Group for Earth Observation

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

51
September 2016
Inside this issue . .
For readers who enjoy
experimenting with live APT
reception, Devendra
Kulkarni explains how toreceive NOAA APT imagery
via an RTL-SDR dongle and
WxToImg, with the aid ofVirtual Audio Cable
software.
Francis Bell has spent abusy summer, spreading theword about the Group in his
GEO Outreach Programme.
He provides illustrated
reports on his visits to theannual AMSAT Colloquium,
and a Spacelink Event at
Broadwater school.
It’s rather unlikely that any
reader has heard of Lake
Tengiz, Kazakhstan’s first
UNESCO World Heritage
Site. Now a major wetland,
it lies six hundred
kilometres northwest of themore familiar Lake
Balkhash, the 15th largest
lake in the world
And there is a host ofarticles from NASA’s Earth
Observatory website dealing
with such varied topics as
the Northwest Passage,
Cloud Gravity Waves, theTaklimakan Desert, avolcanic eruption on Bristol
Island and Ice in the
Labrador Sea.
There are also articles fromthe ESA website relating to
the Malaspina Glacier,Antarctic Peninsula Ice Flowand the Zachariae Isstrom
glacierGEO MANAGEMENT TEAMLes Hamilton

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

Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company in Englandand Wales, limited by guarantee and nothaving share capital.
The Company Number is 4975597.
The registered office is Coturnix House,
Rake Lane, Milford, Godalming,
Surrey GU8 5AB, England.
Printing (December Issue)
Hedgerow Print,
16 Marsh Lane,
Crediton, Devon EX17 1ES.
Tel: 01363 777 595
Responsibility
Every effort is made to ensure that thetechnical and constructional articles
published in this Quarterly are correct.
However, the ultimate responsibility iswith the reader to ensure the safety of
constructions and for any interfacing withother equipment. GEO cannot accept liability
for shortcomings in any published design or
any constructions carried out by members orother third parties.
Copyright GEO © 2016
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
Observation Limited and its contributors.
Copying of text or images, either from theprinted Quarterly or from any electronicallystored source, is forbidden without
permission from the Editor.

geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

O

ur striking cover image this issue is an Astronaut Photograph shotfrom the International Space Station. You can read more about thisscene in a NASA report on page 17.

During the past couple of years, we have featured a number ofarticles relating to reception of Russian Meteor satellites by meansof an RTL-SDR dongle. Now, Devendra Kulkarni takes the technique a
stage further by explaining how images from the NOAA satellites may
also be obtained in similar fashion, making use, additionally, of Virtual
Audio Cable software. A cautionary note is in order here for readers
based in Great Britain, as pager interference is likely to be a problem inmany locations.

Can I remind readers that GEO Quarterly No 52, due in December,will be our regular printed copy. All subscribers will receive a
printed, paper version in addition to their electronic copy.

F

inally, can I appeal to everyone’s common sense and ask thatmaterial for publication be sent in as early as possible. I was
extremely disappointed when, in the week following copy deadline forthis issue, I was sent a large quantity of material for processing, muchof which could have been submitted many weeks earlier. The copy
deadline is intended as the final date for last minute submissions ofimportant, up-to-date news. Do please send in your contributions as
early as possible - don’t wait till the copy deadline to do so. Thanks.

C

opy deadline for the December issue of GEO
Quarterly is Sunday, November 20, 2016.

Contents
GEO Report and Quarterly Question
Franz Josef Land Revealed
Severe Storm hits Canada
GEO Outreach - Spacelink
Cloud Free Iceberg A-56
Unusual Cloud Feature in mid Wales
Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier
Passage Through Nunavut
Antarctic Peninsula Ice Flow
Aurora and Manicouagan Crater
Receiving NOAA Images with an RTL-SDR Dongle
Swirls of Ice in the Labrador Sea
RF Attenuation
Sea Ice in the Bellingshausen Sea
Eruption on Bristol Island
Sentinel 1A observes the Zachariae Isstrom Glacier
Taklimakan Desert: a Factory for Dust Storms
Lake Tengiz
GEO Outreach - AMSAT Colloquium
Meteorological Technology International
Cloud Gravity Waves
The Carrington Effect
Satellite Status
GEO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
GEO Membership Application FormGEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

Francis Bell
NASA MODIS Web
Damian OHara
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Robert Moore
European Space Agency
NASA Earth Observatory
European Space Agency
NASA Earth Observatory
Devendra Kulkarni
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
European Space Agency
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA APOD

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Francis BellThe general membership of GEO may not realise how
widely dispersed is our management team. We havea management team (MT) rather than a committee
because of our formal structure which is a ‘Limited
Company’, but effectively we have a typical committee withresponsibilities divided into predictable areas.
This electronic age of the Internet and Skype allows ourdispersed MT to keep in touch with each other without
always physically meeting: instead, we engage in regular
Skype meetings. At our last MT Skype meeting we allrecognised the need to widen the scope of our MT withadditional people with appropriate skills and commitment
to our group.
Expansion of the GEO Management TeamIf you think you can play a constructive rôle in our team,please recognise this is an invitation for you to offer yourservices to GEO. Almost any long term contribution would
be appreciated but specific rôles which come to mind are:1 Public relations and promoting GEO membership
2 Educational matters, for example contact withschools and other educational institutions
3 Administrative skills
4 Book keeping and accounts
5 Technical skills dealing with RF, satellites and/or theuse of computers
6 Any other relevant skills needed to run a dynamic
world-respected group
If you can, please respond to this invitation, thus making
your personal contribution to the success of GEO. Fora positive response please contact any member of theexisting GEO management team.

my efforts towards the personal reception of thesedata streams. Please let the editor know of your own
experiences in these areas, thus helping us all to be as upto-date as possible. I know the editor is always receptive
for worthwhile copy material for the Quarterly, so here is a
specific invitation for readers to provide their experiencesin receiving the latest satellite signals.
Possible Members’ Meeting in 2017
I would be interested in receiving feedback from members
about the potential for a GEO annual meeting in 2017.
Since our formation in 2003, with just a few gaps, wehave held our annual meeting at the NSC Leicester; thegaps have been filled by a meeting at SSTL Guildford andthree visits to EUMESCAT’s HQ in Darmstadt, Germany.
However, I need feedback from members for a preference
venue for any 2017 meeting.
The attraction of a meeting in Darmstdat would be
information about the latest developments relating the
EUMETCast’s HVS, but of course this venue would
mean foreign travel and expense for many of us. Surrey
Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) based in Guildford
is a dynamic and important international company, anda visit to their HQ together with our own meeting is apossibility. A repeat venue at the NSC Leicester would ofcourse be straightforward if that’s what members prefer.
Please let me know your views in good time to complete thenecessary administration and advertise the event to ourmembers.
I can be contacted concerning any GEO matter at
francis@geo-web.org.uk

GEO Outreach

Future Events

The past three months have been a busy time for me with
GEO activities. I have recently represented our groupat two significant space related events, reports about
which appear shown elsewhere in this Quarterly [page 8
and page 40]. I’m sure there must be other similar space
related events around the country so, if any GEO member
wants help representing our group or displaying materials
at such events, please contact the GEO management
team and we will be as supportive as possible. A copy ofSpacelink’s information leaflet explaining what they offerto the community is reproduced on the following page.

GEO will be represented at the London Radio andComputer Rally, Kempton Park on the 6th November 2016.
For details about this rally visit: www.radiofairs.co.uk

I think, as a result of Tim Peake’s time on the ISS and
the Principia project, there will be new interest in spacescience within schools, with the potential for individual
schools to run their own receiving stations. If you know ofany such school please let GEO know the details.
Reception Formats
Because of other matters occupying my time, I think I
may be lagging behind with the latest reception formatsof the polar orbiting Meteor satellite and the EUMETCast
HVS. Hence, in the coming weeks, I will be concentrating2

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September 2016

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

Spacelink’s Information Leaflet

Front CoverThis remarkable photograph was taken from the International
Space Station, and shows a powerful Aurora in progress overCanada. You can read more about thyis event on page 17.
Inside Front CoverThe Sentinel-3A satellite imaged the United Kingdom, in thisfalse-colour image acquired on May 9, 2016. In the southern
North Sea/English Channel, an algal bloom is distinguishable inshades of light blue and green. Closer to the coast are brown
sediments where rivers and streams run into the sea.
The Scottish Highlands appear light brown, representing baresoil and rock with some vegetation but otherwise, bright green
represents vegetation.
© Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data [2016]/ processed by ESA

Inside Back CoverThis NOAA-18 HRPT image from Enrico Gobbetti was captured on
July 18, 2016. Note the strong sunglint on the Mediterranean Sea
between France and Tunisia.
Back Cover
The MODIS instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured
this image of an extra-tropical cyclone over Northeastern Canada
at 16.50 UT on August 10, 2016. You can read more about thisevent on page 6.
Image: LANCE Rapid Response/NASA/GSFC

The copy deadline for GEO Quarterly No 52, our end-of year
issue, is Sunday, November 20, 2016.
As this is our ‘special’ end-of-year issue, provided to members asa printed paper magazine in addition to the customary electronic
copy, we are hoping for a great response from everyone forsubmissions of articles, news and satellite images.
The editor welcomes original contributions relating to any
aspect of Earth Imaging, satellite monitoring/reception, andweather phenomena, which can be submitted to the editor in any
convenient format.
Please note that major articles which contain numerous
illustrations are time-consuming to prepare, and should besubmitted as early as possible prior to the copy deadline.
Materials on media such as CDs may be sent to the editor,
Les Hamilton
8 Deeside Place
Aberdeen AB15 7PW
Scotland
Generally, the most efficient way to make submissions is byemail attachments togeoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Particularly large attachments can be provided via a DropBox
link.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Francis BellI often find myself frustrated when
listening to so called scientificpredictions relating to global warming
and sea level changes broadcast
on radio and TV programmes.
There is no doubt that the Earth isexperiencing superficial atmospheric,ocean and land surface warming
but the causation of this is far fromclear. I will submit my thoughts on
this subject to the GEO editor at alater date but for the moment, offer
a question about which the public
media seems to be in total ignorance.
The question relates to the melting ofEarth’s extensive sea ice surrounding
the poles. If all this sea ice were tomelt, by how much will the sea level
rise?
For the purposes of calculation
assume that 5% of the Earth’s sea
surface is covered with ﬂoating ice
which has an average thickness of
2.0 m: this means that about 0.2 mof the ice is above sea level with
1.80 m of its thickness being below

sea level. These figures may only beapproximate but are quite realistic
for the calculation, By how much will
the Earth’s sea level rise if all this ice
melts into liquid water?
There could be fine tuning of
the calculations by taking into
consideration the salinity of the ice
and its volume at zero degrees as it
melts into slightly warmed seas, but
do not try to include these factors inyour main analysis. Importantly do notconsider the ice caps on Greenland
and the land continent of Antarctica
just consider the ﬂoating ice covering
5% of the sea surface with athickness of 100 m.
As usual I offer a clue about theanswer which is that you do not needa sophisticated calculator to come up
with a correct answer.
Please email your answers to me,
francis@geo-web.org.uk
by Sunday, November 20, 2016.

Arctic ice maximum in March 2016
Image: NSIDC

Quarterly Question 50 related to a satellite image of a circular
structure on the surface of the Earth about 100 km in diameter.
My thanks to those members who were sufficiently interested in
the question to provide me with the correct answer: which was
the Manicouagan crater located in Canada.
Coincidently, with out planning, a second image of this impact
crater was shown on Page 23 as part of an image of NE USA
and eastern Canada. The Manicouagan crater is clearly seen on
the very top right hand third of this image and in this context thescale of the crater can be judged.
Below are some notes I have copied from the Internet relating
to the Manicouagan crater together with a photograph of thelargest dam retaining the lake’s high water level for hydroelectric
purposes.
The Manicouagan Crater is one of Earth’s oldest known impact
craters: it is sixth-largest confirmed impact crater on the planet

as measured by diameter, and the largest ‘visible’ one. It is
located primarily in Manicouagan Regional County of Québec,Canada, about 300 km north of the city of Baie-Comeau.
Created by the impact of a 5 km diameter asteroid or comet,
research on the impact melt within the crater gives it an ageof 214±1 million years. The crater is a multiple-ring structure,
originally about 100 km across, although erosion and depositionof sediments have since reduced the visible diameter to about
72 km.
The most prominent feature is the crater’s inner ring containing a
70 km diameter annular lake with a surface area of 1942 km²—
the Manicouagan Reservoir—its waters contained by dams, thelargest of which is shown in the accompanying photograph. In
the centre of the reservoir stands René-Levasseur Island, andits highest point is Mount Babel. The lake and island are clearlyseen from space and are sometimes called the ‘eye of Quebec’.
With a volume of 139.8 km3, this reservoir itself is the fifthlargest in the world by volume.

The 214 m tall, 1314 m long Daniel Johnson multiple-arch buttress hydro-electric dam on the Manicouagan River

4

Inage: Dan Fleet at English Wikipedia

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September 2016

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA MODIS Web

Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean, imaged by NASA’s Aqua satellite on July 13, 2016
Image: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC

A beautiful nearly cloud-free summer morning in midJuly, 2016 allowed the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite
to capture a true-colour image of the still-frigid Franz
Josef Land as it passed over the Arctic Ocean. This
image was acquired on July 13, and shows snow and ice
covering much of the archipelago, while filigrees of sea
ice spin north of the islands and clouds cover the ocean
to the south.
Franz Josef Land is Russia’s northernmost territory, andthe archipelago is made up of 191 islands. Glaciers cap
many of the islands, and appears bright white in thisimage. In snow and ice-free areas the tundra appears
pale brown.

The climate of Franz Joseph Land, which sits about
1,000 kilometres from the North Pole, can be extremely
harsh, especially in winter. The average temperatures
are just 2°C in summertime and -22°C during thewinter.
The archipelago is part of the Russian Arctic National
Park, which also includes not only Franz Josef Land but
also the northern part of Novaya Zemlya. Glaciers coverabout 85% of the islands year-round, especially on thelarger ones. In most areas vegetation, where it exists, islimited to moss and lichens, although certain buttercups
and poppies bloom in moist areas along with stands ofpolar willow. Due to the severe conditions, tall shrubs
and trees cannot survive.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Damian OHara

This Metop-B image showing the storm receding across Hudson Bay was acquired at 14:20 UT on August 10, 2016
Image © EUMETSAT 2016

I thought GEO Readers might beinterested to see this Metop-B image
that I downloaded via EUMETCast, whichshows a major storm that had beencausing some issues on the ground as
it tracked across Canada. At the timeof capture the storm obscured much of
Hudson Bay, but James Bay and Akimiski
Island are clearly visible to the South.

tornados, one of them an Enhanced Fujita
Scale 2 tornado (EF2) which toucheddown in the Waywayseecappo First
Nation about 280 kilometres northwestof Winnipeg during the early eveningof August 8. Environment Canada
assessors claimed that this tornado had
wind speeds of between 180 and 220
kilometres per hour.

During the previous two days, this lowpressure system travelled east from
Saskatchewan into Manitoba. In addition
to large hail, intense rain and highwinds, the storm spawned three reported

In the wake of the storm, one home
was destroyed and seven others weredamaged, their roofs twisted and shingles
pulled off by the tornado. In the highwinds, a 72-passenger school bus was

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toppled over and the air was filled withdebris. Remarkably though, no-one washurt in the event: the couple who lived
in the home that was demolished had
fortunately left it just an hour previously.
Some 70 people who ﬂed their homes
were put up in the Russell Inn just west of
the community not long after the tornado
hit between 5:30 pm and 6 pm.
I run a website of occasional images at
http://satblog.co.uk

The Aral Sea was imaged by NASA’s Aqua satellite on June 3, 2016, producing this MODIS image of the region.
Compared with a year earlier, when it was completely dry, the eastern lobe of the Aral Sea now contains water.
Image: NASA/GSFC Rapid Response

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Francis BellThe GEO stand with literature and computer displays at the SpaceLink event in readiness for visiting students.

SpaceLink is an organisation, mainly basedin the south of England, with the main
objective of promoting space science within
schools. The group regularly visits schools
to make presentations and demonstrations
relating to aspects of space science,
including the direct reception of satellite datasuch as NOAA APT and EUMETCast.
In June of this year, SpaceLink held a full day
event for interested schools at Broadwater
School near Guildford, and GEO was invited
to contribute to the day’s activities.
The day consisted of a programme of brief
formal presentations together with several
breaks offering the students practicalexperiences in activities related to spacescience. GEO had a stand, and most of thestudents were introduced to the possibilityof receiving weather satellite signals
directly into their own homes or schools.
The majority of students seemed genuinely
interested in this potential hobby andenthusiastically gathered some of our GEO
and EUMETSAT literature before departing
our display area.
For more information about SpaceLink
please visit their website atwww.spacelink.org
If you know of any schools which may beinterested in receiving support in the areaof space science I suggest you contact
SpaceLink or GEO.

A section of the student audience at Lucie Green’s presentation relating
to solar science research at the SpaceLink Experience. The students
thanked her for turning to sun on each morning!

8

GEO member Robert Coombs, chairmanof the SpacLink group with Lucie Green,solar physicist and a regular presenteron TV science programmes.

Visiting students to the SpaceLink Experience collecting GEO andEUMETSAT literature from the GEO stand following the demonstrations.

www.geo-web.org.uk

On May 9 this year, David Taylor spotted a particularly fine MODIS image of ‘Sunny Scotland’ acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite. Unfortunately,
the scene was split between two successive image segments but, following a little manipulative wizardry using his MODIS Defragger andCorrectGeometry software, followed by slight tweaking in Paint Shop Pro, the image above was realised.
Image: NASA/GSFC

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

NASA Earth Observatory
Cloudy skies often obscure satellite views of Earth and canhamper scientific research. But sometimes, the sheer beauty of ascene makes up for it. That was the case on June 1, 2016, when
the NASA/NOAA Suomi NPP satellite captured an image of low
stratus clouds perfectly framing iceberg A-56 as it drifted in theSouth Atlantic Ocean. Figure 1 shows a wide view of the area,acquired by Suomi’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite(VIIRS). Figure 2 shows a detailed view of the iceberg and its
immediate surroundings.
Measurements made by the US National Ice Center (USNIC)a few days prior to the acquisition of the image indicate thatthe iceberg is about 26 kilometres long by 13 kilometres wide.
These dimensions equate to an area of about five times that ofManhattan.
Based on satellite imagery, it’s hard to say for sure why thehole in the cloud cover formed immediately above the iceberg.
On average, icebergs usually move more slowly than clouds(kilometres per day as opposed to kilometres per hour). NASAglaciologist Kelly Brunt suggested the possibility that, after
the cloud bank moved into the vicinity of A-56, the relatively
unobstructed path of the clouds over the ocean surface wasinterrupted by the thermal instability created by the iceberg.
Steve Palm, a research meteorologist at NASA Goddard, agreed
that the iceberg could have disrupted the air ﬂow, or modified
the atmosphere such a way as to cause the clouds nearby todissipate.
According to Palm: “When an obstacle is big enough, it candivert the low level ﬂow around it. This causes divergence

Figure 1 - Iceberg A-46 in relation to South Georgiaof the ﬂow at low levels and a corresponding convergenceand sinking motion above and downstream of the obstacle.
The sinking motion warms and dries the air, causing a holein the clouds. This is a common phenomenon, often causedby islands.”
Brunt and Palm emphasise that these explanations are based
solely on looking at the satellite images. Closer analysis ofmeteorological data collected by instruments on the ground, or
generated by atmospheric modelling, could point toward othercauses.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response
Caption by Kathryn Hansen

Figure 2 - A close-up segment of the above image, showing Iceberg A-46 in its cloud hole.

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It’s the summer solstice, and Meteor M2 is enjoying a spell of evening sunshine. This image, acquired from the
18:38 UT pass on June 21, 2016 reveals parts of Denmark, Norway and Sweden peeking through the clouds.
Image: Les Hamilton

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Robert Moore

Meteosat-10 imaged the UK at 18.00 UT on June 9, 2016
Image © EUMETSAT 2016

There was a rather interesting-looking cloud structure lying
roughly from mid-Wales to Manchester on June 9, 2016 (circled
in the Meteosat-10 image above).
The south westerly end was very pointed, so out of curiosity
I consulted an Ordnance Survey map. The point was right on
Breidden Hill, a very prominent hill just to the north of Welshpool.
My best guess is that this was orographic cloud formed by therise of warm and damp south-westerly air over the hill. We areable to pinpoint the end of this cloud because Breidden Hill
stands in otherwise gently rolling countryside, near the villageof Criggion. The hill is a very striking feature of the landscape,visible from some distance both from the road and the railway.
Radio enthusiasts may know that Criggion was one of thelocations for a radio station transmitting on very low frequencies
for signalling the launch of nuclear weapons from submerged
UK submarines (presumably with US permission). The other twosites were Anthorn and Rugby. A memorable train journey from
Aberdeen to Aberystwyth in the early 1980s took me past all
three sites. The Criggion station was dismantled some years ago.
It’s nice to see Breidden doing what hills do—creating orographic
cloud - rather than launching a war.

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Breidden Hill rising above Criggion Village
Photo: GoogleEarth/StreetView

September 2016

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

European Space Agency

Copyright: Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA

The Sentinel‑2A satellite takes us over southeastern Alaska
to the Malaspina Glacier. Throughout the past 12.5 million
years, the climate and topography of this area have beenfavourable for glaciers and, during the Ice Age, a vast
ice sheet covered this spot. When temperatures rose, aninterglacial period began.
The coastal mountains and the maritime climate of thisarea provide the perfect setting for glaciation: some of theworld’s longest and most spectacular glaciers are foundhere. Malaspina is a piedmont glacier—meaning that ice
flows down a steep valley then spills out and spreads
across a relatively flat plain. Malaspina is the largest of its

kind, with an area of about 3900 square kilometres.
In this false-colour image, red depicts vegetated areas
while purple shows rock. The wavy purple lines aroundthe lower half of the glacier are moraines, consisting ofrock, soil and other debris that have been deposited by theglacier. Satellite data show that the elevation of Malaspina
has dropped over recent decades, an ice loss that has
made a significant contribution to sea-level rise.
This image was acquired on March 8, 2016. The low
sun level at Alaska’s high latitudes during this season isevident by the shadows cast north by the Elias Mountains.

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Summer arrived with a vengeance on July 19 this year when temperatures soared into the 30s Celsius overmuch of England, the Netherlands and France. Meteor M2 captured this largely cloud-free scene.

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September 2016

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA Earth Observatory

Summer usually brings foggy and cloudy conditions to Baffin
Island in the remote reaches of Canada’s Nunavut Territory.
But on July 5, 2016, nearly-cloud free conditions provided an
unusually clear view of the region.
This natural-colour image was acquired by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Aqua satellite. Nunavut encompasses most of the Canadian
Arctic Archipelago, a network of high-latitude islands embedded
within the Arctic Ocean. The scene shows a southern part of thearchipelago, with a bank of clouds hangs offshore of western
Greenland.
While Baffin Island is not Nunavut’s northernmost isle, muchof it falls within the Arctic Circle. This means cold, dark winterswith many days when the sun never rises above the horizon.
Temperatures plunge, and gulfs, bays, and other waterways
freeze over with sea ice. With the onset of summer andincreasing sunlight, that ice begins to break up.
In this image, summer sea ice still clogs the McClintock Channel
and Gulf of Boothia. It persists in the fjords of Baffin Island andthe narrow passage of Davis Strait. In contrast, ice in some of

the larger bodies of water (such as Baffin Bay) has broken up,
revealing the dark surface of the sea.
The waterways toward the left and top of the image are part ofthe southern route of the Northwest Passage, a winding maze ofsounds, channels, bays, and straits that sometimes allows ships
to pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. For most of therecorded history of North America, the Passage has been nearly
impassable. But the modernisation of ships and the warmingof Earth has made voyages through the Canadian Archipelagomore common. According to news reports, the Nunavut Impact
Review Board is considering whether to allow a luxury cruise ship
to navigate from Alaska through the thawing southern passage inAugust 2016.
By August and September, further melting could make thesewaterways look dramatically different. In August 2015, thesouthern passage opened for several weeks, while the northern
passage remained clogged. But whether the passage willcompletely open in 2016 remains to be seen. Winds can moveice in unpredictable ways, pushing it into and out of channels.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response.
Caption by Kathryn Hansen.

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The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

European Space Agency
Successive radar images captured by the Copernicus
Sentinel-1A satellite between December 2014 and March
2016 were used to create this spectacular map showing
how fast the ice flows on the Antarctic Peninsula. The map
was constructed by tracking the movement of ice featuresin pairs of radar images taken twelve days apart.
The Antarctic Peninsula is a narrow mountainous finger orspine of land extending northwards, away from the Central
Antarctic ice sheet (lower right corner) and comprising thenorthernmost arm of the Antarctic ice sheet.
The colour scale indicates the speed of ice movement inmetres per day, ranging from one centimetre or less per day

in dark blue, and up to one metre per day in red. The vivid
colours trace a complex network of channels along which
streams of ice flow from the high mountains down towards
the coast, where the ice flow speeds up and spreads out
into floating ice shelves. The white area on the western
flank of the peninsula is where snowfall is likely to haveconcealed features and so prevented tracking between theimage pairs.
As one of the most dynamic glacial environments on Earth,this region has been experiencing rapid climate warming
over recent decades. Since 1991, satellites such as ESA’s
ERS and Envisat have observed the disintegration ofvarious ice shelves, including the northern portion of theLarsen ice shelf and the Wilkins ice shelf.
The Sentinel satellites, developed by ESA, are central
to Europe’s environmental monitoring Copernicus
programme, which is committed to long-term operational
services for a wide range of applications. This example
shows the spectacular potential of the Sentinel-1 mission
for routine mapping and monitoring the surface velocity
of glaciers and ice sheets. The combination of Sentinel-1Aand -1B will support comprehensive and long-termmonitoring of changes in ice sheet velocity and how they
respond to climate change.
The Sentinel-1 ice velocity product was presented at ESA’s
Living Planet Symposium in Prague, Czech Republic
in May 2016 and three weeks earlier at the European
Geosciences Union General Assembly in Austria.

Image: ESA
Copyright contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2015), processed by Enveo

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GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA Earth Observatory

An astronaut aboard the International Space Station adjusted
the camera for night imaging and captured the green veils andcurtains of an aurora that spanned thousands of kilometresabove Quebec, Canada. See also our front cover for an
unannotated version of this image

The atmosphere shields life on Earth from the Sun’s harmfulradiations, as well as causing small asteroids to burn up or
catastrophically explode before hitting the ground. Larger
asteroids can occasionally penetrate the atmosphere and collidewith our rocky planet—with dramatic effects.

Snow and ice in this winter image reﬂect enough light from stars,
the Moon, and the aurora to reveal details of the landscape. On
the lower right, we see a circle of ice on the frozen reservoir thatnow occupies the 70 km diameter Manicouagan impact crater.
Additionally, city lights reveal small settlements such as Labrador
City, and the Royal Canadian Air Force base at Goose Bay on
the Labrador Sea.

Geologists know that a large asteroid slammed into Earth roughly
214 million years ago, creating a crater about 100 kilometresacross on the landmass that is now part of Canada. The
impact caused a shock wave to radiate across Earth’s surface,followed closely by high-velocity winds. Near the impact point,
wind speeds could have exceeded 1000 kilometres per hour.
The shock wave and air blast would have severely damaged
and killed plants and animals out to distances of at least 500
kilometres—as far as Goose Bay. After millions of years oferosion by glaciers and other processes, the Manicouagan craterhas been reduced to about 60 kilometres in width.

The Aurora Borealis glow in the night sky when charged particles
in the Solar Wind accelerate through Earth’s magnetosphere.
These particles collide with atoms in the atmosphere: the green
and red colours are caused by the release of photons fromoxygen atoms. The fainter arc of light that parallels the horizon is
known as airglow. This is another manifestation of the interaction
between Earth’s atmosphere and radiation from the Sun.

Astronaut photograph ISS030-E-110900 was acquired on February 3,
2012, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 28 millimetre lens, andis provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth
Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image
was taken by a member of the Expedition 30 crew.

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September 2016

Devendra Kulkarni(email: devendrakulkarni5@gmail.com
twitter:https://twitter.com/dak5755)
The Automatic Picture Transmission(APT) system is an analogue imagetransmission system developed foruse on weather satellites. It was
introduced in the 1960s and overfour decades has provided image data
to relatively low-cost user stations
at locations in most countries of theworld. A user station anywhere in theworld can receive local data at least
twice a day from each satellite as it
passes overhead. Their reception canbe done using low cost DVB-T USB
sticks containing the RTL820T or
RTL820T2 chipset (figure 2) alongwith a QFH, Turnstile or Double Cross
Antenna (figure 3), which can behomebrewed from PVC pipes, copperor coaxial cable.
As of July 2016, there are three NOAAAPT satellites in service: NOAA 15,
NOAA 18 and NOAA 19.
Essential Software
SDRSharp is a freeware Software
Defined Radio interface which allows
us to tune into the desired frequency.
It is now distributed under the Airspy
banner, and can be downloaded fromtheir website at
http://airspy.com/download/
When you have downloaded
SDRSharp, extract it into the folder
where you wish to store it.
Orbitron is a satellite tracking system
for radio amateur and observing
purposes. It’s also used by weather
professionals, satellite communication
users, astronomers, UFO hobbyist
and even astrologers.
Orbitron shows the positions ofsatellites at any given moment (inreal or simulated time). It’s free
(Cardware), and it’s probably one of
the easiest and most powerful satellite
trackers. It can be downloaded fromhttp://www.stoff.pl/

Figure 1 - This NOAA 19 image has been processed as MSA in WXtoImg

WXtoImg is a fully automated APT
and WEFAX weather satellite (wxsat)
decoder. The software supports
recording, decoding, editing, andviewing on all versions of Windows,
Linux, and Mac OS X.
http://www.wxtoimg.com/

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Figure 2 - A DVB-T dongle with RTL2832U, RTL820T or RTL820T2 chipset for reception.

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Figure 3 - The author’s homebrew QFH antenna for NOAA reception

GEO Quarterly No 51

Figure 5a - The Windows Sound Manager recording tab

WXtoImg is now in the public domain (free) as explained in
the previous issue [1] of GEO Quarterly.
VB‑Cable (Virtual Audio Cable) is an audio driver that will
port the audio from SDRSharp directly into WXtoImg forlive decoding. You can download VB-Cable fromhttp://vb-audio.pagesperso-orange.fr/Cable/
After downloading and installing VB‑Cable, open Windows
Control Panel and double-click ‘Sound’. The Sound
Manager panel shown in figure 4 should appear.

Figure 5b - The Windows Sound Manager advanced tab

Click the ‘Properties’ button on this screen to reveal the
CABLE Output properties screen, and set the default
format to 48000 Hz (Studio Quality).

Drivers for the RTL Dongle

Figure 4 - The Windows Sound Manager playback tab

Set the default playback device as Speaker. This will allow
you to mute the speaker while a satellite signal is recordedin the background using Virtual Audio Cable.
Set the default Recording device (figure 5) as CABLE Output.
By setting VB‑Cable as default recording device, WXtoImg
will port the audio directly from the SDR’s audio output.

Instal the RTL820T/RTL820T2 or RTL2832U drivers using
the Zadig driver utility which is bundled with SDRSharp.
To do this, you must first plug an RTL‑SDR dongle
into one of your computer’s USB ports so that the Bulk
Interface options become accessible. Now run Zadig as
Administrator, to download and install the required driver.
Make sure that the drop-down selector shows: ‘BulkInInterface (Interface 0)’. If you can’t see this option, click‘Options’ and tick ‘List all devices’ first.
Installing the DDE Tracker Plugin
Download the DDE Tracker plugin fromhttp://rtl-sdr.ru/uploads/download/ddetracker.zip

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This zip file contains three DLL files which you must copy
into the SDRSharp folder. The zip file also contains a text
file which contains the Magic Line, which you must copy
and paste into the Plugins.xml file (which can be found in
the SDRSharp folder).

September 2016

Finally, it is important to open the ‘Extra’ tab and selectthe final option ‘AOS Notification: Make Satellite Active’,
then click ‘Apply’, as illustrated in figure 8.

Interfacing Orbitron with SDRSharp and DDE Tracker
The most important task in configuring Orbitron to engage
with both SDRSharp and the DDE Tracker module is toopen the ‘Orbitron/Conﬁg’ folder and edit its ‘setup.cfg’
file to add an entry for the SDRSharp driver. Load ‘setup.
cfg’ into a text editor such as Wordpad/Notepad and add
the following two lines at the end of the file immediately
following the [Satellites] section, then resave it.
[Drivers]
SDRSharp=C:\SDRSharp\SDRSharp.exe
Set the SDRSharp directory by replacing the default ‘C:\’
with the path to the SDRSharp folder.
Figure 8 - Orbitron’s Setup/Extra tab.

Conﬁguring Orbitron

Set Satellite Frequency
Select the ‘Rotor/Radio’ tab at the foot of the Orbitron
screen and enter each satellite frequency into the Dnlink/
MHz section This helps to cancel the Doppler Effect on the
APT image. Make sure you have installed the DDE Tracker
into SDRSharp, and Driver is set to ‘SDRSharp’.
Frequencies:
NOAA 15 – 137.6200 MHz
NOAA 18 – 137.9125 MHz
NOAA 19 - 137.1000 MHz
Getting Started with SDRSharp
After installing the drivers for SDRSharp, start up
SDRSharp.exe. In the top panel at upper left set the
Source to RTL-SDR (USB) as we are going to receive thesatellite signals via an RTL dongle connected to a USB porton the computer.

Figure 6 - OrbitronOnce the program is installed, startup Orbitron and click the Setup Icon
Open the ‘TLE Updater’ tab and in the ‘Group’ field, select‘Weather’. Finally, in the right-hand panel, where you willfind a list of satellite names, tick NOAA 15, NOAA 18 and
NOAA 19.
Open the ‘General’ tab, and set your time zone.

Figure 9 - Selecting the RTL-SDR USB driverOpen Radio and select Narrow FM (NFM), set the‘Bandwidth’ to 32000, ‘Order’ to 10 (the minimum value
for the audio filter), keep the ‘Snap to Grid’ option selected
and select ‘Correct IQ’.

Open the ‘TLE Updater’ tab and click on
the farthest right icon to update the TLE
files over the internet.
In the ‘Miscellaneous’ tab, set the AOS notification
elevation at which you wish each satellite will givean audible alert as it approaches. It will also help toautomatically trigger the satellite reception.

Figure 7 - Setting the AOS elevation alert

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The Group for Earth Observation

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Open the Audio panel, where it is required to set the‘Output’ to CABLE Input (VB-Cable) – which will virtuallypull the audio into the WXtoImg software.
Turn OFF both the ‘Unity Gain’ and ‘Filter Audio’ options.

Figure 11 - The Audio PanelOpen the AGC panel and make sure that the AGC is
turned off (i.e. not ticked).

Figure 14 - The SDRSharp Controller Panel

Figure 12 - The Automatic Gain Control Panel

Turn off the ‘Audio Noise Reduction’ and ‘IF Noise
Reduction’. If turned on the APT image might be smooth
but loss of image quality and sharpness will occur.

Frequency correction (ppm) is required because
RTL-SDR dongles are not precisely accurate. Because it isimportant that the satellite signal is precisely centred on
the SDRSharp screen for optimum reception, this control
can be used (usually under zoom) to fine tune the satellite
reception peak to the centre of the display. Tutorials on
frequency correction can be found online. In my case, I
require frequency corrections between 53 and 76 ppm.

Conﬁguring the DDE Scheduler
Now you have to enter appropriate commands into the
DDE Scheduler (figure 16 - overleaf) in order to start andstop recording when a satellite is within range.
To open the scheduler, click the ‘Config’ button on the‘Tracking DDE Client’ panel (figure 15).
Figure 13 - The Noise Reduction Panel

Setting up the RTL SDR Controller
Settings for the RTL-SDR dongle are accessed byclicking the ‘wheel’ icon at top-left of the SDRSharp
user interface. The Controller panel is illustrated infigure 14.
The Sample Rate can be selected from a number of set
values, and I have found reception to work well using
1.8 MSPS, 1.4 MSPS and 0.900001 MSPS.
Adjust the RF Gain manually – usually you can set it up
to 48 dB. If the reception of the signal is low try setting it
up at 49.6 dB.
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Figure 16 - The DDE Scheduler

Enter The Satellite Name, Clickon ‘Add new Satellite’ and insert
the commands as shown in above
screenshot.
To enter a command, click to select it,then click the ‘<<’ button beside the
AOS or LOS panel as appropriate. The
values between the angle brackets
must be inserted manually by clicking
between them then typing from the
keyboard. Note that radio bandwidthand frequency must be entered asherz (not kiloherz or megaherz) as
illustrated above for NOAA 19.

suffice, but you can be more accurate by entering an exact latitude andlongitude if you want.
Next, go to Options > Recording Options, and ensure the correct device,
CABLE Output, is selected under the soundcard option. Also, here, you canselect ‘Record only when active APT satellites are overhead’, and adjust the ‘withmaximum elevation above (degrees)’ and ‘record only when satellite is above(degrees)’ settings (figure 19).
Finally, to enable automatic recording and image processing, go toFile> Record to display the WXtoImg recording options screen (figure 20). If
you click the ‘Image Settings’ button, you can select the image types you wantfrom a menu. Click the ‘Auto Record’ button, and WXtoimg will enter recording
mode as soon as you run the program.

Setting up WXtoImg
If you have installed WXtoImg for the
first time, you must start by setting
up your Ground Station Location by
going to Options > Ground Station
Location. The city you are in should

Figure 17 - Setting Station Details in WXtoImg

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Figure 18 - Setting Recording Options in WXtoImg

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

Figure 19 - WXtoImg’s Record Options Screen

Examples of Received WXtoImg Images

Figure 21 - The same image processed with the ‘Thermal’ option

Figure 20 - A WXtoImg MSA image
Figure 22 - A NOAA image processed using the‘MCIR with Precipitation’ option

References

1 WxtoImg Upgrade Keys now Free - GEO Quarterly 50 (December 2015), page 43
2 Receiving Images from Meteor Satellites - GEO Quarterly No 48, page 27
3 User’s Guide for Building and Operating Environmental Satellite Receiving Stations – NOAA
http://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/pubs/Users_Guide-Building_Receive_Stations_March_2009.pdf
4 RTL-SDR Tutorial: Receiving NOAA Weather Satellite Images
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-receiving-noaa-weather-satellite-images/

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September 2016

NASA Earth Observatory
When pilot Jeff Davis saw this cyclonelike formation from 11,000 metres, hethought he had spotted a storm.
‘I’ve never seen anything like this,’he said in an interview. ‘At ﬁrst sight
I thought it was a hurricane-type
low-pressure system, but quickly
realized what I was seeing was
not clouds, but surface ice. I knew,
based on the surface formation, I
had to take some photos. This was arare sight.’
The Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Terra and Aqua satellites acquired thesetwo views of an ice eddy off the coast ofLabrador, Canada, on July 2, 2016.
Davis, who has been piloting transAtlantic flights for 16 years, said it was
his first time spotting such a formation.
That’s because clear skies, and air
and water temperatures, must align tomake a formation like this visible fromcruising altitude, according to Walter
Meier, a cryospheric researcher at NASA.
‘First, the viewer needs daylight, acloudless sky, and lucky timing. If
the eddy is too small or compact, you
won’t see it. If the ice is too thick,or if it’s melted, you’re not going tosee it either,’ said Meier. ‘There’s
not a lot of time between those two
extremes.’

The Ice Swirl as imaged by Terra at 15:10 UTWhen the ice melts, it breaks into
chunks, like crushed ice in a cocktail.
Then, ocean currents stir those chunks
into the cyclone-like vortex. This
happens both in spring (as ice thaws)
and in autumn (during melt). Eventhen, however, such a vortex won’t
form unless it has certain temperature
conditions: warm enough for the ice
to fragment, but cool enough for it toremain frozen.
While the opportunity to view an eddy
like this is rare because of frequent
cloudiness over Arctic seas, Meier notesthat ice eddies are pretty common. The
formations can be large (several hundred
kilometres across), or small (just several
hundred metres). The chunks of ice
in such eddies can be several metresacross, posing a hazard for ships.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using
data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability
for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Pola Lem.

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The Ice Swirl as imaged by Aqua at 16.55 UT

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Gary Teale, who recently joined GEO, is cutting his teeth on APT from the NOAA satellites. Gary sent us this splendid channel‑2
image showing most of Greenland cloud-free, which he acquired from NOAA 15 at 9.13 UT in July 23, 2016.

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Enrico Gobbetti received this RGB123 image from Meteor M2 on August 10, 2016, providing us with a superb view ofthe Mediterranean Sea and its environs. The lower images show full resolution crops of Sicily and Corsica/Sardinia.

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The Group for Earth Observation

RF Attenuation

GEO Quarterly No 51

Francis BellI know that, for the best reception of satellite images, yourdish needs a clear view of the relevant part of the sky.
But a recent experience did surprise me a little. I have aone-metre dish located at ground level at the front of myhouse. As with all such installations, I first set it up on atemporary basis, but once working and receiving excellent
EUMETCast signals I was reluctant to relocate it, hence its
semi permanent position.
Recently, quite by chance, I happened to check thereceived signal strength from this dish using the‘SR1 Console’ software I downloaded from SpaceBand. In
fine weather my receive signal strength with this system isjust in the green close at 12.0 dB, hence my surprise whenchecking the signal strength later found it to be down to
7.0 dB, although I have to say the incoming processed
images still looked perfect.
A critical view of the dish immediately revealed the
problem. The success of the hanging basket close to thedish had produced not only a beautiful floral display but
also a shadow over roughly one third of it: very attractive
and rural, but certainly degrading the received signal
strength.

Very attractive, but even a few petals can reduce thesignal strength received at the dish’s surface.

The solution was easy. I moved the hanging basket a little
further away from the satellite dish and this immediately
restored my signal strength.
With this experience I’m not surprised that trees can be amajor factor influencing the reception of satellite signals
when just a few colourful petals can have the same effect.
Another example of nature’s interaction with my satellite
reception related to swallows. However, in this example I
did not detect any attenuation of the RF reception. I love to
see these swallows and, for whatever reason, they visit meeach year in August and early September. Not only do theswallows love my 137 MHz crossed dipole antenna but also
the reflectors on my 2‑metre dipole.

Several families of swallows trying to check satellite weather images
from EUMETCast in planning their imminent flight to Africa.

This screen shot of the Console, shows a typical reading I receive during EUMETCast reception. I find this facility very useful when aligninga dish for the first time and then monitoring the subsequent reception, which can vary according to weather conditions or obstructions.

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NASA’s Terra satellite produced this MODIS image of the Aral Basin on August 3, 2016. The eastern lobe of the Aral Sea continues to hold water
while the marshy deltas of the Syr Darya (north) and Amu Darya (south) are plain to see, the latter river failing to reach the South Aral Sea.
Image: NASA/GSFC Rapid Response28

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On May 30,2016, a rash of heavy thunderstorms tracked across central Europe. In Germany, there was severe flooding near Stuttgart,and in the town of Hoppstaedten, 35 people were injured by a lightning bolt during a children’s football match. The referee, who was
hit directly, was rushed to hospital by helicopter. Two other adults suffered serious injuries and thirty children aged between nine andeleven were slightly hurt and taken to hospital for tests. In France, three children and an adult who had been sheltering from a sudden
thunderstorm were fighting for their lives after they were among eleven people struck by lightning during a birthday party in a Paris
www.geo-web.org.uk
park. And in southern Poland, a man was killed when hewas struck by lightning as he descended the Babia Gora mountain. Andre
T’Kindt captured the situation with this NOAA-18 APT image, processed with the HVCT and Precipitation Overlay,

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September 2016

NASA Earth Observatory

First-year sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea off Antarctica on September 15, 2015.
Instrument: Aircraft Sensors - DMS

Antarctica—the continent at the southernmost reach of theplanet—is fringed by cold, often frozen waters of the Southern
Ocean. The extent of sea ice around the continent typicallyreaches a peak in September and a minimum in February. The
photograph above shows Antarctic sea ice on November 5, 2014,
during the annual cycle of melt.
The image was acquired by the Digital Mapping System (DMS), a
digital camera installed in the belly of research aircraft to capture
images of terrain below. In this case, the system ﬂew on the
DC-8 during a ﬂight as part of NASA’s Operation IceBridge.

The complex behaviour of sea ice around Antarctica is one
reason why the IceBridge mission ﬂies over the area every
autumn (which means spring in the Southern Hemisphere).
IceBridge also surveys ice each spring over the Arctic. But inautumn 2015, the mission parted with tradition and ﬂew overboth the Arctic and Antarctic simultaneously for the first time in
the mission’s seven-year history. The additional measurementsof sea and land ice in the Arctic are expected to provide insight
into how the summer melt season continues to affect the ice. The
ﬂights planned for autumn 2015 are outlined in the maps below.

Most of the view shows first-year sea ice in the Bellingshausen
Sea, as it appeared from an altitude of 328 meters. The block of
ice on the right side of the image is older and thicker, and wasonce attached to the Antarctic Ice Sheet. By the time this image
was acquired, however, the ice had broken away to form aniceberg. Given its close proximity to the ice sheet, this could havebeen a relatively new berg.
The Bellingshausen Sea is located just off the icy continent’s
west side, tucked under the peninsula that reaches up toward
South America. Sea ice in this sea is generally on the decline.
In contrast, sea ice in the Ross Sea has seen growth, which
contributed to the record high extent of sea ice around Antarctica
in September 2014. But despite gains in Antarctica, research has
shown that global sea ice is still decreasing.

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IceBridge flights planned over the Arctic
and Antarctic during autumn 2015.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA Earth Observatory
Before the advent of satellites and seismic monitoring, volcanic
eruptions in distant places would usually go unnoticed unlessthey were absolutely extraordinary. Today, scientists can pick up
signatures of events occurring far from any human observers.

The highest peak on the island stands 1100 meters above sea
level, and due to the remote location and the lack of landing sites
amidst its ice cap, the stratovolcano is one of the least studied in
the world: its last known eruption was reported in 1956.

That was the case in late April and early May 2016, whensatellite sensors detected signs of a volcanic eruption in the far
South Atlantic Ocean between South America and Antarctica.
Mount Sourabaya, a stratovolcano on Bristol Island, appeared
to be erupting for the first time in 60 years. There is no humanpresence on Bristol island, which is almost always covered inglacial ice and snow.

Bristol island was discovered by a British expedition under James
Cook in 1775 and named in honour of naval officer Augustus
Hervey, 3rd Earl of Bristol. The first recorded landing was madeby Carl Anton Larsen in 1908.
The island remains uninhabited and is administered by theUnited Kingdom—as a British Overseas Territory—as part of theSouth Georgia and South Sandwich Islands dependency.

Bristol island is a member of the South Sandwich group,
highlighted at the extreme right of this map.
Image: Wikimedia CommonsThe Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satelliteacquired the two false-colour images opposite on April 24 andMay 1, 2016. The images were built from a combination ofshortwave-infrared, near-infrared, and red light (Landsat bands
6-5-4) that helps detect the heat signatures of an eruption. Bothimages show the heat signatures (red-orange) of what is likely
hot lava, while white plumes trail away from the crater. The band
combination makes the ice cover of the island appear bright bluegreen.

Bristol Island eruption on April 24, 2016
NASA Landsat-8 Image

With a roughly rectangular shape, 12 × 14 kilometres, Bristol
Island is one of the largest in the South Sandwich Islands chain.

Figure 2 - Bristol Island, imaged by the ASTER instrument on
NASA’s Terra satellite on December 17, 2006

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Bristol Island eruption on May 1, 2016
NASA Landsat-8 Image

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European Space Agency

This image, taken over part of northwest Greenland’s coast,
combines three images from Sentinel-1A’s radar, acquired on
February 15, March 10 and April 3, 2016.

Scientists have determined that the bottom of Zachariae Isstrom
is being rapidly eroded by warmer ocean water mixed withgrowing amounts of meltwater from the ice sheet surface.

The shades of grey on the left side of the image depict the static
landmass, while the colours on the right show changes in sea-ice
type and cover between the three radar scans. Near the centreleft you can see the Zachariae Isstrom glacier, which is losing
about five billion tonnes of ice a year to the ocean.

Zachariae and the nearby Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden to its north
are two of six glaciers being monitored in near-real time by
Sentinel-1 through a new web portal by the UK’s Centre for Polar
Observation and Modelling. The portal provides frequent maps ofice velocity for key glaciers in both Greenland and Antarctica.

Zachariae’s dynamics have been changing over the last few
years, calving high volumes of icebergs, which will inevitably
affect sea levels. It is estimated that the entire Zachariae Isstrom
glacier in northeast Greenland holds enough water to raise global
sea levels by more than 46 cm.

The polar regions are some of the first to experience and visibly
demonstrate the effects of climate change, serving as barometers
for change in the rest of the world. It is therefore critical that polar
ice is monitored comprehensively and in a sustained manner.

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32© Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data (2016), processed by ESA

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NASA Earth Observatory

Dust

The Taklimakan desert is one of the driest, most barren
expanses on Earth. Flanked by mountain ranges on threesides and parched by the resulting rain shadow, parts of
the Tarim Basin receive no more than 10 millimetres ofrain per year. It is no surprise that plant life is scarce.
With little vegetation to hold sand in place, some 85% of
the Taklimakan consists of shifting sand dunes. Only thedune fields of Saudi Arabia’s Rub’ al Khali cover a larger
area. Taklimakan’s dunes can soar to heights of up to
200 to 300 metres.
With so much sand and so little vegetation or moisture,
dust storms are a regular occurrence, particularly inthe spring. On May 1, 2016, the Visible Infrared Imaging
Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the Suomi NPP satellite captured
this natural-colour image showing a wall of dust being
pushed southwest across the Tarim Basin by northeasterly
winds.
The Tarim Basin is bordered by the Kunlun Shan
mountains to the south and the Tian Shan mountains to

the north. (The Tian Shan is covered with snow and partly
obscured by clouds in this image.) The basin opens up on
its eastern edge, but that is not generally a way out for
dust. Prevailing low-altitude winds almost always blow
from the east, keeping most dust below the crests of themountain ranges—and thus trapped within the basin. In
spring, strong surface winds can sometimes lift dust up to
10 kilometres, where higher altitude winds transport the
dust beyond the ranges and across China and the Pacificocean. In the image presented here, however, the dust
appears to be relatively low in the atmosphere.
Dust storms can lead to public health problems inpopulated areas downwind by transporting small particles,
bacteria, and viruses that infiltrate human respiratory
systems. Dust storms also affect Earth’s climate byscattering and absorbing incoming solar radiation andchanging the properties of clouds.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response
Caption by Adam Voiland

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Mike Stevens acquired this interesting Meteosat-10 image on June 7, 2016, showing the British Isles basking in sunshine, many locations recording
temperatures of up to 25°C, while a rash of thunderstorms caused flooding from Paris to eastern Germany.
Image © EUMETSAT 2016=34

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA Earth Observatory
In orbit above the semi-desert
grasslands in Kazakhstan, an
astronaut aboard the International
Space Station photographed Lake
Tengiz, the only large lake (1590 km2)
in northern Kazakhstan. Throughwhite wisps of cloud, the image
opposite shows the 50 kilometre-longeastern shore of the lake, with its thinwinding islands and white beaches.
The islands and intervening
waterways provide a rich habitat
for birds in this part of Asia. At
least 318 species of birds have been
identified at the lake, 22 of themendangered. It is the northernmost
habitat of the pink flamingo. The lakesystem is Kazakhstan’s first UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, and it has been
declared a Ramsar [1] wetland site ofinternational importance.
Part of the richness of this region isits complex hydrology. Fresh water
enters the system via the Kulanutpes
River, so there are small lakes (upper
right) full of fresh water. But in thisclosed basin, the water in the mainlake (left) slowly evaporates, becoming
salty. Winds stir up waves on themain lake, dispersing sediment andsalt and making the water a cloudier
and lighter blue-green.
The strange shape of the islands
is not easy to interpret. They may
be drowned remnants of delta
distributaries of the Kulanutpes River.
Westerly winds have probably had asmoothing effect on the shorelines,
especially in a shallow lake like
Tengiz, which averages only six
meters in depth.
The lake has an exciting history forpeople who follow space exploration.
In 1976, a Soyuz spacecraft landedin the lake near the north shore (topleft). The capsule crashed throughice and sank during an Octobersnowstorm when the prevailingtemperature was -22°C. Because of
low power, the capsule was unheated,
and it was many hours before theairtight capsule was located anddivers could attach flotation tanks
to raise it to the surface. It was thendragged ashore across the ice byhelicopter. The rescue effort took nine
hours before the crew was able tosafely exit the capsule.

Figure 1
Astronaut photograph ISS047-E-83092, showing lake Tengiz, acquired on April 26, 2016
Credit: NASA/ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and theEarth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center.

The Korgaljinski Lakes
To the east of Lake Tengiz, a salt lakewith no outlet and fluctuating depth,
are the Korgaljinski (or Kourgaldzhin)
Lakes, a network of freshwater lakes
mixed with marshland, connected by
the Nura River. Home to hundreds ofplant and bird species, and dozens ofwww.geo-web.org.uk

mammal species, the area has been
designated a Ramsar wetland site.
NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite imaged
Lake Tengiz and Korgaljinski Lakes
in July 2001 (figure 2). Lake Tengiz
dominates this image—a nearly
uniform patch of blue-green outlined

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Figure 2
This view of Lake Tengiz and the associated Korgaljinski lakes was captured by Nasa’s Landsat‑7 satellite on July 29, 2001
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey

by off-white. The lake’s pale lining indicates thatits water level has dropped, exposing a now-dry
shoreline. To the east of Lake Tengiz, but connected
to it via meandering waterways, are the Korgaljinski
Lakes, three large patches of pale blue-green,
resembling the hue of Lake Tengiz, which lie at thenorthern end of this marshy area. To the south,
smaller water bodies mix with deep green vegetation.
Looking like a delicate thread of deep blue, the Nura
River appears to the east of these lakes. From thesouth, another river, the Zhaksy-Kon, also feeds thiswetland network. Lush green vegetation in this area
contrasts sharply with the otherwise arid landscape.

Where Exactly is Lake Tegniz?
Lake Tegnitz lies six hundred kilometres northwest of themore familiar Lake Balkhash, the 15th largest lake in theworld, which is shown at the foot of figure 3..

Uninsulated power lines formerly electrocuted many
birds in this area until they were taken down andreplaced with a solar power station. The World Bank
also initiated a project to clean up mercury pollution
and provide a safe alternative water supply for local
residents.
References
1 http://www.ramsar.org/
2 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=88181
3 http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=9027

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Figure 3
NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this MODIS image on July 15, 2015,
showing the location of LakeTegnitz in relation to Lake Balkhash.
Image: NASA/GSFC Rapid Response

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This image of India and Sri Lanka was provided by Devendra Kulkarni from Puna, India. The image wasobtained at 09.20 local time on May 27, 2016 using an RTL-SDR dongle and homebrew QFH antenna.

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Always on the look out for spectacular EUMETCast images, Mike Stevens sent in this section from a Metop‑B
pass over Asia on August 23, 2016, showing both the Caspian and Aral seas in cloud-free detail.
Image © EUMETSAT 201638www.geo-web.org.uk

This Metop–B image from the 09:52 UT Metop–B pass on August 16, 2016 was acquired from the EUMETSAT Advanced Retransmission Service(EARS), transmitted via EUMETCast, by David Taylor, to illustrate a particularly fine spell of weather during a generally damp and cloudy summer.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

Francis BellI have been a member of AMSAT-UK for about
30 years. The group’s interests relate mainly toamateur radio and satellites with their potential for
personal amateur radio communication plus space
related science and engineering.
It is no coincidence that AMSAT’s annual meeting or
colloquium is held in Guildford each year. I believe
the University of Surrey, now based in Guildford,
was the focal organisation establishing the UK
branch of AMSAT. As a schoolmaster teachingin a Guildford secondary school, living locally,
together with my existing interests in amateur radio,
it was not surprising that I became interested in
AMSAT-UK’s activities and live reception of their
UoSAT 1 and UoSAT 2 satellites 30 years ago.
Over the subsequent years Surrey University has
continued with its space science and generated theinternationally respected SSTL company.

Delegates attending the AMSAT colloquium first presentation
related to ‘SSTL LEO MEO GEO and Beyond’Since our foundation, GEO has attended AMSAT’s
annual colloquium, usually with a display standdemonstrating live weather satellite reception andsometimes giving a formal presentation relating to
our interest in weather satellite reception.
Again this year we attended the AMSAT colloquiumwith a stand and literature relating to our members’interests. I’m not sure of the exact number, but
about 80 delegates attended the weekend plus
a number of day visitors, and almost all of thesepeople visited the GEO stand.
Not surprisingly, the topic which kept recurring
during the colloquium related to the interest in
schools generated by Tim Peake’s six months on
the ISS and the Principia project. During Tim’s
time on the ISS he had scheduled contacts witharound ten schools. This, of course, has generated
a longer-term interest in space science and radio
communication, not just with those schools who
did contact Tim directly, but also a wider interest in
space related topics with which schools can cope.

The live satellite receiving station in operation over most of the weekend.

For me the stars of the weekend were two 15-yearold girls from Sandringham school—Jessica Leighand Polly Gupta—who were confident and articulate
in presenting to the meeting their school’s live
contact with Tim Peake while he was on ISS. My
later conversation with them confirmed the longerterm interest the experience had generated withthem and their school.
I am progressing the contacts made during thisweekend and hope there will be long-term interest
shown by the individuals and school representatives
I met during this weekend.
For more information relating to AMSAT-UK, visit
their website atwww.amsat-uk.org

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Jessica Leigh and Polly Gupta describing
their school’s contact with Tim Peake.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Jessica and Polly giving theirpresentation to an attentive audience.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

Two families with their primary school children taking an interestin satellite reception literature. Subsequently their local school
have been given supportive information about possible weather
satellite reception into their school.

Francis Bell

Jessica and Polly visiting the live satellite groundstation which operated over the whole weekend.
Note GEO’s stand in the background.

GEO members may be interested in receiving their own copy ofthe publication ‘Meteorological Technology International’. I am on themailing list for this publication, which is produced twice annually,
and reviews weather, climate and hydrology technologies.
Typically, I receive my copies in April and September, the latter
which I guess is timed to promote the Meteorological Technology
World Expo held annually in Belgium. GEO have been invited toattend this event several times but so far logistics have restricted
our attendance. The current publication consists of 152 pages
with 31 well written articles including:• Hurricane Hunters• Space Weather Prediction• Precipitation measurements• Solar Radiation• Carbon Emissions• and many others
As best I can judge this is a free publication, and if you want yourown copy I suggest you write to:
Meteorology Technology International
Abinger House, Church Street
Dorking
Surrey RH41DF
Or you could try emailing simon.willard@ukipme.com
Say who you are and the reason for being interested in the
publication. For example, professional, educational, scientific or
personal interest.
You can also subscribe to free PDF copies by visiting theirwebsite atwww.ukipme.com/pub-meteorological.php

Francis Bell with Jessica Leigh and Polly Gupta.

Just click the Subscribe button, and fill in your details.

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GEO Quarterly No 51

The Group for Earth Observation

September 2016

NASA Earth Observatory

On June 26, 2016, the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired
this natural-colour image showing Cloud Gravity Waves off thecoast of Angola and Namibia.

it descends towards the Earth, the moist air is pushed up again
by the dry air. Repeated again and again, this process createsgravity waves. Clouds form during the upward wave motions andevaporate when they move downward again.

Similar to a boat’s wake, which forms as the water is pushed
upward by the boat and pulled downward again by gravity, theseclouds are formed by the rise and fall of colliding air columns.

Such waves will often propagate in the morning and early
afternoon. During the course of the day, the clouds move out tosea and stretch out, as the dry air ﬂowing off the land causes the
moist ocean air to advect westward.

Off of west Africa, dry air coming off the Namib desert—after
being cooled during the night—moves out beneath the balmy,moist air overlying the ocean and pushes it upwards. As thehumid air rises to a higher altitude, its moisture condenses into
droplets, forming clouds which gravity rolls into wave-like shapes.
When the moist air rises, it cools and sinks back down again. As

42

In this image, the clouds form several hundred kilometres off thecoast, but at times when the air is less dry or westerly winds areless strong, they can actually be seen hugging the coast.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land
Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Pola Lem.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 51

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

A spectacular aurora over Thingvallavatn Lake in Iceland, photographed August 24, 2016 by Juan Carlos Casado
Image © Juan Carlos Casado (TWAN, Earth and Stars)

Admire the beauty but fear the beast.
The beauty is the aurora overhead, here
taking the form of a great green spiral,seen between picturesque clouds withthe bright Moon to the side and stars inthe background. The beast is the wave of
charged particles that creates the aurora
but might, one day, impair civilisation.
Over a century and a half ago, during
September 1-2, 1859, following
notable auroras seen all across theglobe, a pulse of charged particles
from a coronal mass ejection (CME)associated with a solar ﬂare impacted
Earth’s magnetosphere so forcefully
as to create the Carrington Event, oneof the largest geomagnetic storms onrecord. The associated ‘white light ﬂare’in the solar photosphere was observed
and recorded by English astronomers
Richard C Carrington and Richard
Hodgson.
A relatively direct path between the Sun
and the Earth might have been cleared
by a preceding CME. What is certain isthat the Carrington Event compressedwww.geo-web.org.uk

the Earth’s magnetic ﬁeld so violently thatcurrents were created in the telegraphnetwork, so great that many wires
sparked and gave telegraph operators
shocks. Were a Carrington-class event
to impact the Earth today, speculation
holds that damage might occur to global
power grids and electronics on a scale
never yet experienced. The featured
aurora was imaged in late August thisyear over Thingvallavatn Lake in Iceland,a lake that partly ﬁlls the fault that
divides Earth’s large Eurasian and North
American tectonic plates.

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This MODIS image of Category-1 hurricane Hermine was acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite on September 2. Beaches thelength of the eastern seaboard were closed for the weekend, even those on New York’s Long Island. A number of Labor Day
events were affected, including Saturday’s Bruce Springsteen concert in Virginia Beach which was rescheduled to the Monday.

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The Group for Earth Observation

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GEO Quarterly No 51

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

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

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

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This is GEO’s own group, where
members can exchange information

The Group for Earth Observationand post queries relating to any aspect
related to weather satellite reception(hardware, software, antennas etc),
Earth observation satellites and any
GEO-related matter.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/GEO-Subscribers/info
Satsignal
An end-user self‑help group for users ofDavid Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools(SatSignal, WXtrack, GeoSatSignal,
HRPT Reader, GroundMap, MSG DataManager, AVHRR Manager and the
ATOVS Reader).
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/SatSignal/info
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat
Second Generation (MSG), where
members share information about the
EUMETCast reception hardware andsoftware.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/MSG-1/info
WXtoImg-l
A forum for users of the WXtoImg
software application for receiving andprocessing imagery from the NOAA
satellite APT signals.
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/wxtoimg-l/info

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

September 2016
Mike Stevens, Dorset, England.
Assistance with reception of
EUMETCast to include Metop-A andMetop-B; also MSG Data reception
and set-up within the PC, assistancewith dish alignment and set-up, andinstallation and set-up of TBS DVB-S2
units.
• email: mikeg4cfz@gmail.com
Guy Martin, Kent, England.
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who
wishing to receive MSG/Metop using
Windows 2000 or XP. Can also help
with networking and ADSL router setup.
•

gmartin@electroweb.co.uk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Submission of Copy

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

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The Group for Earth Observation

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September 2016