although reception of Envisat data over DDS is less demanding
than EUMETCast, viewing large Envisat files with BEAM-Visat does
require lots of memory and processing power. I choose a dual-coreIntel i3-530 PC as a good compromise between performance andenergy consumption. Receiving over 70 GB data per day needs alarge and fast hard disk, so I choose a 1.5 TB drive with a 32 MB
cache. The large cache compensates for the lower rotation speedof this ECO drive nicely.
Solid state disks, with their fast access, should make the use of a
RAM disk unnecessary, but handling this large amount of data
every day may wear them down very quickly, so I choose anotherapproach. Because most EUMETCast data is processed directly
after reception, this data is 'short lived'. Why not store all this
temporary data on a large RAM disk?
A 2 to 4 GB RAM disk is created for temporary storage and holds,
not only the temporary TelliCast files, but also the received raw data
and the received Envisat files. The free DataRAM RAM disk offersa second and very fast storage path that is not easily 'clogged' by
Windows. This RAM disk is able to use memory above the 4 GB

14

limit that Windows XP normally cannot access, and proved to run
stably under 64-bit Windows-7 too.
When the hard disk is heavily loaded, TelliCast and DDS Receivercontinue to write to the RAM disk, preventing data loss.
Although the CPU should be sufficient to view and animate images
on this PC too, I prefer to do image processing and animations on asecond PC that retrieves data over a LAN. To keep this set up
running correctly, housekeeping is required. A simple DOS script
checks the Envisat DDS 'Received' folder on RAM disk every two
minutes and moves completed data to the hard drive at low priority.
A second DOS script checks the EUMETCast 'Received' folder on
RAM disk every 10 minutes and moves data that has not beenprocessed since the previous check. Normally, all EUMETCast data
is processed from RAM disk and written to the hard drive using
David Taylor’s 'Manager' programs, but Murphy can strike here too,and halt processing. These simple DOS scripts prevent the RAM
disk overflowing.
With up to 70 GB data per day, keeping your hard drive fromoverfilling is a challenge. Luckily, David’s software contains options
to automatically delete older data so do set those retention limits
correctly.

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March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Figure 12 - A screenshot showing simultaneous dataflow being acquired from both the DVBWorld and Skystar-2 receivers

Conflicting Software
As it is never connected to the Internet, I do not run a virus scanner
or firewall on this PC as these are known to degrade performance.
My other system is well protected of course.
Windows own defragmenter disrupted reception too much and was
disabled. MST Defrag showed good results but can cause data loss
while TelliCast’s temporary files are being written to the hard drive.
This issue was solved by holding these temporary files on RAM
disk, thus isolating them from MST Defrag. A test with the free
SmartDefrag looked fine at first but Version 1.5 of this program
slowly eats up all my memory and needs a weekly restart toprevent this. Further tests with Jkdefrag, Mydefrag and Auslogics
are planned.
What Operating System Should be Used?
I started using Windows XP, which offers all that is needed for
EUMETCast and Envisat DDS and does run stably if kept clean.
But this 32-bit operating system is not able to use my 8 GB memory
efficiently and, of course, is not sold any more.
Although I managed to utilise 3 GB for XP itself and 4 GB for theRAM disk, others may run into compatibility issues with their
onboard video adaptor as this also uses some memory.
Because most PCs come with Windows-7 nowadays, I started a
test using the 64-bit version, which can use the total of 8 GB ofmemory without resorting to any tricks. Finding a DVBworld driverthat received data correctly under it was not easy but finally I had
my best results using a mix of the 20080415 and 20081224 drivers.

Although Windows-7 has been running stably for months now, at
first I had unexplainable data losses. It turned out that Windows-7,
by default, schedules a lot of hidden maintenance tasks like disk
defragmentation in the quiet hours. After disabling about 14 ofthese 32 scheduled processes, my system
is now almost free of missed files. My old
Pentium-4 at 3 GHz, running XP, stillshows fewer missed files, but I should
mention that this system only does
EUMETCast and not Envisat.
The Custom-Built Hardware
To achieve a stable long-lasting systemrunning 24/7, sufficient cooling is a major
concern, so I invested in a CoolerMasterCenturion-5 case (figure 13) with an allmesh front that takes in cold air. The cold
air is first lead across the hard disk, thenused to cool memory and main board. Itthen passes a Thermaltake Sonic Tower
CPU heatpipe cooler. A 120 mm
temperature-controlled fan mounted on therear panel finally expels the hot air fromthe CPU cooler and expels this throughthe PSU (figure 14).

Figure 13
The CoolmasterCenturion-5

These Akasa fans measure
120 x 20 x 25 mm and have automatic speed control from 800 up
to 2300 rpm via a built-in thermal sensor and long life twin ballbearings. They run very silently at room temperature but can
speed up to expel 178 cubic meters per hour at 45°C.

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GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

Figure 15 - The rear panel of the PC

Figure 14 - PC with optimised cooling to provide low noise

Clear front covers (taken frompresentation folders) and
Sellotape were used to create an
air duct around the CPU heat pipecooler. This way the (often) noisy
CPU cooler fan was not needed.
A carpet tile was glued to theinside of each large panel. The
hairy surface layer of these carpet
tiles absorbs high pitched noises
and the bitumen base dampens
vibrations in the thin metal panels
perfectly. Preparing the case thisway may look like a lot of work but
it is very rewarding as the system
is now barely audible from a metre
away, while hard disk, system andCPU temperatures stay well below
40°, even under heavy load.

March 2011

A minor concern was the hightemperature of the DVBworld box
when running 24/7, but mounting
this box in the airflow from thecase fan solved this (figure 15).
Note that, in this photo, the loopthrough output of the DVBworld
receiver was used to feed theSkystar-2, but this caused
interruptions on EUMETCast whentuning the DVBworld receiver so a
splitter is now used.
This system (including both
receivers but with monitor
switched off) consumes anaverage of only 56 watts while
receiving and decoding
EUMETCast and receiving Envisat
DDS.

Required Components < =$>>!% " Z[ [  < !] >]^! Z%  _Z
heat pipe cooler + DIY air duct {|}~==]   Z}|}~ 
this memory is still costly) > _ %[$=>{<~ }Z32 MB Cache   Z]>^Z [
power supply (82-87% efficiency)
 ! % !>Z Z %
front and 120 mm case fan }|Akasa temperature-controlled 120 mm fan with dualball bearing AK-174BKT-B to replace the fans in the caseand PSU _ } !<}
 =Z }^%~
 } Z  [ ! }    |[{=! _

The two Dellen lakes – one meteorite crater
Anders Höök
Last summer, I visited the area around where I was born, aplace called 'Dellenova', a sort of museum dedicated to themeteorite impact that later formed the two Dellen lakes. The
enthusiastic museum guide presented a lot of information andalso gave us visitors the opportunity to experience a simulated
earthquake. I thought this may be of interest to GEO readers.
In northern Sweden, in the area of Hälsingland, some 300 km
north of Stockholm, there are two lakes, North Dellen (figure
1, a Terra MODIS image) and South Dellen (figure 2, my own
NOAA 19 APT image, decoded and processed with Patrik
Tast’s APTDecoder). The lakes are faintly visible west tonorthwest of the large Hornslandet peninsula that protrudes
into the Sea of Bothnia.
Northern Dellen has an area of 81 km2 and South Dellen 50
km2; their maximum depths are 48 and 50 metres respectively.
Some 90 million years ago, a meteorite with an estimated16

diameter of about one kilometre hit this area, producing acrater with a diameter of some 19 kilometres, an area of about
300 km2 and a depth about 250 metres, some 50 m of which
is water. The centre of the crater is located at 61°51' North,
16°41' East. In the central part there is a magnetic melt ofmaterial from the impact, with a diameter of nine km and a
depth of 100 m. This mineral has been named 'Dellenite'. Until
relatively recently it was believed that the lakes had a volcanic
origin, but research in the 1980s has, however, shown thatthey are the result of a meteorite impact.
All of Scandinavia, including the Dellen area, has been
covered with inland ice at least four times. The last covermelted about 10 000 years ago. The inland ice depressed theground quite considerably and also tilted it somewhat towards
the east. This is why the lakes presently do not form a circle.
The northern shore of North Dellen has the most wellpreserved circular form.

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March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

I can add that the area around the Dellen lakes is a very
beautiful rural landscape.
There is another even bigger meteorite crater in the landscapeat Dalecarlia, called the Siljan Ring (figure 3), at 61°02' north,
14°54' east. It was created earlier, some 370 million years ago.
That meteorite's diameter is estimated to have been about four
km and the resulting crater, the biggest in Europe, has adiameter of 55 kilometres. In figure 2, the Siljan Ring is justvisible to the southwest of Hornslandet. I also looked at thearea in question in 'Virtual Ocean', explained in GEO Q27.
With the use of 'Basemaps: Geology, Oil and Gas Fields ofEurope and Turkey', I made the geological map reproduced infigure 4. There, the Siljan Ring is visible as a remarkably
circular feature. To my annoyance the meteorite impact thatcreated the Dellen Lakes is not visible so clearly.

GEO Quarterly No 29

References
http://www.dellenova.se/ (in Swedish)Brochure from Hudiksvall’s Tourist Information
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dellensj%C3%B6arna
http://www.dellenit.se/DELLENBYGDEN/historia.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dellen (in English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siljan_(lake) (in English)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_impact_craters_in_
Europe (in English)
Virtual Ocean -> Basemaps -> Geological Maps -> Europe ->Geology, Oil and Gas Fields of Europe and Turkey (USGS) (inEnglish)Fig 1 North (Modis Terra 2009-05-01 10:30 UT)

Siljan Ring, fig 3 (Modis Terra 2009-05-01 10:30 UT, location 61o 02’ North,
14o 54’ EastFig 2 South Dellen my own APT image (figure 2: NOAA 19
2010-08-15 12:04 UT

Fig 4. I also looked at the area in question in “Virtual Ocean”, explained in GEO Q27. Withthe use of “Basemaps: Geology, Oil and Gas Fields of Europe and Turkey” I made thegeological map

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March 2011

Cultivation in the Sahara
John Tellick
I seem to have a fascination for deserts,
especially the Sahara.
This might have come from the fact that
I have filmed in various parts of the
Sahara – three filming trips to Egypt for
the BBC the first of which was to
Ismailia and the Suez Canal in 1971 tocover the aftermath of the ‘6 day war’
between Egypt and Israel in 1967 whichclosed the canal for some years, thevisit of Leonid Brezhnev in Cairo andthen on to film the Aswan Dam – whichat that time was surrounded andguarded by USSR SAM rockets – which
we were ‘not supposed to see’ from ourcurtained bus and certainly not allowed
to film!
Other trips to Egypt took me from
Alexandria all the way down the Nile tomany of the archaeological sites ending
up at the Abu Simbel temple on Lake
Nasser for BBC Science Features series.
OK, we didn’t venture into the Saharamuch – that came later on a trip to

Sudan.
We had been filming in the southern
Sudanese town of Juba – again early
70’s regarding the political problems
between north and south Sudan –which continue to this day.
Back in Khartoum the BBC 24 hours
programme wanted a film on thepolitical problems in Eritrea so we setout on a night time crossing of theeastern Sahara/Nubian desert from
Khartoum to Kassala in the back of anopen Land Rover truck.
I was up for a bit of adventure in thosedays and adventure this certainly was!
Crossing the uninhabited desert atnight on just a sandy track under thestars was ‘interesting’ to say the least –and very cold.
However, a day or so after arriving in
Kassala the authorities got wind of what
we were up to – planning to meet ‘the

Al Khufrah Irrigation Project in Libya

18

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rebels’ and cross over the border where
they had promised us a ‘bit of subversion’
to film and we were placed under housearrest for several days before being
loaded up on the truck again for a night
passage back to Khartoum.
A further Saharan adventure cameseveral years later on the south eastern
Moroccan/Algerian border filming a
costume drama about an English
explorer.
Desert landscapes at the foothills of the
Hindu Kush also featured in a filming
trip to Mazare-e Sharif in northern
Afghanistan in the early 70’s for The
Ascent of Man.
And a memorable filming trip in theearly 80’s to the Great Victorian Desert
in South Australia and the town of
Coober Pedy (which I believe isAboriginal for ‘white man in a hole’)
where most people lived in homes
carved out of the rock and mined inholes in the desert for opals.

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But I digress – this is becoming a bit ofa travelogue.
With the advent of EUMETCast allowing
inexpensive and easy reception of highresolution HRIT and AVHRR data,
looking at the globe from 0 degree
location, two things stand out - theenormous size of Africa and the vast
area that is the Sahara Desert.
With our ‘high resolution’ imaging – well
medium really compared to otherenvironmental satellites – the Sahara isshown to be more than just a featurelessexpanse of sand.
Indeed, vast areas of sand dunes show
up well under the right light condition– in winter via polar orbiters and earlymorning/late afternoon with Meteosat
HRV. More impressive are the dark
rocky outcrops, they show up well in
daylight, especially low Sun angles. But
do look at them at night in the IR

channels of Metop and NOAA AVHRR
where they are possibly even more
impressive as the sand cools quickly
but the rocks retain their heat.
I was having a look at a VIS AVHRR
image in December and noticed a road
network showing up quite well in Libya.
To the south were a series of regulardark spots in blocks.
These were also visible on Meteost-9’s
HRV early morning imaging.
A quick zooming in on Goggle Earthshowed these to be very large circularareas of crop cultivation in the desert.

GEO Quarterly No 29

means is the Al Khufrah Irrigation
Project which is further to the south.
The Al Khufrah circular cultivation
areas are shown here in a photo and I
guess the Farm @ Sahara ones are thesame.
An area of ‘desert cultivation’ which
many will be familiar with fromEUMETCast imaging and one that has
supported one of the worlds great
civilisations, is of course the Nile whichshows up well – especially if you
experiment with the processing tabs of
HRPT Reader.

In fact you can zoom in very close but
the area is not identified as such by
Google Earth apart from Farm @ Sahara.

It’s interesting to note that most of thecrop cultivation takes place on thewestern banks of the Nile and of course
across the vast Nile delta.

I haven’t been able to find any further
information about the above by Googling– the project that is identified by thisSo, spending a bit of time processing
images and keeping your eyes open canbe quite rewarding.

Road network and crop cultivation at 'Farm @ Sahara' in Libya - Metop image 2011-01-23 12:27:33

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Cultivation along the Nile in Egypt - NOAA Image 2011-01-23

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March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Arne van Belle

Having already been successful in using my WaveFrontier T90 multi-LNB
toroidal dish for both EUMETCast and Satellite TV reception, I set myself
the challenge of seeing if I could add Envisat DDS reception to it too.
This particular dish utilises a specially curved sub reflector to spread theincoming signal over the multiple LNBs, which are mounted on a curved
rail (figure 1). I felt that it should also be possible to receive Envisat DDS
via another LNB. This T90 dish has a gain of 39.6 dBi @11.7 GHz, just alittle lower than my 1.0 meter test set up.
On the Wavefrontier T90, the optimal distance between the 9°E and 10°E
LNBs is 24 mm, compared with 17 mm for a 1.0 meter standard offset dish.
However, experiments with a single LNB had shown that either Envisat or
EUMETCast suffered from this compromise.
While a single LNB can be used on a standard dish, two LNBs are requiredon the T90. But on a standard LNB the feedhorn diameter is 50 to 60 mm.
In a "you never find out if you don't try" attempt, I modified two standard
LNBs then glued them together to create a special 'TwinSat' LNB with only
30 mm distance between the two units (figure 2). Figure 3 compares theoriginal single LNB with the 'TwinSat' version. Of course, the modified
LNB had to be weatherproofed for outdoor use and this is shown infigure 4.
The final result is an all-in-one satellite reception set-up with sufficientsignal level on both EUMETCast and Envisat. Not only that, but this single
dish can currently receive signals from ten different satellites locatedbetween 28.5° and 5°W (figure 5).
Using quad output LNBs and multiple switches, this dish now supports
Envisat DDS and EUMETCast on two PCs, in addition to another threesatellite TV receivers.
Figure 1
Illustrating how the specially curved subreflector spreads the incoming signal overmultiple LNBs.

Figure 2 - The modified 'TwinSat' LNB

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GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

Figure 3 - The original LNB (left) compared with the 'TwinSat' LNB

Figure 4 - The weatherproofed 'TwinSat' LNB

Figure 5This single dish with multiple LNBs
receives from satellites at
28.5°E, 23.5°E, 19.2°E, 16°E, 13°E,
10°E, 9°E, 5°E, 1°W and 5°W

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GEO Quarterly No 29

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March 2011

March 2011

EUMETCast
On-Line Registration
Guide
If you require to register as a first-time user for
any of the free EUMETCast data streams such as
MSG, NOAA AVHRR, Metop etc., or need torenew 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 the official
EUMETCast on-line registration form, which canotherwise prove somewhat tricky to locate.

GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans
Dunblane, Perthshire, SCOTLAND
All aspects of weather satellites from APT, HRPT
to Meteosat-8 DVB/EUMETCast systems.
   ^}}}
   %   "%John Tellick
Surbiton, Surrey, ENGLAND
Meteosat-8 advice - registering for the various
MSG services, hardware and software installationand troubleshooting. John will also field generalqueries about any aspect of receiving weather
satellite transmissions.
   ^}^]^]]>   %  [ Z"[_Geoff Morris GW3ATZ
Shotton, Flintshire, NE WALES
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,
co-ax,connectors, mounting hardware etc. and has
also done a lot of work with the orbiting satellites.
Geoff has been a EUMETCast Meteosat-8 user forsome time and is familiar with David Taylor’s MSG
software; he should be able to share his
experiences with newcomers to this branch of thehobby.
   ^}{{}>}   %  [Z] "Z %Mike Stevens
Portland, Dorset, England.
Advice offered on EUMETCast (MSG and Metop)and APT.
%  ]}"%
Guy Martin G8NFU
Biggin Hill NW Kent, ENGLAND
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who wishing toreceive MSG/Metop using Windows 2000 or XP.
Can also help with networking and ADSL router
setup..
  [%  Z"_Hector Cintron
San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
Hector is prepared to field enquiries on HRPT,
APT, EMWIN and NOAAPORT   { >   %  __Z
Email contact can of course be made at any time,
but we would ask you to respect privacy by
restritricting telephone contact to the period 7.009.00 pm in the evenings.

Group for Earth Observation

Internet News/
Discussion Groups

GEO Quarterly No 29

The Copy Deadline for

GEO Quarterly No 30
is Saturday, 2nd April, 2011

There are a numerous Internet-based discussion
groups available to weather satellite enthusiasts.
You can join any of these by sending an e-mail tothe appropriate address, with a request to
subscribe. Indeed, a blank e-mail containing theword ‘subscribe’ in its Subject line is all that isrequired. Some of the more useful groups andtheir contact addresses are listed below.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users of Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder can share information and problems.
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), Earthobservation satellites and any GEO-related matter.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/GEO-Subscribers/
Satsignal
An end-user self help group for users of David
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/
METOP
A forum for users of high-resolution AHRPT datafrom the MetOp satellite, available via
EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/METOP/
AVHRR
A forum for users who download high-resolution
EARS-AVHRR data from the NOAA polar orbiting
weather satellites via EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AVHRR/ATOVSA Group for discussions about using ATVOS data.
Data from the whole world is available from
CLASS (www.class.noaa.gov) and for an extended
Europe, via EUMETCast.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ATOVS/
Weather Satellite Reports
This group provides weekly reports, updates andnews on operational aspects of weather satellites.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/weather-satellite-reports/
WXtoImg
Users of the WXtoImg software package for
capturing and imaging NOAA APT can air theirproblems, discuss its features and ask questions
about it.

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    [  
hardware and software !#    % [ Z %
 =   % [[stations %    " % |
answerContributions should of course be original and,
where possible, should be submitted to theeditor in electronic format (floppy disc, e-mailattachment, CD, DVD). But of course we will
also accept handwritten and typed copy
should the need arise.
Please note, however, that major articles
which contain large numbers of satellite
images, photographs or other illustrations
should be submitted as early as possible, sothat 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 Windows metafile and 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 the individual, original
images, in one of the formats describedabove: these are essential for page make-up
purposes.
Submission of Copy
All materials for publication should be sent to
the editor,
Peter Green‘Hollowtree’
Eggesford, Devon EX18 7QX, England.
Tel:01769 580 700
The most efficient way to do this is as email
attachments to the following address
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

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 thedeadline above: this will simply create an
editorial log-jam and delay publication.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wxtoimg-l/

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GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Current Subscription Rates
United Kingdom ... £20

Europe ... £24

Rest of World ... £28

You can make your annual GEO Membership payment by any of the following methods:
 PayPal - Visit the GEO Shop website at http://www.geo-web.org.uk/shop.html and add your subscription to your basket
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Your subscription is valid for one year from your date of application and entitles you to all the privilegesof membership of the Group for Earth Observation, including four issues of GEO Quarterly. Please notethat your subscription will commence with the issue of GEO Quarterly that is current at the time of yourapplication. Back issues, where available, may be ordered from the GEO Shop.

Please send your completed form to:David Anderson (GEO subs),
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The Group for Earth Observation Limited is a company in England and Wales, limited by guarantee and having no shares.
% %"{>>[!|$ _  ~ %[~> iv

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GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

GEO’s visit to EUMETSAT, Darmstadt 7th - 8th July 2011
Francis BellGEO’s visit to Darmstadt later this year is
confirmed for Thursday and Friday, July
7-8. Delegates who anticipate joining us forthis visit should register by visitingwww.geo-web.org.uk

The website contains the notice about ourDarmstadt visit and provides a link to theregistration form. Please use this form.
Our group will be guests of EUMETSAT so
the fine details of the visit will be in theirhands. My broad expectation is that we will
arrive at EUMETSAT HQ at 9.00 am on
July 7, and spend the day visiting theirextended HQ and technical facilities—
perhaps with presentations relating thecurrent and future EUMETSAT
programmes.
On Friday July 8 we will again meet at
EUMETSAT HQ, but this time to join acoach for the one hour journey to Usingen,where EUMETSAT have their large dishes
and ground station for directcommunication with their satellites.
Hopefully we can look at the dishes and go
into the control rooms there.
On return to Darmstadt, we are scheduled
to start a 90-minute tour of the European
Space Operations Centre (ESOC). Unless
our numbers are very high, we should all
be able to start the ESOC tour at 1.30 pm.

The tour will involve a short presentation
plus a tour of their control rooms anddisplays. Access to some areas may
depend current satellite operations. Our
two day visit will end at 3.00 pm on leaving
ESOC.
Please note that, when visiting both
EUMETSAT and ESOC, a list of visitors
has to be produced so it will be of great
help if delegates would register in advancevia the website—see above. Also note thatsome form of photo identity will have to be
produced when entering EUMETSAT HQ
and ESOC.
There is no specific charge for this visit as
we will be guests of the host organisations.
However, there will be a small charge tocover the coach hire, the ESOC tour guidefees and some small miscellaneous costs.
The actual cost will depend on ournumbers but should be in the region of
15 - 20 euros.
Travel and accommodation must be theresponsibility of individuals but the following
may be useful background. There areseveral hotels in Darmstadt but the one
chosen by many delegates for our visit in2008 has only a limited number of rooms,
but a nearby hotel of similar standard has
been contacted and they will offer a priceconcession to GEO members.This hotel is

ETAP Hotel
Kasinostrasse 4- 664293 Darmstadt
Telephone ++ 49 6151 393720
Use the Internet ‘ETAP Hotel Darmstadt’ fora location map and visitor reports. The
hotel may be contacted by email, in English
or German, at
H3526@accor.com

The ETAP hotel is conveniently locatedwithin walking distance of Darmstadt town
centre, the EUMETSAT and ESOC HQbuildings and the railway station. For thoseflying into Frankfurt airport it is worth notingthat there is a shuttle bus service between
the airport and the centre of Darmstadt.
For any member who might wish to stay an
extra day or two after our programme of
events, you may find a visit to nearby
Heidelberg attractive. During midsummer
weekend it is likely that there will be
additional activities in the town as well as
the river, university and the castle (ofbrothers Grimm fame). There is a regulartrain service between Darmstadt andHeidelberg and for those travelling in small
groups the fare is very modest.
For up-to-date details relating to GEO’s
Darmstadt visit our website
http://www.geo-web.org.uk

Quarterly Question Number 28
Francis Bell
Quarterly Question 28 appeared on
pages 28 and 29 of our December 2010
publication. Readers may rememberthat it was prompted by an Envisat
image I had received using my home
Envi-Ham system plus a subsequent
Meteosat 7 Indian Ocean image via
EUMETCast. The question asked forthe name of the river featured in theEnvisat image of tropical East Africa.
The line of this river was also justidentifiable on the Meteosat 7 image
but this time it was shown as asinuous political overlay not the riveritself.
I was very pleased with both thenumber and geographical diversity of
our members who sent in answers. All
the answers submitted were correct.
Below is a list, in no particular order,of those members giving a correct
answer. I was happy to accept either orboth of two names: River Ruvuma in
Portugese Rio Rovuma.

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Mike Brag Timaru New ZealandYves Ducas Namur Belgium
Andreas Lubnow Braunschweig
Germany
Ronald Ertl DKINJ Germany
Rob Denton Leicestershire UK
Ruud Jansen Haarlem Holland
Dave Rennolds G0BXS Oxford UK
David Pykett Grimsby UK
Elmar Bogels PE1LHC Brunssum
HollandFrank Skillington Nottingham UK
John Morris Bolton UK
Dave Lane G3VOM Manchester UK
Nick Tebneff VK5NT South Australia
Anders Hook Vallentuna Sweeden
Fritz Zajicck 0E3FZB Austria
Frank Allica Australia - Captain of thecruise ship ‘Spirit of Adventure’Some members just briefly gave thename of the river others included
additional details. Some of this extra
background material is shown below inan email from Ruud Jansen.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Hi Francis,
The answer to the Quarterly Questionin number 28 is Ruvama River. I haveused Google Maps and then also theEncyclopedia Britannica on theInternet. Ruvuma River, Portuguese
Rio Rovuma, perennial river rising in
the Matagoro Mountains in southeastern Tanzania. Flowing eastward
into the Indian Ocean at a point about
20 miles (32 km) north of Cape Delgado,
the Ruvuma River forms the boundary
between Tanzania and Mozambique fora length of 400 miles (650 km) from thecoast and has a total length of about
475 miles (760 km). Its chief tributaries
are the Lugenda, Lucheringo, Likonde,
Muhuwesi, and Lumesule rivers. The
Ruvuma River passes over several
cataracts, so that it is navigable only
by small craft up to the Upinda Rapids,
about 60 miles (100 km) inland.I haveadded a PC-screen image capture(opposite) of the Google map image ofthis River.

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GEO Quarterly No 29

This is an APT of the River Ruvama area which I received using my portable APT station while onboard a ship in Mombasa. Although I was operating from anupper deck, there were still bits of ship metal work obscuring a clear view of the sky. Even so I was pleased with the result - I had my APT image of the Ruvama
River area albeit with some interference. Other images I received during this journey were interference free but less interesting.

Google map image of Ruvama River suppled by Ruud Jansen © Google

GEO Logo
As noted on page 2 in the GEO Report we recently received arequest from a member to use our logo on his amateur radio
his QSL card. GEO readily agreed to this request. There is a
wider issue here relating to the promotion of GEO so if any
member wishes to use our logo in an appropriate context thiswould be welcomed. Here is an example of our logo. If you
would like an electronic copy of our logo email:francis@geo-web.org.uk

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March 2011

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

This astronaut photograph highlights the northern approach to
Mount Everest from Tibet (China). Known as the northeast ridge
route, climbers travel along the East Rongbuk Glacier (image
lower left) to camp at approximately 6,100 meters above sea
level. They next ascend the North Col—a sharp-edged pass
carved by glaciers, at image centre—to reach a series ofprogressively higher camps along the North Face of Everest.
Climbers make their final push to the summit (just off the top edgeof the image) from Camp VI at 8,230 meters.

26

Located within the Himalaya mountain chain, Everest is the Earth’s
tallest mountain, with its summit at 8,848 meters. On May 20, 2009,
former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski became the first human toboth travel into space and to climb to the summit Everest.
Astronaut photograph ISS026-E-15208 was acquired on January 6,
2011, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using an 800 mm lens.
This image is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations experiment and Image

www.geo-web.org.uk

Science & Analysis Laboratory, Johnson Space Center.

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Greeting Messages 2011
My thanks to those members who sent me greetings
for Christmas and the New Year by card or email. I
received on behalf of GEO greeting from UK members
but also many from Europe ant the rest of the world.
EUMETSAT kindly sent a card personally signed bynine members of their staff. I also received a greetingfrom our friends / members in Argentina. It's great toknow our group is so widely supported.
Inevitable there will be changes in the world ofweather satellites and earth observation during 2011
and it's reassuring to know we have so many talented
members around the world.
Francis Bell

Manicouagan crater in Quebec
Robert Moore
This is the Metop-A image of 7 February 2011. The crater is 100 km across and one of a series, originally formed in a line
across the then continental plate, when an asteroid broke up on entering the Earth’s atmosphere about 212 million years ago.
There have been many such impacts, of which the Arizona crater is perhaps the most famous result, but many impacts would
have been in the sea and others on land have been overgrown by forests and jungle The Manicouagan crater always shows up
extremely well from space and here it is highlighted by snow and ice, making it especially conspicuous.

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March 2011

Dale Hardy
Late 2010 dealt farmers in Australia’s 'Wheatbelt' a change
in fortune. After three consecutive years of drought, rains
finally drenched southeastern Australia. August broughtrecord-setting precipitation to parts of New South Wales andVictoria, and September 2010 was Australia’s wettest
September on record. September rainfall totals in the'Wheatbelt' ranged from average to significantly above
average, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.
The vegetation image (figure 1) shows how plants responded
to the rainfall along the border between Victoria and New
South Wales in the Murray River basin. It was made frommeasurements taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite between
September 7 and 22, 2010, compared to average conditions
during the same period in 2006.
Green dominates the 2010 image, indicating that plants weregrowing more robustly than the average for most of theregion. Fields of crops form tiny squares and rectangles:
natural vegetation is smoother and more continuous. In
general, the natural vegetation responded to the rain morethan nearby crops, though this may be a matter of timing.
Many of the crops that grow in northern Victoria andsouthern New South Wales—including corn, sorghum, rice,
cotton, millet, and potatoes—are usually planted, beginningin September or October. The fields that show little responseto the rain may have been planted with one of these crops or
may be fallow for the year. Primary grain crops (wheat,barley, and oats) are usually growing by September.
The abundant rain made conditions for some crops ideal. As
the end of the planting season neared in December, Australia
was looking at the possibility of a record cotton harvest. The
rain also helped refill reservoirs that had dwindled during
the drought, making more water available for irrigated crops.
The rain also had negative consequences. Rivers throughout
eastern Australia flooded. The lush vegetation and watersupply created habitat for plague locusts; swarms of themwere reported along the Murray River in early December.
By December 8, Australia had recorded its wettest spring on
record. The unusual rainfall was caused by La Niña, which
warms ocean temperatures north of Australia andstrengthens trade winds, bringing rain to northern andeastern parts of the continent. La Niña and its counterpart,
El Niño, are major factors driving the cycles of drought andrain in eastern Australia.
Peruvian fisherman named El Niño (Spanish for 'the boy
child') after the Christ Child because the climate
phenomenon usually shows up around Christmastime. But
its counterpart, La Niña, is the gift giver, bringing cold,
nutrient-rich water to the equatorial Pacific off SouthAmerica. Those nutrients are a boon to marine life,
supporting a larger fish population and increasing thefishermen’s catch. Fishermen might expect a good year
ahead, as a strong La Niña is now dominating the Pacific
Ocean.
'This is one of the strongest La Niña events in the past half
century, and will likely persist into the northern hemispheresummer,' says Bill Patzert, an oceanographer and28

climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 'Climatic
impacts include heavy rains and flooding, which havedamaged crops and flooded mines in Australia and Asia. It
also has resulted in flooding in northern South America anddrought conditions in Argentina. This powerful little lady is
spreading her curses and blessings across the planet. She’s
the real deal.'
La Niña’s cold water signal is strong in figure 2. The left
hand image shows ocean surface temperatures on
December 15, 2010, as measured by the Advanced
Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) on
NASA’s Aqua satellite. In December 2010, sea surface
temperatures were colder than average across the equatorial
Pacific.
The right hand image depicts the heat content of the ocean
surface between December 14 and 16, 2010, as observed by
the U.S.-French Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)
flying on the Jason-2 satellite. Water expands as it warms, so
warmer water has a higher surface elevation than cooler
water. The blue valley streaking across the middle of the sea
surface height image is the signature of La Niña. The
intensity of the cold water and the depth and extent of thevalley point to an intense event.
Like El Niño, La Niña arises from changes in both the ocean
and the atmosphere. High pressure usually dominates theatmosphere over the eastern Pacific, while low pressure
tends to reign in the west. The pressure difference creates
the trade winds, which blow surface water across theequatorial Pacific to a pool of warm water in the west. Cooler
deep water wells up to replace the surface water and during
La Niña events, the pressure difference and the resulting
trade winds are stronger. The more intense winds push morewater west, where it builds up north of Australia. Meanwhile,
more cold water wells up in the central and eastern Pacific.
La Niña occurs only when both the ocean and theatmosphere change together, which they did in 2010, whenmore than 200,000 Australians were affected by December
floods in Queensland. High waters washed out roads,
isolated entire towns and forced thousands to evacuate. The
coastal city of Rockhampton braced for major flooding, which
was expected to arrive on New Year’s Day but actually begana week earlier with the arrival of Tropical Storm Tasha.
Tropical Storm Tasha was short lived but, during its brief
appearance, the storm pounded northeastern Australia,
battering the Queensland coast with heavy rain. Tashareached tropical storm strength on December 24 and madelandfall along the Queensland coast near Cairns the nextday.
As Tasha abated, a second low-pressure system formed off
the coast, promising more precipitation. Forecasters expectedheavy rain for several more days in almost every major
Queensland town. Eighteen rivers were on flood watch
throughout the state as of December 27.
Figure 3 is a colour-coded image showing rainfall in
Queensland between December 20 and 26, 2010. The
heaviest rainfall—more than 400 millimeters—appears in

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dark blue. The lightest amounts—less than
50 millimeters—appear in light green.
This image is based on data from the Multisatellite
Precipitation Analysis produced at NASA’s Goddard Space
Flight Center, which estimates rainfall by combining
measurements from many satellites and calibrating themusing rainfall measurements from the Tropical Rainfall
Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite.
More torrential rains pounded southeast Queensland on
January 10, 2011, bringing devastating flash floods toseveral communities just west of Brisbane. Figure 4, from
the Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) based ondata from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM), shows this intense rain. The storm was relatively
concentrated, with the highest rainfall west andnorthwest of Brisbane. In the darkest blue regions, theTRMM MPA recorded rainfall totals greater than 200 mm
for the day.
The rain fell on already saturated ground with nowhere togo, and the water formed intense flash floods that ripped
through the Lockyer Valley, killing ten people and leaving
78 missing, according to news reports. The water drained
east, pushing several rivers past major flood stage.
The storm continued a trend of rainy weather linked to La
Niña. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology,
Queensland had the wettest December on record in 2010,
while the continent as a whole experienced its third
wettest year.

GEO Quarterly No 29

As flood waters moved south from Queensland in early
January 2011, one of the first communities affected inneighbouring New South Wales was Goodooga. Alreadyremote, the village was expected to be isolated from theoutside world for up to six weeks.
Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology issued multiple flood
warnings for the state of Victoria on January 19, as flooding
spread south from New South Wales. Meanwhile, the Herald
Sun reported that the January floods were expected to costthe state of Victoria hundreds of millions of dollars,particularly in infrastructure damage and agricultural losses.
The entire region is more vegetated in 2011, and multiple
rivers have pushed over their banks. The Bureau of
Meteorology warned of moderate flooding along parts of the
Murray River, which marks the boundary between Victoria
and New South Wales, and also issued major flood warnings
for the Avoca, Loddon, and Wimmera Rivers, all of whichhave spilled on to floodplains (figure 5).
Besides widespread flooding in Victoria, the floods in New
South Wales swelled the Murrumbidge River, which passes
through a marshy area en route to the Murray River,transforming it into a sprawling lake.
As I write this, with the strong La Niña weather episodeexpected to continue into March, leading to an increased riskof more rainfall and tropical cyclones, further massive
destruction is expected in northern Queensland with severe
Tropical Cyclone Yasi predicted to hit near Cairns with winds
exceeding 300 kph.w

Figure 1 shows how plants responded to the rainfall along the border between Victoria and New South Wales in the Murray River basin.

Figure 2 La Niña’s cold water signal is strong

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Figure 3 is a colour-coded image showing rainfall in Queensland between December 20 and 26, 2010

Figure 4, from the Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) based on data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), shows thisintense rain.

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Figure 5 Brisbane River in flood

The human side of the flooding Ipswitch under water
Roos being rescued

Buckled railway lines

Homes under water

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March 2011

Ronse Radio Station
Andre T’Kindt
My name is Andre T’Kindt. I live in the Belgium city of Ronse,
some 60 km south west of Brussels and about 40 km from
Gent. My first radio licence was ON2KBV, which I obtained in
1989. I continued on to obtain after a further exam to gain adefinitive radio licence with callsign ON1LTA. Finally gaining
the call sign ON4TKA after further examinations.

Meteosat at 1.7 GHz and APT on lower frequencies.
The antennas I have are a 1.8m prime focus dish, anomnidirectional antenna and a 2x9 element beam type forlower altitude passes.
The programs used are Wxtoimg and WXtrack

I was always interested in FAX reception beginning with the
COMMODORE 64 and a small interface connected to a wideband receiver.
I am also very interested in weather satellites, receiving

I also receive Slow Scan Television on the 2m band.
Here are some pictures of my shack, my antennas and QSL
cards

My antenna tower and 1.8m dishAbove and below examples of my QSL cards

A view of my shack32

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GEO Quarterly No 29

David PainterInsignia of the
Khanty-Mansiysk
Autonomous Okrug

Hopefully, your central heating has been working well during therecent cold months and you are sitting comfortably as you read this.
When you next switch on your gas central heating, have a small
thought for the route your fuel may have taken before reaching yourboiler; it may have travelled quite a way before reaching your home.
The World Bank estimates that over 150 billion cubic metres ofnatural gas are flared or vented annually, an amount worth
approximately 30.6 billion dollars, and which is equivalent to 25% of
the United States’ gas consumption or 30% of the European Union’sgas consumption per year. Although moves are afoot to stop thepractice, such burning of unwanted residues is still a major source of
global pollution and a contributor to global CO2 emissions. Russia
burns off approximately 50 billion cubic meters of mixed gases every
year, either as safety releases to reduce well pressures, or as part of
the removal of unmarketable condensates and gases.
Many oil and gas production facilities have co-sited ‘flares’ whileothers have diesel power-stations which emit diesel exhaust plumes
so, in theory, these should be visible in the Metop and NOAA
satellite data.

Figure 2- Map of Siberia

The map of Siberia above shows areas of Russian oil and gas
production. The area that initially interested me was the KhantyMansiysk Autonomous Okrug, which covers over 500 00 km2 ofwestern Siberia and is Russia’s largest producer of oil and gas. In
2006, this region exported two billion barrels of oil and gas
condensate (liquefied natural gas), most of it exported to western
Europe. The map illustrates the remoteness of this operation. The
mechanism for transporting the gas to Europe is extensive, andvisits some very remote locations along the way.

Figure 1- Image of Typical Gas flare
Credit:Otto Energy

I decided to try and locate evidence of flares and exhaust plumes
using NOAA and Metop AVHRR imagery of the many oil and gas
wells that now litter the frozen Siberian tundra. Other resourceswere used to confirm their locations and thus provide satellite
images of them. By using a combination of AVHRR channels 3, 4
and 5, it should be possible to tease these out from theirsurrounding terrain and create meaningful false colour images tohighlight them.
Not knowing where these locations were, I initially used the AVHRR
data to detect f and then verified the target locations by othermeans. It is surprising just how much information there is on theInternet about locations in the middle of no-where, some perhaps
known only to a thousand or so people (and several billion Siberian
midges).

Not all oil and gas pipelines or installations burn off waste gas and,increasingly, it is considered a waste of money to do so. Mostly, it is
the older fields, or those with other unwanted by-products orcontaminants, that operate flares. Natural gas is useless as a fuelunless it can be transported to the consumer. Before transportation,water, oil and other condensates are first removed as these cancause the formation of hydrates which can seriously affect the flow
through pipelines and plant, and could result in large explosions.
The remaining gas is then compressed.
The map in figure 3 (overleaf) gives an indication of the scale of thegas pipeline network across Europe and the remoteness of many ofthe production locations (though it does not show them all). The
major pipelines all start at Urengoy, the worlds second largest gas
field complex, and one of the more established (1966). Urengoy gas
field produces 260 billion cubic meters of natural gas, more than
5000 tons of condensate and 825 00 tons of oil per year.
Thousands of small gas wells feed into a maze of pipes here, mostfrom within the Arctic circle. Six 1.5 metre diameter steel pipes start
their trek west at Urengoy, each of the various gas fields along theway adding in their gas at a massive 220 bar pressure. Other

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Figure 3 - Russian Pipeline Mappipelines criss-cross the former Soviet states, importing andexporting as required from the gas main network.
Figure 4 is a Metop image dating from November 28, 2010, showing[  %     
Sea in the north and the Ob river running down to Surgut. The

location of Urengoy is highlighted. To view the locations of the gas
and oil facilities, the image has been zoomed up, and they are
denoted by the green/yellow pixels on the processed image. Using
Virtual Ocean/Google or other online data, individual facilities can be
identified from the Metop image. One such facility is Seliyarovo on
the Ob river.

Figure 4 - Siberian Oil and Gas

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Figure 5 - Siberian Oil and Gas

Figure 5 shows an enlarged region of green/yellow pixels denoting
detection of oil and gas wells or other facilities. The city of Surgut isshown. It is evident that some of the wells produce a higher level

energy signature than a entire city. Figure 6 shows the Seliyarovogas production facility and surrounding wells on the River Ob near
Surgut. Latitude 61.32° Longitude 70.389°.

Figure 6 - Sellyarova
Image: © Terrametrics 2010, Geocentre consulting 2010 from Virtual Ocean.

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March 2011

gas field, which produces a massive infrared signature; this may
possibly be due to the fact that this facility is still in development
and not yet fully connected to the pipe network. The Vankor field isestimated to have reserves of 520 million metric tons of oil and 95
billion cubic meters of natural gas. Production was launched inAugust 2009. The target for annual production at the field is 510
thousand barrels per day, or 25.5 million tonnes of oil per year
(about 5% of total Russian oil production). Oil from Vankor is one of
the main inputs to the Eastern Siberia – Pacific Ocean pipeline.

Image 7 - Siberian Oil and Gas
Figure 9 - Flaring from the Vankor Oilfield

Figure 7 is a much enlarged Metop image showing lighter pixels at
locations corresponding to oil and gas wells in Western Siberia.
One of the methods I used to verify the detected locations of gas
and oil installations was to overlay the processed Metop image on
Google Earth; this was achieved with some manual tweaking of theimage geometry, as the projection and orientation of the spacecraft
image were unknown. The result indicated that the intensities andshapes of the pixels in the Metop image corresponded very well withthe expected ground image features, and with the oil and gas
facilities in Google Earth and Virtual Ocean.
In some cases, multiple pixels align exactly with multiple welllocations surrounded by barren tundra; in other cases, multiple flare
stacks on the Google data corresponded to multiple bright pixels on
the Metop data at the same locations.

Figure 9 is a greyscaled Metop image showing the northern locationof the Vankor Oil and gas field. Note the magnitude of the infra-red
signature indicating massive gas flaring taking place within the Arctic
circle.
Figure 10 shows the Vankor oil production facility under construction
in northern Siberia. The facility is currently scaling up production.
The Vankor oil and gas field is the biggest discovered and brought
into production in Russia in the last 25 years.
A total of 142 wells had been drilled at Vankor by the end of 2009,
including 119 production and injection wells. Construction work
completed at the field included 1,685 infrastructure facilities, 148 mof field pipe-work, 60 km of gas pipe work, 120 km of roads, storage
facilities, a mini-refinery and several up-to-date shift camps—all
within the Arctic circle.
Conclusion
The NOAA and METOP polar orbiting satellites can be used tolocate, with reasonable accuracy, the locations of oil and gas
facilities through their differentially large infra-red signatures.
Resolution of the signals detected will obviously only be accurate to
an image pixel (approximately 5 km), but in remote locations suchas this it is not so much of a problem.
Next time you switch on your gas, consider the distance it may have
travelled, and from where it could have come from.
Continued page 44

Image 8 - METOP image overlain with Google Map

Figure 8 is a Metop image overlain upon Google Earth, showing
correlation with other image source data and confirming thelocations of brightness pixels that correspond with the locations of oil
and gas facilities.
Siberia and other remote locations are littered with these wells andmost are visible with care from AVHRR images. It is possible thatthese could be remotely monitored by spacecraft sensors foremissions once their locations are known.

VankorAn unexpected discovery for me was the location of the new Vankor

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Figure 10 - Construction of the Vankor FacilityMarch 2011

Cover and Full Page Images
Front Cover
Cyclone Yasi off Queensland NOAA 19
at 03:48 UT on February 2, 2011.
Processed in David Taylor's HRPT
Reader to display vegetation.
Inside Front CoverDavid Taylor sent in this image fromNOAA-19, showing the frozen UK lastDecember 6.
Page 23
Keith Fraser NOAA18 APT for Jan-212011 1858Z. Winter ice is starting togrip North America. Top left, the Great
Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca is below,
centre is Hudson Bay and James Bay,
all frozen solid. Lake Erie is 80% ice.
The interesting feature is that the lakeeffect clouds from Lake Superior arereaching down across Lakes Huron andOntario to New York City. The
temperature here in Buffalo NY shoulddrop to minus 20C , so even deep Lake
Superior will start to freeze soon.
Page 37 (Below)
George Newport sent in this image ofTyphoon Megi.

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Page 38
ESA's Metop-A satellite captured thissplendid channel-2 AVHRR image of
Scotland on February 10, 2011. Snow isclearly visible over the Highlands as theclouds dispersed to provide a day's relief
during a spell of gloomy wet weather.
Page 43
The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's
Terra satellite collected this view of New
England, the Canadian Maritimes, andcoastal waters at 15:25 UT on January
24, 2011. Lines of clouds stretch from
northwest to southeast over the North
Atlantic, while the relatively cloudlessskies over land afford a peek at thesnow that blanketed the northeast justa few days earlier. Cloud streets form
when cold air blows over warmer waters,
while a warmer air layer (temperature
inversion) rests above both. The
comparatively warm waters of the ocean
give up heat and moisture to theoverlying cold air mass and thermals of
warmed air rise through the atmosphere
until they reach the inversion layer.
Here, the air rolls over like the circulation
in a pot of boiling water, its water
vapour cooling and condensing into flat-

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based, fluffy-topped cumulus clouds
that line up parallel with the wind.
Credit: NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz,
MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC
Inside Back CoverThis image of Southern Europe wasprepared using David Taylor’s MODIS
Viewer program, which has combined
channels 1 and 2 (vegetation mode).
Resolution is one km/pixel , but it ispossible to interpolate down to 250 m/
pixel using this software. See Computer
Corner (p.41) for a full explanation.
Back CoverDavid Painter provided this 2010-0902-0158 Metop-A image showing
Hurricane Earl ‘refuelling’ from theGulf Stream before making landfall.
Note the sea through the eye of thestorm, and how the warm waters of thegulf stream are as "warm" as the man
made energy output.
Also note black cloud rising into acleansed atmosphere from New York.
Yellow is Warmer, Red is colder.

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The Challenge: At what altitude are the aircraft flying?
David Taylor

Here's an image taken around 13:12
UTC on 2011 Jan 21 by NOAA-19. It'sa false-colour image processed fromEUMETSAT EARS AVHRR data available to anyone with a EUMETCast
system. Yes, it's another UK image,but there is a challenge with thisimage!
The challenge is: At what altitude are

the aircraft flying? In the three circled
regions, you will see two bands - a lightband due to an aircraft condensation
trail, and a dark band to the north oreast of the trail, which is the shadow of
the trail in the ground. At (B) there
appear to be two trails, and two
shadows. Given that the pixel spacingis 1.09km (or by measurements ofknown ground locations in the image),www.geo-web.org.uk

and by finding the angle of elevation of
the sun at that time, can you work out
at what altitude the aircraft trails
were? Is your answer "reasonable".
And if anyone is running the Plane
Plotter software, would you like toventure what the aircraft were? Track(C) looks as if it's been around for sometime judging by the lateral spread.

39

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

Dear Francis,
that produces the two trails of cloud in a condensation trail.
Having had an interest in weather satellite information for thelast 10 years during which time I have mainly used David
Taylor's programs.

Look up 'banner cloud' and 'levanter' !
Yours,

Having read your article in the last GEO report I am seeking
advice from yourself regarding the Envi-Ham project. You
make a very serious point about clogging up ESRIN's system
and not applying for a licence unless you are serious about
participating in the project with the volume of information it
generates.
I have delayed applying thinking I might do so later or when I
retire and I have more time to devote to such things. Now you
point out that 70 of only 100 licenses have been taken so what
advice can you give me on how to proceed ? Do I try to registeror delay and possibly miss out.
It was something I was looking forward to for the future.
Many thanks, Regards
Richard Johnson
Dear Richard,Thanks for your email regarding the Envi-Ham project. I'm
pleased you have taken an interest. I am in semi-regular touchwith the project and I know that now 100 licenses have been
issued. Agh!
The good news is a further 50 licenses have been earmarked
for future applicants. I have written some notes for the coming(this) GEO Quarterly along these lines. I think there may be 10
or 12 UK license holders all of whom have joined via the GEO
connection. It's very difficult for me to offer advice to you except if you are sincere apply for your license now even if yourintention is to fully exploit it at a later date. At least you will bein the system. Just to note you must have a one metre dish or
better. I tried with 85 cm and failed. The software side is a
black art to me but with help I have been running Envi-Ham
successfully for 18 months. Go for it! Please keep in touch.
Kind regards

Storm Dunlop
Dear Peter Green,
Domestic problems have meant that I have only just read theSeptember issue of GEO Quarterly. May I make a few points?
First, please, please, try to give the dates of any images. The
image on p.7 from Jordi Mas Bonet could be on any date. As
someone who is primarily interested in the meteorologicaluses of satellite images, this is frustrating - and especially so,
if it shows some feature that I might like to use in one of mybooks.
Second, again please do encourage people to give dates withthe months _in letters_. I am just having a bit of a nightmare
sorting out a whole lot of material where there is a mixture ofEuropean- and US-style numerical dates. Is it not possible toencourage members to use the internationally recognised,scientific method of specifying the date and time of phenomena?
(This is actually a legally acceptable method in the UK.) One
simply gives the information in decreasing order of size: year,
month (in letters - in full or abbreviated), day, hour (24-hourclock), minutes, seconds (and fractions thereof if necessary).
So today and the time I am writing this are: 2010 Nov.29
07:55 ... Astronomers (amateur and professional) have done
this for years and years, but meteorologists and others seem
strangely reluctant.
Third, on a specific note, the details on p.3 of the full-page
image on p.15 appear to be a quote from someone. But who?
No date, no time, nobody!
Best wishes,
Yours,
Storm Dunlop
Ed: Thank you for your comments, constructive comments arealways welcome, the quote page 3 was from sent in by David
TaylorFrancisDear Francis,
Dear Francis,
Tut, tut, tut, Francis! What's the use of your having the finest'Dictionary of Weather', when you don't sit down and read it?
(You do read dictionaries, don't you? I do.)
The cloud is a banner cloud, which forms in the lee of an
abrupt peak in the presence of a suitable humid airstream. In
this case the wind is known as the levanter, an easterly wind_known_ for producing a banner cloud behind the Rock.
The actual mechanism probably has two components. Thereis a lee eddy behind the peak, raising air to above thecondensation level. In addition, there is probably a reduction
in air pressure, again behind the peak, which (as you suggest)
would be similar to the reduction in pressure above the wingof an aircraft, or the reduction in the centre of wing vortices

40

I just sent in my Paypal payment for the renewal. I guess my
excuse for not renewing sooner was that my antenna got
corroded and the images were very noisy so I turned it off. I
have just rebuilt my antenna and I am receiving images again!
See at http://home.comcast.net/~tegwilym/wxtoimg I have tofigure out some noise problems, but it cleared up a lot when
it started raining. Anyway, you mentioned in your letter thatyou could send me a disk and a copy of the latest Quarterly?
I'd be interested in both of these. I've been doing someastronomy also, and put up a new website with my images.
http://tegwilym.zenfolio.com.
So when it is clear I look up much of the time from Seattle, but
I look down at the clouds from NOAA..
Thanks! Tom Gwilym, Renton, USA

www.geo-web.org.uk

Continued on page 42

March 2011

Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 29

Douglas Deans - dsdeans@btinternet.com
Although Windows-7 has been wellreceived by both the industry and the
public, there is no doubt that many
people will probably stay with their
existing operating system (OS): if things
are running well, then why not?
However, users should be aware that
Microsoft, understandably, will notcontinue to support some older systems
indefinitely and this means that thosesystems will not receive security
updates.
All version of Windows have what
Microsoft refers to as ‘support lifecycles’;so if you are running a version of
Windows for which support has ceased,
you are taking a big risk and leaving
yourself open to attack.
It is important that, where possible, you
keep updating and installing the latest
security updates, including up-to-date
Service Packs (SP).
At the time of writing, XP users running
SP2 are no longer being issued with
updates and are therefore vulnerable
whilst those on SP3 will be supported
until at least April 14, 2014. So pleasebe careful.
Just a quick further report on my minicomputer, details of which were provided
in my previous column. It continues toperform well, without any issues, andthe summer heat has passed without
incident (and almost forgotten following
the 2.5 feet of snow and temperatures
down to -15°C since late November!). So
my one slight concern about overheating
has proved groundless.
You will remember that, in my lastcolumn, I explained that the only fan in
the mini-computer is a small power
supply fan and that the Intel Atom chipis cooled passively by a large heatsink.
Of course the big advantage of the unit
is that it is very quiet and is an ideal
candidate for using overnight on
EUMETCast systems. Another usefulfeature for that use is its very low power
consumption, something we pensioners
have to think about seriously. Under
present tariffs, it will be less than 10p
for a 24 hour run. Quite remarkable forsuch a system.
Again as I mentioned before, whilst it isquite possible to run EUMETCast on asingle modern computer along with all
the other processing and day-to-day
chores, best performances are stillachieved with a 2-computer system. Do
remember that, as you are likely to beusing a simple network, you do not needto double up on mouse, keyboard andmonitor if you choose to do this. Therearenumerous
Virtual
Network
Computing (VNC) programs available
and many are free. This allows you todisplay and interact with the screen ofanother computer via your own network(and also the Internet if you so wish).
You can also use KVM switches but, tobe honest, they are very cumbersome,cluttering the back of the computer withcables. In my opinion (and I have usedboth for long periods), the VNC route is
by far the easiest and neatest solution.
At the moment I use the free version of
UltraVNC, which works well, allowing
me to use the mouse and keyboard of
my main computer to control my
EUMETCast one too. Of course, most of
the time the EUMETCast computer isjust quietly getting on with its job withno intervention required. For thoseinterested
inUltraVNC,
more
information and download options canbe found at
http://www.uvnc.com/

There are, of course, many other equally
good programs, although I have notused them myself.
This quarter I will be continuing withmy new section detailing file and datatypes on the EUMETCast data channels.
So far, I have looked at Channels 1, 2, 3
and 5, Now I will deal with Channel 4, aconsiderably simpler one than Channel
3. I make no apologies for repeating that
I hope readers will consider building up
a comprehensive package of the
EUMETCast channel filetypes as the
project continues. This is a unique
opportunity to have something that is
not available elsewhere in this format.
EUMETSAT Data Channel 4This channel carries a range of data
which seem to have no correlation.
The first of this data is FSD. You willremember from GEO 28 that Channel 3
carries 3-hourly GOES-W (GOES 11),
3-hourly GOES-E (GOES 13) and3-hourly MTSAT-2 imagery. However,
the additional FSD data needed to makewww.geo-web.org.uk

the service hourly for these satellites isprovided on Channel 4. So, for example,
channel 3 will provide the 00, 03, 06, 09
scans whilst the in-between scans, for
01, 02, 04, 05 etc. will be provided on
Channel 4.
GOES-E, GOES-W and MTSAT-2 data
are provided at 4 wavelengths. Here areexamples of the typical file types
provided for the FSD service on Channel
4.
L-000-MSG2_-GOES13______00_7_075W-PRO___-201101150100-_
L-000-MSG2_-GOES13______00_7_075W-000001___-201101150100-C_
Repeated for segments 000002 – 000007
inclusive and for each of the other 3
wavelengths.
L-000-MSG2_-GOES11______00_7_135W-PRO___-201101150100-_
L-000-MSG2_-GOES11______00_7_135W-000001___-201101150100-C_
Repeated for segments 000002 – 000007
inclusive and for each of the other 3
wavelengths.
L-000-MSG2_-MTSAT2_____-00_7_145EPRO___-201101150100-_
L-000-MSG2_-MTSAT2_____00_7_145E_000001___-201101150100-C_
Repeated for segments 000002 – 000006
inclusive and for each of the other 3
wavelengths.
The next data to appear on this channel
are meteorological, specifically the
Regional Instability Index derived from
Meteosat 9. Atmospheric air mass
instability has been developed by the
SAF in support of Nowcasting and Very
Short Range Forecasting but produced
at EUMETSAT. This product is provided
to help in Nowcasting (forecasting up tosix hours) severe weather. This is the
pixel-based version of the Global
Instability Index (GII) which I describedlast quarter as part of the meteorological
data sent on Channel 3. It has always
puzzled me why the RII is on Channel 4
whilst much of the other MPEF data is
on Channel 3 but, when questioned,
EUMETSAT advised me it was because
RII covers only Europe, and is produced

41

GEO Quarterly No 29

as a subset of the MSG image disk over
Europe.
Typical file names are
L-000-MSG2_-MPEF_____-RII____PRO____201101142315-_
L-000-MSG2_-MPEF_____RII____-000001____201101142315-_
Each file is approximately 1.6 MB andthere are 96 files per day.
The next data on this channel consistsof Polar Wind files.
MODIS and AVHRR data are used toretrieve tropospheric winds (speed,
direction, and height) in the polar
regions by tracking cloud and water
vapour features. Much of thisinformation cannot be generated fastenough for use in early NWP modelruns due to the delay in obtaining
MODIS and AVHRR data (typically 1-4
hours). To improve the timeliness of thewind data, direct broadcast (DB) sites
provide real-time access to water vapour
winds (wvap) BUFR files from MODIS
data, as well as IR cloud-drift winds(cdft) BUFR files from both MODIS andAVHRR data.
Typical file names are
satwnd.BUFRcdft.N19.D2011019.
T0835Z.PBRW.bufr
satwnd.BUFRcdft.AQUA.D2011019.
T0257Z.MCMR.bufr
satwnd.BUFRcdft.TERRA.D2011019.
T0804Z.PAFA.bufr
satwnd.BUFRwvap.AQUA.D2011019.
T0257Z.MCMR.bufr

Group for Earth Observation

March 2011

this is not the full complement of thesatellite, it is more than enough toprovide superb imagery and a wide
range of derived images.

tested releases and does not include thelatest beta (or alpha) versions currently
on test. Those can also be downloaded
from David’s site.

Typical file name is

ATOVS Reader

v 1.2.2

thin_MOD021KM.P2011014.2130.hdf

AVHRR Manager

v 2.0.6

File sizes vary greatly, but full 5 minutesegments containing visible imagery
can be larger than 85 MB. There areapproximately 78 files per day.

BUFR Viewer

v 1.1.6

CMA Viewer

v 1.2.0

DWDSAT HRPT
Viewerv 1.2.4

GeoSatSignal

v 7.2.0

GRIB Viewer

v 2.3.10

GroundMap

v 2.1.6

Typical file name is

HDF Viewer

v 1.4.4

thin_MOD03.P2011014.2130.hdf

HRPT Reader

v 2.9.6

File sizes are approximately 25 MB andas for the radiance files there are about
78 per day.

Kepler Manager

v 1.4.0

MapToGeov 1.1.8

To demonstrate the quality of the
MODIS images, please see the image ofSouthern Europe reproduced on theinside back cover. The image has been
prepared using David Taylor’s Modis
Viewer program and has combined
channels to provide the vegetation
mode. The image shown has 1-km
resolution but it is possible to interpolate
images down to 250 m using thissoftware. Obvious things to note in theimage are snow on the Alps, the detailand lack of vegetation around Mount
Etna on Sicily and the clarity of
topography that has been achieved
using the 1-km setting.

Metop Manager

v 1.4.8

MODIS L1 and Fire
Viewerv 1.0.4

MSG Animatorv 2.5.44

MSG Data
Managerv 2.5.44

PassControl

v 3.2.4

SatSignal

v 5.2.2

Sea-Ice & SST
Viewerv 1.4.2

Wxtrackv 3.8.10

Also on channel-4 is high-resolution
MODIS geo-location data. This productis intended to be used in conjunction
with the level-1 calibrated radiances
but some viewing programs such as
David Taylor’s Modis Viewer do notneed this data.

satwnd.BUFRwvap.TERRA.D2011019.
T0804Z.PAFA.bufr
File sizes vary considerably but average
about 50 kB. There are about 108 files
per day.
Finally, and keeping the best until theend, this channel also provides MODIS
Aqua and Terra level-1 radiance dataand geo-location data. The radiancedata is spatially thinned and is a subsetof channels covering Europe, the North
Atlantic and the northern polar region.
The geographic thinning means thatthe image file locations comply strictlywith the following co-ordinates.
West bound longitude -60°
East bound longitude - 45°
North bound latitude - 65°

As well as continuing to build up acomposite channel-by-channel list, I
will of course be advising of any changes
to channels which I have already dealt
with in previous Quarterlies. I have one
such update this quarter. The LRIT
service, which was listed under mychannel-3 description last time, has,since January 18, 2011, been withdrawn
from the EUMETCast system. It is stillavailable via the EUMETSAT ftp service
and, of course, as direct readout from
Meteosat-9. Given the quality, frequencyof scans, and number of channels
provided in the HRIT service, not tomention the rapid scan service from
Meteosat-8, it does seem likely thatmany subscribers would not have beenusing the EUMETSAT LRIT service.

South bound latitude - 25°

Program Updates.
David Taylor’s programs
releases).

18 channels are provided and, whilst

Remember that the list below is for fully(latestTo learn more about these programs andto download the latest updates please goto:
http://www.satsignal.eu

Continued from page 40
Dear Tom,Thanks for your email it was great tohear from you and pleased your backboth receiving APT and as a GEO
member. As promised I will send you
the disc containing back issues of ourQuarterly together with a recent
printed Quarterly. I am anxious tolearn any news about NOAA's futuresatellite programmes and reception of
weather satellites in the USA and therest of the world so please keep intouch with any personal reports andnews.
Regards, Francis

42

www.geo-web.org.uk

GEO Quarterly No 29

Group for Earth Observation

Full Meridian of Glory: Perilous Adventuresin the Competition to Measure the Earth

March 2011

interest. But they both have a tale to tell and Murdin tells itin this highly readable book which I imagine every member of
GEO will enjoy. A cracking good read.
Robert Moore

Paul Murdin, Copernicus Books (Springer Science) 2009,ISBN 978-0-387-75534-2, 187 pp. £15.19.
The observation of Earth is as old as mankind, but the scienceof Earth observation is modern. In the second half of the 17th
century, surveyors set out to map France using triangulation
and astronomical observations. As part of this process ameridian was established through Paris. The meridian itself
was of considerable scientific interest because differences in
the length of one degree of latitude along it would enable theshape of the Earth to be calculated.. The accuracy of themeasurements depended, of course, on the quality of the
instruments used and on the mathematical abilities of thescientists. But however accurately measured, changes overshort distances were of limited use. The surveyors had toextend their activities further towards the north pole and theequator. They had to contend with fearful hazards onmountain tops, arctic weather conditions in Lapland,suspicions on the part of local residents and a shipwreck on
the way home. In Latin America, not only were the terrain andclimate hostile, but also the local inhabitants and the Spanish
authorities. In the Mediterranean, the surveyors again
encountered hostile locals, plus brigands, pirates and theRoyal Navy’s blockades. Science then, as now, was embedded
in—and a product of—national and geopolitical processes aswell as the rivalries and clashing egos of scientists and theirpatrons. The ambitions of Louis XIV and the beginnings of thescientific revolution were background to the early work, but
the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars plus the colonial
aspirations of the European powers provided the context
within which the major scientific endeavours were undertaken.
Making observations from hilltops and signalling between
them are dangerous activities in times of political turbulence.
The French Revolution sought to establish an age of reason,
although many scientists had problems because they had, or
appeared to have, aristocratic origins. The new governments
wished to regulate not only local administration and thecalendar but coinage and weights and measures. Thus themeridian became important, especially because its length wasto provide the basis for a ‘rational’ or ‘natural’ unit of length..
The metre was to be one ten millionth of the distance from thepole to the equator, but this depended on which meridian wasused because, as we now know, Earth is not a regular sphere.
The length of the meridian differs at various longitudes, so themetre is, in a sense, arbitrary and not universal, being basedon a calculation of the length of the Paris meridian.
Murdin blends serious scientific discussion with a series ofadventure stories—for measuring the meridian was indeed aseries of perilous adventures, spread over many years. The
latter part of his book tells a slightly more prosaic story but an
extremely interesting one nevertheless. With the extensions ofempires, the beginnings of globalisation and transcontinental
railway travel, there came a need to standardise timemeasurement and to harmonise diverse national chart andmapping systems to a common datum. This happened late in
the 19th century. How Greenwich rather than Paris emerged
as the Prime Meridian is another interesting tale well told by
the author.
Today, satellites enable us to measure the Earth with great
accuracy, and we see that latitude can no longer be regarded
as fixed because the polar axis rotates and continents drift.
The ‘true’ Prime Meridian no longer lies along the line of theoriginal transit circle at Greenwich but passes through the carpark of the tearoom some 60 metres away. There is no active
observation or timekeeping at either Greenwich or the Paris
Observatory, both of which are now simply sites of historical

44

Siberian Oil and Gas continued from page 37

References
Quite a useful site for more exotic locations travel
http://iguide.travel/Western_Siberia#/Map
Khanty Mansiysk
http://www.admhmao.ru/english/obsvedE/frame5.htm

Oil production
http://www.rogtecmagazine.com/2010/03/blackbourn-reports-westernsiberia.html
http://www.rogtecmagazine.com/uploaded_images/Picture-1-720819.jpg
http://www.eegas.com/photos.htm
http://www.theodora.com/pipelines/russia_former_soviet_union_pipelines.
html
http://www.theodora.com/pipelines/russia_ukraine_belarus_baltic_
republics_pipelines_map.jpg

Oil fields
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urengoy_gas_field
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vankor_Field
http://www.rosneft.com/Upstream/ProductionAndDevelopment/eastern_siberia/vankorneft/
http://www.nornik.ru/en/about/

Other
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_flare
http://news.mongabay.com/bioenergy/2007/09/first-global-satellitesurvey-of-gas.html

Climate Week
The Met Office is proud to be the lead science advisor for
Climate Week, a national occasion highlighting the efforts
being made to help combat climate change.
Climate Week will shine a spotlight on the many positive steps
already being taken in workplaces and communities across
Britain.
Thousands of businesses, charities, schools, councils andothers will run events throughout Climate Week, which takes
place during 21-27 March 2011. Tesco is the headline sponsorof Climate Week and it will be promoting this event throughout
the country.
People will demonstrate what can be achieved, share ideas
and encourage thousands more to act during the rest of theyear.
Our role as lead science advisor is to explain some of the key
science issues around climate change, answering questions
such as 'What is the climate system?' and 'How does theweather drive our climate?'.
The climate section of our website provides information andresources to help you understand more about our climate,climate science and climate change. Keep visiting our website
regularly to see the latest news and features.
Climate Week takes place 21-27 March 2011. For more
information about how you can get involved visit:www.geo-web.org.uk

www.climateweek.com