Group for Earth Observation

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

38
June 2013
Inside this issue . . .
This issue of GEO
Quarterly is aimed firmly
at newcomers to thehobby—particularly
readers who may besetting up their receiving
system for EUMETCast for
the first time.
Mike Stevens has updated
and expanded the guideto installing EUMETCast
that he originally preparedsome nine years ago, andin addition has penned an
introduction to MSG
DataManager, thesoftware you require toconvert the received files
into satellite images.
Last February’s
spectacular meteor event
over Russia emphasises
the importance ofobserving away from
Earth as well as directly
down upon it. Les
Hamilton has delved
deeply into contemporary
Russian news reports topiece together afascinating illustrated
account of the event.
For readers migrating to
the new Windows 8
operating system, David
Taylor provides somehelpful notes.
There are also articles on
phytoplankton blooms,
Antarctic icebergs, theNorthwest Passage, andice on Lake Erie.

GEO MANAGEMENT TEAM
Director and Public Relations
Francis Bell,
Coturnix House, Rake Lane,
Milford, Godalming, Surrey GU8 5AB,
England.
Tel:
01483 416 897
email: francis@geo-web.org.uk
General Information
John Tellick,email: info@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
Fax:
01509 559 015
Technical Consultant (Hardware)David Simmons
email: tech@geo-web.org.uk
Webmaster and Website Matters
Alan Banks,e-mail: webmaster@geo-web.org.uk
Education Coordinator
David Painteremail: education@geo-web.org.uk
GEO Shop Manager
Nigel Evans (Assistant: David Simmons),
email: shop@geo-web.org.uk
International Liaison
Rob Denton,
email: international@geo-web.org.uk
Clive Finnis
Carol Finnis

Publisher
Published by The Group for Earth
Observation Limited, a company in Englandand Wales, limited by guarantee and nothaving share capital.
The Company Number is 4975597.
The registered office is Coturnix House,
Rake Lane, Milford, Godalming,
Surrey GU8 5AB, England.
Printing
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 © 2013
The contents of this Quarterly remain theintellectual property of the Group for Earth
Observation Limited and its contributors.
Copying of text or images, either from theprinted Quarterly or from any electronicallystored source, is forbidden without
permission from the Editor.

Les Hamilton
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk

Apologies for an error in printing GEO Quarterly 37 which rendered four of the full-colour
pages in a rather insipid monochrome. Since colour was critical for the articles in question,these have all been reprinted in this issue. We hope that this did not detract too badly from yourenjoyment of that issue of our magazine.

R

ecently I had a discussion with Mike Stevens, who noted that there had been considerable
development in the EUMETCast service since he prepared his introductory guide to it inDecember 2004. Would this be a good time to update his material? Bearing in mind that GEO
has welcomed many new members into the fold in the years since, we agreed that an updated
article would be most appropriate and it can be found on page 24. Many GEO readers still
use Windows XP as their operating system of choice for EUMETCast and the current article
describes setting up a EUMETCast PC under Windows XP. But Mike is already working ona follow-up article for our next issue, for the beneﬁt of readers who prefer to make use of theWindows 7 operating system.

L

ast year we were forced to revise subscription costs for GEO Quarterly in the face of
escalating postage charges, particularly for sending the magazines overseas. Realisingthat readers in far corners of the world could be priced out of the market, it was decided at lastDecember’s management meeting to investigate introducing a new subscription category—for
an electronic copy of the Quarterly that readers could download as a PDF document. This has
been implemented since April this year, as can be seen on the Membership Form on page 39.

Possibly the ﬁrst thing you noticed when you received this magazine was that it isuncharacteristically slim: in fact eight pages fewer than ever before. Sadly, the readership
seems to be running out of ideas for publication. Also, at least three members who actuallypromised articles for this issue have failed to provide anything. There are in fact only three
feature items in this issue, one from myself and two from Mike Stevens. It was only through theinclusion of six NASA Earth Observatory reports and six full-page satellite images that even thisdisappointing tally was reached. Remember, this is your magazine. Please be prepared to shareyour experiences and expertise with the readership.

The GEO Shop has been selling the new R2FU APT receiver since late 2012 and I would
have anticipated some member feedback by now—but nothing: not even a solitary APT
image. Hopefully, someone will send me an article reviewing its performance for next issue. It isalso disappointing that there has as yet been no follow-up relating to Rob Alblas’ article on using
a DVB-T USB dongle for APT reception. Surely some of you have tried this out. We would like toknow how you got on. Did you receive reasonable images? Were pagers a problem in the UK? If
so, has anyone been able to develop a means of overcoming pager interference?

I

t’s perhaps too early to state that GEO Quarterly is in crisis. But if there is similar apathy
towards providing content for the September issue, its appearance will be delayed until I havesufﬁcient material, however long that may take. Mike Stevens and I cannot carry GEO Quarterly
forward on our own. We need your help. It would be really terriﬁc to receive enough member
contributions to produce a bumper 56-page September Quarterly. Please think about this.
Masthead photograph: Balquhain Recumbent Stone Circle near Inverurue, Aberdeenshire

Contents
GEO Report
Cover and Full Page Images
Torres del Paine National Park
Chelyabinsk FireballSome Notes on Windows-8
Introduction to MSG DataManager
Icebergs and Sea Ice off the Mawson Coast
Good Morning Vietnam
Quarterly Question
Southern Summer Bloom
A Spring of Contrasting Temperatures
Lake Erie Ice
EUMETCast and MSG Setup
Introducing the New R2FU APT Receiver
Sea Ice Skylights Spur Phytoplankton Blooms
Sea Ice Retreats in the Northwest Passage
Currently active Satellites and their Frequencies
Catalina Eddy
GEO Helplines and Internet Discussion Groups
Copy deadline for the next issue of GEO Quarterly
GEO Membership Application FormGEO Shop Catalogue and Price List

Francis Bell
NASA Earth Observatory
Les Hamilton
David Taylor
Mike Stevens
NASA Earth Observatory
Francis Bell
Francis Bell
Jason Hopkins
NASA Earth Observatory
Keith Fraser
Mike Stevens
Holger Eckert
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory
NASA Earth Observatory

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2013

Francis Bell

There have been two important issues which GEO
management have been discussing over the past few months.
One relates to an electronic format for GEO Quarterly,
the other to foreseeable changes in the EUMETCasttransmissions.
The GEO Quarterly Format
For almost ten years we have been producing our printed
Quarterly, which I think has been universally recognised
as an excellent publication, with credit owing to ourcontributors, the editor and printers. However, althoughprinting costs have remained relatively stable, thedistribution costs have risen so sharply that we decided
to offer an additional or alternative way of distributing
GEO Quarterly.
You can now subscribe to electronic copies of GEO Quarterly,
in PDF format, which you will be able to download on to
your PC. This distribution format minimises printing anddistribution costs and, hopefully, will make he magazine
more affordable to enthusiasts in far reaches of the globe.
You can read full details about this new venture on the GEO
website at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/E_Members.php

It is worth noting that another group to which I belong,
AMSAT-UK, is offering an electronic copy of their publication
for a reduced membership subscription, their rationale being
the same as GEO’s.

an elevation of 10°W, the images I have already received havealways shown cloud cover over east Canada. I will continue
with this project in the hope that a Canadian summer will
reveal details of their coast and land surface.
Rob Denton issued his Farthest West challenge on page 33
of last December’s Quarterly. The competition was due toclose in late April, but, as no entries have yet been received,
it will remain open over the summer. Perhaps the dire winterweather coupled with poor channel-2 illumination levels
accounted for this. Do please take up Rob’s challenge overthe summer and send entries either to Rob or the Editor. The
most interesting entries will be printed in future issues of
GEO Quarterly.
Kempton Rally
The Kempton Radio and Electronics Rally last April
represented a busy day for GEO, with many rally visitors
taking an interest in our stand and the information we
had to offer. As well as our own information, and literature
relating to home reception of weather satellites, we also
had some literature from EUMETSAT on our stand, where
we were running three computer demonstrations showing
geostationary and polar orbiting satellite images together withbrief examples of how to process the raw data.

But for readers who would hate to see the demise of theprinted copy, that subscription option does of course
continue.
The EUMETCast Service
Another major issue which we are following closely
concerns the potential technical changes to the EUMETCasttransmissions. For some years now, regular users of thisservice have anticipated some changes because of the steadily
increasing amount of data being disseminated. Apparently,
this has now reached the point where the single transponder
on Eutelsat 9A will soon be saturated—meaning that changes
are inevitable. My understanding is that EUMETSAT haveannounced that they will maintain the present service until
January 2015, but overlapping with this there will be a
new service starting in August 2014. The new service will
require a DVB-S2 receiver which supports VCM mode. Someof our knowledgeable technical members are in touch withEUMETSAT regarding these changes, and I too am trying toestablish a source for a suitable receiver for this new service.
Our highest priority over the coming year will be to keep our
membership informed of changes to the EUMETCast service.
APT Reception
Recently, I have been taking a renewed interest in NOAA 15
APT reception because of its late afternoon pass over thewestern Atlantic. I have in mind obtaining an image ofGreenland and eastern Canada via NOAA 15 from myhome in Surrey so that I may make a submission for GEO’s
Farthest West image competition. So far I have been a little
frustrated because, although I can receive NOAA 15 below

2

The GEO stand at Kempton showing David Simmons talking about the
FUNcube Dongle Pro+ to some of our knowledgeable visitors.

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June 2013

The Group for Earth Observation

In addition to seeing some familiar faces wewere able to talk to many new visitors, some ofwhom expressed so much enthusiasm for theirown weather satellite reception stations that I
feel sure some of them will take up the hobby
for themselves.
Two visitors were particularly memorable.
One turned out to be an expert with the
new FUNcube Dongle Pro+, who explained
his experiences plus its potential use for
APT reception. The FUNcube Dongle Pro+ is
effectively a radio receiver capable of receiving
frequencies in the ranges 150-240 MHz and
420 MHz - 1.9 GHz, which plugs into a USB
port in a suitable computer. For details of thissmall piece of hardware visit
www.hamradio.co.uk

and go to the Software Defined Radio section:then click the AMSAT-UK logo. This dongle ismarketed by Martin Lynch & Sons Tel: 0345
2300 599.
If any GEO member has additional
experience of using the FUNcube
Dongle Pro+ dongle for APT or other
weather satellite applications wewould love to hear from you.
Another visitor who particularly impressed me
was an elderly gentleman with a technical andelectronic background in the RAF. It turned
out that he was one of the first persons in theworld to receive live signals from Sputnik-1
in October 1957. I thought the launch of thisfirst man-made satellite was a secret until
after its launch: but apparently not, as somedetails about the satellite and its frequencies
had been released by the Russians prior tolaunch.
Our visitor had spotted these and alerted thedisbelieving UK authorities. Consequently, he
was able to have his own receiver ready forwhen the satellite was in orbit and listened
to the signals during the Sputnik’s 22 daysof operation. I will keep in touch with thisgentleman because he has some historicalreceiving and image display equipment which
he would like to donate to a museum. I will try
to help him progress this worthy project.
My thanks to David Simmons for manning
the GEO stand with me all day and offering
technical information relating to visitors’enquiries.
Meetings
My recent planned visit to the National
Oceanographic Centre’s Open Day, which
was advertised on our website, unfortunately
did not materialise. Snow and road traffic
accidents prevented me from attending thisyear. However, there is to be another OpenDay next year which I will advertise to ourmembership, and I sincerely hope I will be able
to be there myself.
This year there have been frustrations intrying to arrange our own GEO meeting
and, because of the busy summer of othermeetings, GEO may not hold its own event
this year, relying on contacts at other events

Front CoverDavid Taylor spotted this exciting Aqua
MODIS image of the UK, acquired on
February 19 this year. An area of highpressure reveals almost the entire
British Isles, with snow prominent on
Scotland’s Cairngorms.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Inside Front CoverMike Stevens is always on the lookout for interesting images from farflung corners of the planet. In thisMetop-A image there is a wonderfulshot of the Gulf of St Lawrence and
Newfoundland in the grip of winter.
Thick ice lines the southern coast of
Northumberland Strait to the south ofPrince Edward Island.
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

Inside Back CoverTwo images submitted by GEO
readers: a fine early Meteosat-10
image from Mike Stevens (top) and acomposite NOAA-18 APT image from
André T’Kindt.
Back CoverThis Terra MODIS image from March
9, 2012 shows almost the whole of
Scandinavia embraced in a cloak ofsnow and ice. Only Denmark has
escaped winter’s grip.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 5This channel-2 MODIS image fromNASA’s Terra satellite shows turbulent
Arctic weather across the Greenland
and Norwegian seas. The Svalbard
archipelago, including Bear Island,shows well at upper left and Jan
Mayen Island is clearly visible at lower
left. Cloud streets march southwardfrom the Arctic ice sheet and a
succession of comma storm cloudformations bridges the Norwegian Sea
Image: NASA/GSFC/LAADSPage 17
This Aqua MODIS image acquired on
the afternoon of April 19, 2013 shows
fascinating cloud activity surrounding
the islands of the Republic of Cape
Verde.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 19
This year’s late winter wasn’t confinedto Europe. North America also endured
freezing conditions well into springas this March 29 image of the Great
Lakes and eastern seaboard fromNASA’s Aqua satellite makes clear.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 20
These are the two illustrations that—
due to a printing error—failed to

GEO Quarterly No 38

reproduce correctly on page 12 of
GEO Quarterly No 37.
Page 21
This is a Terra MODIS image of thenorth Atlantic acquired on March 30,
2013. The image shows a wealthof cloud detail: a Polar Low and a
Comma system lurk just south of
Svalbard, while a large Arctic Cyclone
fills the Greenland Basin. Highpressure holds firm over Scandinavia,
drawing icy winds and snow showers
across Britain and the Low Countries.
Image: LANCE-MODIS/NASA/GSFC

Page 33
This image come from the same Terra
MODIS pass as the colour composite
on page 21, but this is a segmentfrom the full resolution, 250 m/pixel
channel-2 image, downloaded from the
LAADS website, and processed using
David Taylor’s L1 Viewer software.
Just look at the amazing detail over
Iceland, and the swirls of brash ice
looping around the inlets along thecoastline of southern Greenland.
Image: NASA/GSFC/LAADS Web

Page 35
This cloud-free image of Scandinavia
submitted by David Taylor was
captured by Metop-B on March 9,
the same date as the Terra image
on the back cover. David remarked:“I noticed the clarity of Scandinavia
from my NOAA-19 APT image andwondered whether I might have ahigher resolution pass from one of
the EUMETCast services. I wanted
the morning pass so that the majorityof Norway was near the centre-lineof the scene, and thus in the higher
resolution part of the image. Checking
Metop-A, I found that Norway wasnearer the edge of the image than I
would have liked, then rememberedthat Metop-B follows the same track,
but about half an orbit behind. This
meant that it would be about 11° westof the Metop-A pass. The result was
this image, that was much better
centred.
“This is of course a false-colour image,where the brightness of the scene
is derived from the 0.8 µm visible
channel and its colour from the 10 µm
thermal channel. The relatively neutral
colours indicate temperatures aroundzero degrees Celsius. The MODIS
image on the cover is derived fromthree channels, one for each of thered, green and blue components of theimage. The greater number of visible
waveband channels captured by the
Terra satellite thereby results in a morenaturally coloured image.”
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

continued on page 16

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

A NASA Earth Observatory Report
Grinding glaciers andgranite peaks mingle insouthern Chile’s Torres delPaine National Park. The
Advanced Land Imager(ALI) on NASA’s Earth
Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite
captured this summertime
image showing a portionof the park, including the
Cordillera del Paine range
and Grey Glacier, onJanuary 21, 2013. The riversof glacial ice in the Park
grind over bedrock, turningsome of it into dust. Manyof the glaciers terminate in
freshwater lakes, which arerich with this glacial flour,
which colours them brownto turquoise. Narrow rivers
connect some of the lakes toeach other.
The compact Cordillera delPaine mountain range is
a combination of soaring
peaks and small glaciers,
most notably Torres delPaine, a group of threeclosely spaced peaks
emblematic of the mountain
range and the larger park.
Compared with the Rocky
Mountains (70 million years)
and the Appalachians(about 480 million years),
the Cordillera del Paine isgeologically very young, only
about 12 million years old.
A study published in 2008
described how scientists
used zircon crystals
to estimate the age of
Cordillera del Paine [1]. The
authors concluded that themountain range had been
built in three pulses, creatinga granite laccolith, or domeshaped feature, more than
2,000 metres thick.
Reference
1 Michel, Baumgartner, et. al.
Incremental growth of thePatagonian Torres delPaine laccolith over 90 k.y.
Geology, 36(6), 459–462(2008).
NASA Earth Observatory image
created by Jesse Allen and RobertSimmon, using Advanced Land Imager
data from the NASA EO-1 team.
Caption by Michon Scott.

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The Group for Earth Observation

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GEO Quarterly No 38

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2013

Les Hamilton
It was just like any other Friday morningin Chelyabinsk, a Russian city of overa million inhabitants, situated in thesouthern Urals some 1500 kilometres
east of Moscow. Workers were in theiroffices, children were at school andshoppers in the streets. But at 9.20 local
time on the morning of February 15,
2013, everything changed. This was toprove to be an experience that none of
the city’s residents would ever forget.
This was the day of Earth’s most
massive cosmic invader since theTunguska event of 1908. It produced
a fireball that seared across the skies,
trailing a spectacular vapour trail in
its wake (figures 4-7), before finallyexploding into fragments that produced
meteor showers over a wide area. Its
totally unexpected arrival brought trafficin Chelyabinsk to a standstill as thefireball exploded almost directly above
the city, briefly rendering the dawnbrighter than midday sunshine. Alerted
by the flash, people rushed to windows
and out into the streets to view thedisplay. Two and a half minutes later, aseries of violent sonic booms rent theair, shattering windows, setting off car
alarms and triggering security systems
that temporarily disconnected the city’s
gas supply and central heating systems.
There was widespread panic andconfusion. Over 1500 people sufferedinjuries, nearly all from flying glass.
Some Chelyabinsk residents reported
that the air smelled like gunpowder
following the explosion. Many felt theheat from the explosion on their faces.
Eye-witness statements painted a vivid
picture of the event:• “I glanced up and saw a glowing dot in
the west, which got bigger and bigger,
like a soccer ball, until it became
blindingly white.”• “It was like a train falling down from thesky.”• “There was panic. People had no idea
what was happening. Everyone wasgoing around to people’s houses tocheck if they were okay.”• “We saw a big burst of light, then went
outside to see what it was and weheard a really loud thundering sound.”

The trail from the Chelyabinsk meteor
was imaged by both Meteosat-9 andMeteosat-10. By great good fortune,
one of the United States DMSP polar
orbiting satellites was also well placed
to image the event. The flight of themeteor across the Urals was marked bya ball of fire flying roughly from northeast to south-west. At the extremity of
its range, Meteosat-10 caught a hint themeteor’s glowing trail in an HRV image
just as it crossed Earth’s limb (figure 1).
Meteosat-9 located at 9.5°E was better
placed to observe the event, althoughreaders are unlikely to have noticed
because the RSS images disseminatedvia EUMETCast are ‘rectified’ to 0.0°.
We are grateful to Simon Proud and the
University of Copenhagen for making
figure 2—derived from the original
Level-1 data—available to GEO. The
DMSP satellite, flying close to theterminator, obtained a more extended
infrared image of the meteor (figure 3).
The map (figure 14) shows the pathtaken by the meteor as it crossed theUrals and approached Chelyabinsk.
Though widely described as a meteor,
NASA later established that the fireballwas in fact due to a small member of theApollo family of near-Earth asteroids,
all of which cross Earth’s orbit on their
way to perihelion. NASA estimated it tomeasure 17 metres across and have amass of almost 10 000 tonnes. The bodyentered Earth’s atmosphere at a shallow,
grazing angle with a velocity of aroundof 64 000 kilometres per hour. Its fireballcreated a vapour trail across the sky forfully half a minute before it disintegrated
with a spectacular explosion that
outshone the midday sun (figures 5, 6).
The trail stretched for 480 kilometresacross the heavens (figure 7) and theenergy released during its passage
through the atmosphere—in which themeteor was completely destroyed—was
estimated to be nearly 500 kilotonnes.
By comparison, the nuclear bomb
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 released
an estimated 15 kilotonnes of energy.
Initially, it was uncertain whether the
event had been due to a single large
body or a swarm of many smaller ones.

Figure 1 - A Meteosat-10 HRV SEVIRI image shows
the meteor trail just crossing Earth’s limb.
Processing: Simon Proud/University of Copenhagen
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

Figure 2 - Meteosat-9 viewed the Russian meteor
from 9.5°E, providing a much better view.
Processing: Simon Proud/University of Copenhagen
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

Figure 3 - The meteor trail shows well inthis DMSP infrared image

Image: CSU / CIRA / Colorado State University

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The Group for Earth Observation

Figure 4 - A dash-cam view of the fireball from Kamensk-Uralsky.
Dasgcam Video: Aleksandr Ivanov

Figure 5 - Seconds later, the explosion - brighter than the sun.
Dashcam Video: Aleksandr Ivanov

Figure 6 - The fireball was seen from Kostanay in neighbouring Kazakhstan.
Dashcam Video: Roman Belchenko

GEO Quarterly No 38

Figure 7 - The meteor trail across the dawn sky above Chelyabinsk.
Photo: Lenta.ru / @Maxwell_ru

Figure 8 - A school with many of its windows
blown in.

Figure 9 - The Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant with half its
roof missing and its wall collapsed.

Figure 10 - Children being evacuated froma school in Chelyabinsk.

Figure 11 - An office window blown in by the blast.

Figure 12 - The hole in the ice where a meteorfragment entered Lake Chebarkul.

Figure 13 - One of the Chebarkul Lake meteorites.

Photo Lenta.ru / @KozzyKoder

Lenta.ru / Althathwe Leprosorium

Photo A Pospel / Wikimedia

Photo: Miass / Wikimedia

Photo: Denis Panteleev

Photo Chelyabinsk Region Police Department

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2013

But Russia’s national space agency, Roscosmos, soon confirmedthat the event was caused by a single body which burned up as
it traversed the atmosphere, disintegrating into smaller pieces.
Roscosmos estimated that the meteor had been moving at a speedof 18 kilometres per second.

The Chelyabinsk authorities announced that they would pay
compensation to victims of the blast, including free replacementof windows. Those requesting outpatient treatment for injury could
receive sums as high as 5 000 (roubles) if they suffered actual
bodily harm, and up to ten times this figure for serious injury.

The flash of the explosion lasted for about five seconds, andthe three loud sonic booms (the first the most powerful) that
followed created shock waves that blew in windows and damaged
thousands of buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk (figures 8,
9, 10, 11). The actual altitude of the meteor remains uncertain:
an early estimate claimed that the explosion took place between
60-70 kilometres above ground but later measurements fromthe other side of the city suggested around half that figure.

Part of a wall of the important Chelyabinsk Zinc Plant was knocked
down and almost half of its roof was blown off (figure 9). The Zinc
Plant is a fully integrated company which mines and processes ore
into refined zinc and zinc alloys. It boasts market shares of 60%
within Russia and 2% globally.
A number of major sporting facilities were badly damaged by theblast, and were closed pending repairs. Hardest hit was the Ural
Lightning ice skating arena which was partially destroyed after
two major supporting cross-beams in the roof crashed to theground (figure 19). Damage repairs are likely to cost as muchas 200 million and it is not known when the arena will reopen.
So severe was the meteor’s shock wave that only the north wall
remained sound as the pressure from the explosion forced the
supporting frameworks of all the other walls out of alignment.
These walls will certainly have to be strengthened, and the possibly
remains that they may have to be largely rebuilt. At the time of themeteor explosion, about 100 children were skating in the arena.
Fortunately, none of them was hurt and the building was completely
evacuated within five minutes.
Also damaged was the Traktor Sports Palace, an ice hockey
stadium, though repairs were expected to be completed within aweek. The recently renovated swimming pool and the Olympic
Judo Training Centre both lost almost all their windows and facerespective repair bills of 15 million and 2 million roubles. In total,
it has been estimated that the full cost of repairs throughout the
Chelyabinsk region will be at least one billion roubles, equivalent toabout $US33 million.

Figure 14 - The path of the Chelyabinsk meteor over the southern Urals.

The final consensus was that the explosion occurred between
25 and 30 kilometres above Chelyabinsk. Certainly, many
eyewitnesses saw the explosion hundreds of kilometres from its
epicentre, some hearing the booms more than five minutes after
the flash. The fireball was even viewed in Orenburg, 770 kilometresfrom Chelyabinsk.
Consequences
It was fortunate indeed that the Chelyabinsk meteor made only
a grazing entry into Earth’s atmosphere. The consequences,
should such a massive body have reached the ground, arealmost unthinkable: one estimate was that an area of 200 square
kilometres would be totally devastated. Even so, the final tally ofdamage to property and human injuries resulting from the meteor
was without parallel in recorded history.
The meteor’s explosion created sonic shock waves and showered
debris over a large area of the region. In total, 1,586 people, 324
of them children, were injured, most by flying glass and debris:but there were no reports of anyone actually being hit directly bymeteoritic debris. Although two thirds of the injuries were classified
as ‘slight’, 63 individuals were detained in hospital, 25 of themfor a week or more before being discharged. At the Chelyabinsk
Tube Rolling Plant, several people suffered broken bones andhead injuries from falling beams. One 52 year old woman who
was thrown from a ladder suffered a spinal injury and was airliftedto Moscow for treatment. She was discharged three weeks laterand returned home by train. Although an ambulance was sent tomeet her at the station, she declined its assistance and went homeherself.
On the property front, almost 7000 apartments and family homes
suffered broken windows and blown-in window frames, as well
as 740 educational institutions, 290 hospitals and clinics, and69 cultural facilities. It was estimated that a total of 200 000 m2
of glass would have to be replaced. By March 5, glazing was fully
restored in 98% of the affected buildings, including 99% of homes.

Immediately following the meteor, Chelyabinsk authorities assessed
the damage it caused and discovered that almost all the broken
windows were in the city itself. With a midday temperature of-12°C expected to fall to -17°C overnight, repairs were very mucha priority, and more than 24,000 people, many of them volunteers,
were mobilised that very afternoon from throughout the region tostart covering windows, gathering warm clothes and food, andparticipating in other relief efforts. Crews from glass companies inadjacent regions were also flown in, and 585 teams were deployedon the immediate task of simply covering shattered residential
windows with plastic sheeting or wooden boards.
The following day, with the temperature at -18°C and much of
Chelyabinsk’s gas supply cut off, it was decided to close all schools
and kindergartens for the following Monday and Tuesday.
Meteorite Finds
Close to the town of Chebarkul, 80 kilometres west of Chelyabinsk
city, local fishermen broke the news that an eight metre wide hole
had suddenly appeared in the frozen surface of Chebarkul Lake. As
this lake always remains completely frozen over between November
and March, the conclusion was that a large fragment from themeteor must have landed there (figure 12).

Figure 15 - A slice from one of the Chebarkul Lake meteorites.
Photo - Mikhail Nazarov

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Figure 18 - Searching Cherbakul Lake for Meteorites.
Photo © The Central Military District press service

Figure 16 - Pieces of the Chelyabinsk meteor seen in a laboratory
in Yekaterinburg. Black shock veins are visible in thebroken specimen in the background.
Credit: The Urals Federal University Press Service / Alexander Khlopotov

A party of six divers scoured the bottom of the lake the following
day searching for fragments of the meteor, but found nothing due
to the murkiness of the water. However, three days later, a moredetermined search of the surrounding ice by scientists (figure 18)
found 53 meteorite fragments, which were delivered to the Ural
Federal University in Yekaterinburg for analysis (figures 13, 15,16). The largest fragment found by the end of February (1.8 kg)
was discovered by Maria Penkova, a 24 year-old student fromYekaterinburg (figure 17). Maria found the meteorite quite bychance while she was participating in a search expedition. Thirty
students in all, led by a team of experts, were searching along themeteor’s path in the neighbourhood of the village of Emanzhelinka
when Maria spotted a large tunnel in the snow: and there was themeteorite at the end of it [1].

Figure 19 - Damage to the interior of the Ural Lightning arena.
Photo: Ria Novosti

chrysolite—all common materials found in stony meteorites—were
definitely of extra-terrestial origin. The Laboratory of Meteoritics atthe Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistryin Moscow determined that the fragments showed evidence of anancient cosmic collision, and were 4.5 billion years old.
It is believed that a much larger fragment, perhaps half a metre
across and with a mass of up to half a tonne, created the hole in
the ice and remains to be discovered beneath the bed of Chebarkul
Lake. It is planned to resume the search of the lake bed in earlysummer once all the snow and ice have dispersed.
Aeroplane Near MissAt the same time as the meteor exploded, a Tatarstan Airlines
Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft was making its landing approachto Chelyabinsk Airport, a few kilometres north of the city.
Crew commander Alexander Arkhipov explained how they had
experienced a sudden ‘bright glow’ to the right of the plane thenwatched as three huge glowing chunks of the meteor went flying
past. And copilot Sergei Kotov told how the heat from the cosmic
body burned his face. Crew members agreed that it was a miracle
that they escaped unhurt.

Figure 17 - The 1.8 kg meteorite fragment found by Maria Penkova
Photo: Maria Penkova/Pravda

Over the following weeks, many more fragments were found andover a hundred were sent to Moscow for further study. There, it
was established that the fragments were mainly of stone with anickel-iron content of just under 10%, which belonged to the mostcommon class of chondrites (stony meteorites). The fragments,
most less than a centimetre in size, contained a mix of minerals,
including olivine, pyroxene, troilite, kamacite and magnesium-richInfrasound Detection
A testament to the power of the Chelyabinsk meteor explosion
comes from the fact that infrasound waves from it were picked up
at 03:22 UT by more than a third of the Comprehensive NuclearTest-Ban Treaty Organisation’s International Monitoring System’s
stations. These facilities are designed to track nuclear blasts
across the planet through the infrasound that they generate. These
low-frequency sound waves, inaudible to the human ear, werefirst picked up at the Qaanaaq infrasound station in Greenland.
Infrasound waves can travel across continents and are detected
through the micropressure changes in the atmosphere that
Continued overleaf

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they generate. It was this data that confirmedthat the meteoroid spent 32.5 seconds travellingthrough the atmosphere before it disintegrated.
The Dashboard Camera Phenomenon
It may come as a surprise that such an
unexpected occurrence as a meteor fireball, whichlasted under half a minute, should have been
extensively documented on video [2]. A search on
YouTube will throw up dozens of videos showing
the meteor trail and recording the fireball and thesonic booms. A clue to this can be found from thefact that so many of these videos were shot fromwithin motor vehicles.
In Russia there is a growing trend among
motorists to mount ‘dashboard’ cameras in theircars. These are small video cameras, which areattached to the dashboard or rear-view mirror ofa road vehicle in order to film oncoming traffic
and the road ahead. They are immensely popularin Russia because of motorists’ fears about thecorruption, violence and insurance fraud schemesthat make driving in their country a nightmare.
Fitted in vehicles mainly for insurance purposes,
the cameras store video images on a hard driveand have provided essential evidence in manysuccessful claims following traffic disputes. Many
drivers have their dashboard cameras running all
the time they are on the road and, though it waspure happenstance that the meteor figured in somany videos, it is less surprising knowing theforegoing.
This rare and spectacular phenomenon was
captured on video by numerous witnesses. Two of
the best fireball videos (figures 5, 6) are found atthese URLs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl_RknL9G-Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6J2iniSGKI

In the aftermath of the explosion, residentsof the Chelyabinsk, Tyumen, Sverdlovsk andKurgan regions of Russia, as well as northwest
Kazakhstan, continued to experience what their
media termed ‘meteor rain’, as fragments from thefireball continued to burn up in the atmosphere.
In many of the YouTube videos of the event,
this creates a background noise similar to rapid,
distant gunfire which persists for some time
following the main explosion.
Sources
Most of the information in this article has beengleaned from translations of contemporary
Russian news sources. Among these, thefollowing feature most prominently:
Gazeta News
Lenta-RU
Voice of Russia
Wikipedia
Pravda-http://www.gazeta.ru/
http://lenta.ru/news/
http://rus.ruvr.ru
http://ru.wikipedia.org/
http://www.kp.ru/

Useful References
1 Pravda

http://www.kp.ru/daily/26037/2952726/

2 Alexander Zaytsev’s Meteor Web Page
http://say26.com/meteorite-in-russia-all-videos-inone-place
3 Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Russian_meteor_
event
4 Meteorite hits Russian Urals
http://rt.com/news/meteorite-crash-uralschelyabinsk-283/

10David Taylor
Windows-8 is, in many respects,
Windows-7 with a new userinterface (UI), so if you are happy
with Windows-7, you can stop
reading now: there’s no need to
upgrade a working Windows-7
PC. Equally, should you have a
Windows-8 PC forced upon you,either through an upgrade or a
new purchase, and you don’t likethe new UI, then a simple solution
may be just to install a replacement
shell such as Classic Shell, which is
free and which can be downloadedfrom
http://www.classicshell.net/

This note is primarily concerned
about running EUMETCast on
Windows-8, and covers three areas:
hardware, drivers and software.
Hardware
The DVB World receiver stocked by
the GEO Shop continues to work on
Windows-8. Unfortunately, someof the hardware supplied by othermanufacturers isn’t supported: forexample, my own TechniSat USB
2 box. It seems that TechniSat will
not be providing Windows-8 drivers
for some of their devices, so checkfirst before making a purchase.
If necessary, you could swap toan external DVB World USB box
should your internal card no longer
be supported.
My own tests have shown thatconnecting via a USB 3.0 port may
cause more missed packets thanconnecting via a USB 2.0 port, so
be prepared to try different ports if
necessary.
Drivers
If you are running the 32-bit
version of Windows-8, just installthe default drivers.
If you are running the 64-bit
version of Windows-8, be sure to
use the drivers and DVB Worldsoftware provided on the GEO CD
which comes with the DVB Worldbox. There is more information on
my Web site at
http://www.satsignal.eu/wxsat/Dexatek/
Dexatek.html#64-bit

SoftwareI installed from a EUMETSAT 5.8
CD which contains full instructions
as a set of PDF files, as well as
many of the programs and drivers

www.geo-web.org.uk

you need, so I won’t waste spaceby reproducing their material here.
I would suggest the following,
though.
• Leave UAC (User Authorisation
Control) on at its default
settings.
• Don’t install the main
programs to the \Program
Files\directory. There are
restrictions on that directory(and have been since Windows
Vista) which make it awkward
to edit files there.
Instead,• Create a new directory C:\
Tools\• Set that directory security to:Everyone, Full Control• Install the DVB World software
to C:\Tools\DVB-World\• Install the TelliCast software to
C:\Tools\EUMETCast\• Install the eToken software to
the default directory• Install SatSignal software to
C:\Tools\SatSignal\
As there are no user-editable files
with the eToken software, you cantake the default install directory forthat program.
You may find that the program
TheaterMgr.exe takes an excessof CPU or Virtual Memory. If it’sa problem, stop the DVB World
program, rename TheaterMgr.exe to
TheaterMgr.hidden.exe, and restart
DVB World.
Caveat
It is clear that everyone does notshare my experiences, and Ian
Deans contacted me to state:“Your experience with Windows-8
is completely different from mine.
I cannot get my Dexatek box (with
DVBWorld drivers 2007/8) to workwith Windows-8 64-bit despite
having spent hours trying. On
the other hand, my Technisat
USB HD box is working a treat
on Windows-8 64-bit, using 4.6.0
drivers and software (even better
than it did on Windows-7 64-bit).
“On Windows-7 64-bit I had few
losses but quite a high numberof missed and recovered packets.
But these are reduced to zero with
Windows-8, with the exception of
those instigated at the EUMETSAT
end. All these results are from thesame computer.”June 2013

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 38

Mike Stevens

Figure 1 - A northern hemisphere image from March 29, 2013 displayed in MSG DataManager
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

I have done many things within my hobby of Amateur Radio since
first being licensed back in 1978. I ‘worked’ Pitcairn Island in the
Pacific, the Falkland Islands just prior to Invasion, and also Australia
and New Zealand. But when I discovered that it was possible toreceive pictures of our planet via weather satellites, I sidesteppedslightly within the hobby to take up what became a fantastic newchallenge. And one software program in particular that, for me, stoodout from all the others was David Taylor’s MSG Data Manager.
MSG is an acronym for Meteosat Second Generation, a family of
Geostationary weather satellites. The current ones are Meteosat-10(MSG-3) and Meteosat-9 (MSG-2). The former is used for full Earthscanning and produces full disc images like the one on page 33;
Meteosat-9 provides the Rapid Scan Service (RSS) over Europe,and is used primarily for the compilation of high-resolution weather
movies. Imagery from both these satellites can be decoded using
MSG Data Manager.

‘msg-data-manager.2.6.9.zip’. In addition, if you haven’t alreadybeen using any of David Taylor’s software, you will also need to
install his Runtime Library Bundle which can be downloaded fromhttp://www.satsignal.eu/software/runtimes-setup.100.zip

Unzip the MSG DataManager archive and extract the actual
installation file, named ‘msgdatamanager-setup.exe’ (recognisableby its small MSG satellite icon). Follow the same steps with theruntimes bundle access the ‘runtimes-setup.exe’ file. Double-click
this now to install all its contents.

First, of course, you need to be receiving data via EUMETCasttransmissions (see page 29). And if you do not yet have
MSG DataManager installed, visit David Taylor’s website
http://www.satsignal.eu/software/msg_dm.htm

where, in the section ‘What is the MSG Data Manager?’, you will find thelink ‘Download the MSG Data Manager’. Note that this program is free todownload and comes with a 30-day free-trial period which allows
you plenty of time to evaluate it. This same page also provides full
explanations of the software and what it is intended for.
I would suggest saving the downloaded file within your Downloads
folder. This file is a zip archive with a filename such as

www.geo-web.org.uk

Figure 2 - The ‘Accept the Agreement’ screen

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Figure 3 - This is a close-up showing the clouds streaming across the North Sea towards the British Isles on March 28, 2013
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

Figure 4 - This is a wider view showing high pressure holding sway over Scandinavia and keeping an Atlantic depression at bay on March 28, 2013
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Next, double-click on ‘msgdatamanager-setup.exe’, to bring up
the program’s setup screen and click Next to start the installation
process. By default, the software installs into a folder called Tools
on your C:\drive, just above the Windows folder. Its full path is Tools\
Satsignal\MsgDataManager\.
The next screen you see will be the License Agreement (figure 2)
where you must tick the box, ‘I accept the Agreement’ before
clicking Next to continue. This leads on to a screen where you will
be asked to select the Destination Location. This actually shows thepath described above, so just click on Next to go on to the nextstage, which asks you to select the Start Menu Folder.
Again, it’s all set in place for you, so click Next once more toproceed to the Additional Tasks screen where I recommend thatyou tick the box which ensures you will have a shortcut icon forthe program on your desktop. Click Next, Install and Finish on thesubsequent screens, and the job is complete. I strongly recommendthat the check-box on this final screen is ticked so that you canlook into the ReadMe file, and if necessary print it off for futurereference.
Preparing the program for Decoding
When you run MSG DataManager for the first time you will see theregistration reminder panel (figure 5), unless of course you havealready purchased a full licence from David Taylor.

Figure 6 - Setting the ‘Received’ files location

Figure 5 - The registration reminder panel

If, like most first-time users, you opt to take advantage of the
30-day trial period, there is a six second countdown before thispanel closes and MSG DataManager Starts running. Now you areready to set-up the software to decode the incoming EUMETCast
data to get those fantastic pictures.
Go to Setup tab (figure 6), then its Options tab. Your first task is to
set the correct folders for your received Tellicast files, raw data andprocessed images. If you have set up your system for EUMETCast
in accordance with my article on page 28, the Tellicast Received files
location will be
C:\Program Files\T-Systems\Business-TV-IP\received

as shown in figure 6 opposite (and also in figure 11 on page 34).
Use the Browse button to locate this folder, highlight it with themouse, then click on click OK in the Browse window to confirm yourselection and the received location will show in the box. As far as
the folders for the raw data and processed images are concerned, thedefault folders shown in figure 6 are automatically created for you
by MSG DataManager, and I recommend that you use them.

Figure 7 - The channel selection screen

to receive when you registered with EUMETCast. I am just going topoint you towards the most popular ones and leave the rest for you
to decide.

You will notice that a lot of the small boxes on the Setup screen are
already ticked for you, while others are left for you to decide what
you want the software to do. Let’s examine a few options:

The first tab, MSG-HRIT, is the most popular one; tick all the boxes
and set all the retention boxes to one day. In the FSD tab (Foreign
Satellite Data), tick all the Process channel boxes, but in the
Ch.11 data (CMA) panel, just tick the FDI-visible box to start with. You
can try others later. Tick the Manage CMA data and the Unzip CMA data
boxes.

In the Detail Image Auto-save panel, you might want to tick ‘Save only
visible part’ and set the number of days for data retention (before
the program automatically deletes them).

Selections from the MPEF, MDD and SAF tabs will be at yourdiscretion, if you are receiving those data: probably best to leavethese all unchecked till you become more familiar with the program.

In the Program controls panel are several more choices. The ones
that I have ticked are: ‘Announce Events’, ‘Enable Screen Saver’,‘Notify Scan End’, ‘Persistent Images’ and ‘Skip Data Before Today’
But of course, the choice is entirely yours..

Finally, there are the ‘Other’ tabs for more specialised data types.
Again, these are probably best left until you decide to expand yourdata horizons. One possible exception is in the Other-2 tab, where
you may wish to tick the top box in the MODIS L1/L2 data panel if you
are interested in images from these satellites.

In the RX disk space control, tick the ‘RX space monitor’ box and set‘Auto-clean minutes’ to 20, a good time to try for a start. Program auto
restart I leave as it is, and I set RX watchdog to 3 minutes. I’ll leave
the Visible data limits settings to your own discretion.
Now open the Channel Selection tab (figure 7). Most of the selections
within this section will be dependent on which data types you opted

I am not going into depth on the other boxes as David Taylor’s
excellent website explains everything in much more detail for thoseof you who require more in-depth information.
One final tab is revealed by clicking the Advanced button in thebottom right hand corner of the screen. This provides a large
continued on page 36

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June 2013

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

As the southern hemisphere summer drew to a close, sea ice
and icebergs floated along the Mawson Coast of East Antarctica.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on
March 15, 2013. As MODIS acquired this image, a cold wind was
blowing off the Amery Ice Shelf, freezing ocean water and creating
streamers off the ice shelf edge—a recurring event in this region.
Easily pushed by winds and currents, this new, thin ice formed
intricate patterns on the sea surface.
Icebergs of varying sizes and ages also floated along the coast.
The biggest was B-15T, a remnant of a much larger iceberg thatformed long ago and far away from the Mawson Coast. B-15 [1]calved off the Ross Ice Shelf, nearly halfway around the continent,
in March 2000.

14

Ice shelves are thick slabs of ice attached to the coastline. Multiple
ice shelves occur along the Antarctic Coast, and chunks are
regularly breaking off into icebergs that get caught in the ocean
currents and circle the continent for years, as Iceberg B-15T has
done.
But some icebergs escape those currents and drift northward into
warmer waters. Another remnant of B-15, Iceberg B-15J, drifted
north and broke into much smaller pieces in December 2011 andJanuary 2012.

Reference
1 B15-A Iceberg blocks McMurdo Sound - GEOQ 5, page 27 (2005)

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The Group for Earth Observation

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Francis BellGEO membership tends to be concentrated in the UK and Europe
but we also have members in the USA and spread throughout
the rest of the world. My own travels sometimes take me to someof these distant countries and, where reasonably possible, I liketo take my weather satellite interests with me. My mobile APT
station has been successfully operated in Europe, North and SouthAmerica, Africa, Asia and on board ships in the Atlantic and Indian
oceans.
During one of my trips to the west coast of the USA, I arranged
to meet up with Ed Murashie, a GEO member who is very activewith satellite reception and who has been a regular contributor to
GEO Quarterly. I was staying in a hotel about 30 miles from Ed’shome so the opportunity to meet up was too good to miss. I spent adelightful evening with Ed and his partner discussing GEO, weather
satellite reception in America, and other unrelated matters.
In February this year my travels dispatched Nadine and myself toVietnam and Cambodia. Distant though it may be, Vietnam has
one GEO member. About two years ago, Fred van den Bosch andhis wife Minh moved there from the Netherlands. I have known
Fred for about ten years and he has visited our home in the UK
in addition to being a delegate at several of our annual meetings
at Leicester and Guildford. I have also met Fred in Utrecht when I
have attended Werkgroep Kunstmanen meetings.

(figure1)—and Fred lives in a rural village. However, knowing how
resourceful Fred is, I expect his communication links were part ofthe planning before moving to Vietnam from the Netherlands.
What Fred does not have is the equivalent of the EUMETCast
service which we enjoy in Europe. I didn’t have time to discusswith him the possible reception of geostationary satellites at his
home. I believe Vietnam is within range of Meteosat-7’s Indian
Ocean Data Coverage transmissions, but I don’t know if user
services are transmitted from this satellite, or if they are relayed via
a commercial communications satellite. Perhaps a member livingin that part of the world would let me or the editor know via a brief
article which we could publish.
Finally, my thanks to Fred and Minh for hosting us for a full day,together, with trips to the local market and a nearby French colonialhouse. I hope we can meet up again one day. And for other GEO
members living in exotic places: please send me an invitation tovisit you—I just might do so.
1 GEOQ 36, page 25.

I have kept in touch with Fred and Minh since their move toVietnam as I know that Fred continues to pursue his interests inweather satellites. His APT images are sometimes published in
GEO Quarterly, the most recent being a composite of several APT
passes centred over Vietnam [1].
With the help of my travel agent, I adjusted our Vietnam travel
itinerary so that we
could spend a few
days in Nah Trang, awell developed townwith a population of
about 300,000 locatedmid way along theVietnamese coast. We
spent several days in
Nah Trang, and spent
one full day visiting
Fred and Minh wholive in a rural village
about ten miles inland.
I was impressed tosee Fred’s satellite
receiving station, locatedon the roof of his newhouse. Currently Fredis receiving APT using
a QFH antenna and
WXtoImg software to
decode the signals.
He is progressing with
Figure 1
HRPT reception andThis was a common site in Hanoi, with power
I saw his rotors and(and perhaps telecommunications lines) installedwith a little extra cable in anticipation of future
antenna in his garage
awaiting installation on adjustments. I don’t know what effect this would
have on broadband speeds.
the roof.
I asked Fred about his broadband and Internet access and was
surprised to learn that it was about as fast as the service I receive
via my own BT service in the UK. What a surprise! Just look at thephotograph I took of some Vietnamese electrical services in Hanoi

Figure 2 - A NOAA 19 image recorded by Fred van den Boschat 12.21 local time on February 25, 2013.

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continued from page 3planned by others. In the meantime I will try to progress ourown GEO visit to a UK space centre this year. Events where
GEO intends to have a presence this year are:
• The Newbury Radio Rally (June 16), where GEO will have our usual

stand. For further details of this event visit www.nadars.org.uk• The Royal Meteorological Amateur Conference (Sept 13-15) at the
University of Reading, which aims to look at how weather impacts
our lives: from weather observing and photography, to sharing our
passion of meteorology with others. It is planned that the programme
will include keynote contributions from both professionals andamateurs. GEO is hoping to have a stand in the exhibition area
running live EUMETCast images. Visit
www.rmets.org/event for more details.
• The European Space Agency Symposium (Sept 9-13), with support
from the UKSA, is holding this symposium in Edinburgh. GEO isplanning to have a display in the ‘Poster Display’ area. For moredetails visit http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Observing_the_Earth/Highlights/See_you_in_2013. Delegate entry is free of charge.
• The National Hamfest (Sept 27-28) takes place at Newark
Showground. It is a busy two-day show, and GEO will run its usual
stand. For more details visit www.nationalhamfest.org.uk.
• The 2nd Meteorological Technology World Expo (Oct 15-17) is
being held in Brussels and is a major event offering free entry fordelegates. It is uncertain whether or not GEO will have stand here,
but as there is free entry it may be attractive to attend as a delegate.
For more information visit www.MeteorologicalTechnologyWorldExpo.
com.

Werkgroep Kunstmanen Meetings
Our Dutch friends, Werkgroep Kunstmanen, hold regular
Saturday meetings in the Nimeto, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Doors open at 10.00 am and the meetings start at 11.00 am.
Future dates for 2013 are September 19 and November 1.
For more information visit
www.kunstmanen.net

June 2013

answers to the second part of the question.
Frank Skillington, UK
Andreas Lubnow, Germany
Elmar Bogels, The Netherlands
The second part of the question, which was more light-hearted,
related to a science fiction series called ‘A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the
Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams, which was aired on both BBC radio andTV. (Repeats of these broadcast may still be seen or heard fromtime to time).
In the series there was a computer called Deep Thought which was
charged with coming up with the answer to ‘The Ultimate Questionof Life, the Universe, and Everything’. The computer took 7.5 million
years to come up with the answer of 42. The author was questioned
later and admitted there was no particular significance in thenumber 42: he just invented it as an answer.
A slight admission on my part is that when I first did the calculation
for the ratio of the polar orbiting and geostationary satellite altitudes,
I mis-remembered the geostationary value as being 34,782 which,fortuitously produced the beguiling—but incorrect—answer of 42.
Quarterly Question 38
This Quarterly Question has been prompted by a Data Access
Bulletin recently released by EUMETSAT. I am a regular receiverof the EUMETCast service and am registered to receive many of
the image sequences disseminated via Eutelsat 9A. I hope this willcontinue beyond planned changes to this service. To establish mypresent home system I have relied on advice and help from more
technically knowledgeable GEO members than myself. I always
seem to find myself on a learning curve about these matters, andthis continues.
However, about a year ago I became a little more adventurous
and thought I would look to the future; so, in addition to the DVBWorld receiver which I use every day for EUMETCast reception, Ipurchased two additional receivers from a German supplier. One
was the TechniSat SkyStar-S, the other a TechniSat SkyStar-S2
HDTV model, both of which worked perfectly with the current
EUMETCast DVB-S service.
The rationale behind the purchase of the SkyStar-S2 HDTV receiver
was the forecast that the EUMETCast dissemination service wouldchange in the foreseeable future. What I really wanted to know waswhether this new, modestly priced receiver would work with the newservice due to start in about one year.

Quarterly Question 37
Readers will remember that the previous Quarterly Question related
to the altitudes of EUMETSAT’s polar orbiting Metop-B satellite andMeteosat-10 which is in geostationary orbit.
The question was prompted in my mind by the scale of the
distances involved between these satellites, both of which I receiveat home on a regular basis. The low-earth sun-synchronous orbitof Metop-B allows it to overfly the Earth at approximately the same
local time each day and mathematics defines the altitude of thisorbit: in the case of Metop-B, this is quoted by EUMETSAT as being
817 kilometres.
However, the question was: “How many times further away is
Meteosat 10 in its geostationary orbit”. To answer this, you have toknow the altitude of this orbit. Members responding to the question
quoted several figures for the altitude of Meteosat 10, all of whichwere close together, so I have taken an average which comes out
as 35,782 kilometres. This generates an orbital period of one day,hence its stationary position in the sky.
The calculation is 35,782 / 817 = 43.8.
Therefore Meteosat 10 is 43.8 times further away than Metop-B.
My thanks to the following members who submitted whole number
answers which I judged to be correct. They also gave correct

16

Keeping track of news from EUMETSAT, I read a bulletin about the
migration of the current EUMETCast DVB-S service to the DVBS2 standard. This is a ‘Must Read’ for those wishing for a smoothtransition to the new standard for their home EUMETCast system.
EUMETSAT’s decision to change standards is due to the increasing
quantity of data being transmitted via the Eutelsat 9A transponder,
which is anticipated to more than double in the next few years.
Quarterly Question 38 is“What is the current EUMETCast Europe assigned
net data rate on Eutelsat 9A’s transponder?”.
Your answer should be given in units of Mbps. You may alreadyknow the answer to the above question, but if not, using
EUMETSAT’s technical publications may give you the answer. If allelse fails, go towww.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/DataAccess/EUMETCastand follow the link to ‘EUMETCast Europe Migrating from DVB-S to
DVB-S2’. Read this document and you will find the answer.
Answers should be sent tofrancis@geo-web.org.uk

before the copy deadline for our next GEO Quarterly (July 28).

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GEO Quarterly No 38

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June 2013

Jason Hopkins

Phytoplankton undergo an annual cycle of growth similar todeciduous terrestrial flora, and need both sufficient light andnutrients to grow. In winter, mixing of the ocean by the windincreases the supply of nutrients needed for phytoplankton
growth. However, this same mixing, combined with weak sunlight,
means that phytoplankton do not receive enough light to grow.
As the strength of the sunlight increases during springtime, andmixing reduces, phytoplankton are able to take advantage ofthese improved conditions, resulting in a ‘spring bloom’. The rapid
increase in phytoplankton numbers associated with the bloom canbe large enough to alter the colour of the seawater and it is thischange in colour that can be viewed from space.

18

This Envisat image shows both the growth of different types ofphytoplankton (indicated by the different shades of colour) and also
the influence of the ocean currents. The word ‘plankton’ comesfrom the Greek, and means drifter or wanderer, indicating that most
phytoplankton can’t swim. This means that ocean currents caninfluence the distribution of these tiny plants. The figure-of-eightpattern in this image is probably an ocean eddy that has beenhighlighted by the phytoplankton. These spinning parcels of water
can draw cold, nutrient-rich water up from the deep ocean andinto the sunlit upper layer, resulting in the ideal environment forphytoplankton growth.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Image: European Space Agency (ESA)

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

These are the four total-ozone maps that should have accompanied the article on page 18 of GEO Quarterly 36

This is the Terra MODIS image from Robert Moore that failed to make an appearance in GEOQ 36.
Acquired on January 10, 2012, the Falkland Islands are prominent in the south Atlantic ocean.
Image © EUMETSAT 201220www.geo-web.org.uk

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GEO Quarterly No 38

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June 2013

A NASA Earth Observqtory Report

While a high-pressure weather system
brought warmer than normal temperatures
to Greenland and northern Canada during
March 2013, much of North America,
Europe, and Asia shivered through weeks
of unseasonably cool temperatures. The
contrasting temperatures are no coincidence:the same unusual pressure pattern in theupper atmosphere caused both events.
Atmospheric pressure patterns are constantly
in flux as air masses of differing temperaturesand densities move around the skies. One
key measure of pressure that meteorologists
track closely is known as the Arctic
Oscillation (AO) index, which relates to thedifference in relative pressure between Arctic
and mid-latitudes. Changes in AO have canmajor impacts on weather patterns aroundthe world.
When the AO index is in its ‘positive’ phase,
air pressure over the Arctic is low, pressure

22

over the mid-latitudes is high and prevailingwinds confine extremely cold air to the Arctic.
But when the AO is in its ‘negative’ phase,the pressure gradient weakens. The pressure
over the Arctic is not as low and pressure at
mid-latitudes is not as high. In this negative
phase, the AO enables Arctic air to flow to
the south and warm air to move north.
In late March, the AO dropped to -5.6, oneof the five lowest values ever recordedby meteorologists. The temperature
anomaly map above, based on datafrom the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s
Aqua satellite, shows how this affected
temperatures in the northern hemisphere.
The map displays land surface temperature
anomalies between March 13 and March 20,
2013, compared with the average for thesame date span between 2005 and 2012.
Areas with above-average temperaturesappear in red and orange; areas with belowwww.geo-web.org.uk

average temperatures appear in shadesof blue. Much of Europe, Russia, and theeastern United States experienced unusuallycool temperatures, while Greenland andNunavut Territory in Canada were surprisingly
warm for the time of year.
Many parts of the northern hemisphereendured near record-breaking cooltemperatures as the value of the AO fell. The
United Kingdom, for example, experienced
its fourth coldest March since 1962. In thelatter part of March, two-thirds of weather
stations in the Czech Republic broke records,
Germany had its coldest March since 1883
and Moscow its coldest March since the1950s.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen and RobertSimmon, using MODIS data from the Land Processes
Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC).
Arctic Oscillation data from the NOAA National Weather
Service Climate Prediction Center.

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 38

Keith Fraser

Processing: Les Hamilton’s SmoothMODIS and David Taylor’s Correct Geometry
Image: LANCE/NASA/GSFC/Earth Science Data and Information System

I was fascinated by the article in GEO Quarterly 36 on ‘New Polar
Records’, regarding receding ice cover and the Beaufort sea. I now
live in Buffalo, NY, on Lake Erie. This lake is quite shallow, about
64 metres deep, so it freezes over most years causing shipping on
the Great Lakes to cease until spring. This is welcomed in Buffalo
because Lake Effect Snow from an open lake also comes to an end
and the citizens of Buffalo can stop shovelling.

starts breaking up, although at the eastern end, near Buffalo, you
can still see a region of solid ice.

Until a few years ago, ice fishing was popular here, many people
driving over frozen Lake Erie in their 4 x 4 trucks to take cabins out
on to the ice. They would then drill holes in the ice to fish through.
But not any more! Lake Erie has not really frozen for about five
years now, and the last big freeze of note took place in early 2004.
The MODIS image above was acquired from NASA’s Terra satellite,
on February 28, 2004. The ice over the lake is clearly defined as it

As I write this on February 2 this year, the temperature of Lake Erieis +1°C so the water still contains a great deal of latent heat, so thelake won’t freeze over this year. Lake Ontario, on the other hand,
never freezes: the water there is too deep and upwellings bringwarmer water up from the depths to the surface. This means that
Watertown, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, is unofficially thesnow capital, as it suffers from lake effect snow all winter long.

The breaking ice is a problem for the Power Authority at Niagara
Falls, who have to employ an ice boom across the entrance to the
Niagara river to prevent damage to turbines at the Hydro plants on
both the US and Canadian sides.

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June 2013

Mike Stevens G4CFZ
Back in November 2004 I wrote about the challenges of receiving
the then Meteosat-8 weather data via the new EUMETCast
Broadcast System—and a challenge it most certainly was.
Little did we know how EUMETCast was to expand in theyears ahead, and now seems to be the right time to provide an
update for all the newcomers to our fantastic hobby of Earth
Observation via weather satellites. I think we can all agree that
we have seen some pretty impressive images since 2004.
Let’s start at the beginning. The first thing you must do is to
apply to EUMETSAT for a licence to receive the satellite data.
A visit to the GEO website at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/eumreg.php

or following the link Register for EUMETCast on the home page,
will open the EUMETCast On-Line Registration page. I would suggestthat you print that page off so that you have direct accessto the information; this will prevent you having to keep
looking the page up for reference. As you will see, it is very
extensive in detail and provides an excellent guide to thetypes of satellite data you can receive via EUMETCast once
registration is completed.
Once you have filled in the relevant details at
http://www.eumetsat.int

through the Data Access Tab on the home page, you will be led
through the system to register as a new user. Just follow
those instructions to start the process rolling.
There is a lot of excellent information on the GEO websitethat will help and assist with the hobby, and it makes a goodreference point from which to start.
Once your registration has been accepted by EUMETSAT,
you will be contacted for payment of the €100 cost of the
EKU and software. This can vary depending on the exchange
rate at the time but currently works out at around £85. YourEKU Key and software will be despatched to you, usuallyby courier, and must be signed for. They will usually arrive
within four working days, as mine did. The Key will be
programmed to accept all the data types that you requested
when filling out your online registration.
Your next step must be to decide on the PC you are goingto use to receive the data from EUMETCast (the reception
PC). If you read some of the information that’s going around(including in earlier issues of GEO Quarterly) most users willstate that you don’t need a super PC: but I would recommend
a good computer with at least 2 GB of memory and a hard
drive of about 120 GB. I say this because experience hastaught me that, as far as memory and hard drive capacity
are concerned, you cannot have too much. Other people will
have their own ideas, but for me it all comes down to pastexperiences. Don’t be afraid to experiment to find out whatworks best for you. My own PC is an Acer Aspire with 320 GB
hard drive and 8 GB RAM which handles everything in the
one unit. Many enthusiasts make use of a RAMDisk, but my
PC manages fine without one. The system described is my
choice, and I am in no way saying this is what you must go
for. Make your own choice and work within your budget.
The next task is to obtain your DVB satellite receiver,the most obvious choice of course being the DVB WorldEUMETCast now provides access to a range of channels of MODIS
imagery from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. This is a Terra
colour composite image dating from August 6, 2012.
Image © EUMETSAT 201224www.geo-web.org.uk

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DVB-S USB-2 unit recommended by GEO for trouble free
EUMETCast reception—and a good one it is too. Purchasedfrom the GEO Shop at
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/shop.php

it comes complete with a GEO setup CD and all instructions.
Software Installation
Now let me say right here that all the following software
installation and instruction is centred on Windows XP:
Windows 7 is another article completely, and though there
are similarities, a Windows 7 system has its own differing
requirements.
The next move is to install and connect your DVB World
receiver. Make sure you use the GEO CD and not thesmall CD supplied by the receiver’s manufacturer. This
will not install the correct data for EUMETCast. Follow the
instructions on the GEO CD and you will install everything
without problems. As soon as the process is complete andyou have the DVB World icon on your desktop leave this forthe moment. I will come back to this matter later.
Aligning your Dish on EUTELSAT 9A
Of course, reception of EUMETCast requires a correctlyaligned antenna, so your next move is to assemble and erectyour satellite dish. The most popular size of dish is 80 cm
but you can equally well make use of a one-metre dish—it’sagain up to yourself. I use a one-metre dish, securely groundmounted, with a clear line of sight to the satellite, as I am
located right on the extreme south coast of England.
In order to align your dish on Eutelsat 9A (the satellite that
disseminates the EUMETCast data streams), you require twovital pieces of information: the satellite’s azimuth (degrees
clockwise from north) and elevation (degrees above yoursouthern horizon). The easiest way to access this information
is by means of David Taylor’s WXtrack software, which can be
downloaded fromhttp://www.satsignal.eu/software/wxtrack.htm

There are two points to address in the

Setup tab.

GEO Quarterly No 38

But just a minute: where do you find accurate latitude andlongitude details for your station? The best solution is to use
iTouchMap.com where you simply zoom into your location on
a Google Map and click the cursor over it.
http://itouchmap.com/latlong.html

As soon as you click on the map, a panel underneath it
instantly updates with the required latitude and longitude.
Now open WXtrack’s World Map tab and make sure that
Eutelsat 9A is selected in the Sat drop-down list at the footof the screen (figure 6). The panel to its right, circled in red,provides the angular information that you require. Now you
are in a position to align your satellite dish on Eutelsat 9A
and start receiving data via EUMETCast.
Eutelsat 9A at 9°East is not to difficult to find. Mount
your dish and secure it loosely for the time being. You aregoing to use the software in your DVB World receiver to get
the alignment spot-on. You need a compass to assist in
positioning the dish. Remember to check for the magnetic
variation (or declination) at your location. This is mostconveniently done using magnetic-declination.com
http://magnetic-declination.com

where, once more, you click over your location on a Google
Map. This time though, an infobox pops up with theinformation you require. Indeed, as it also reveals yourlatitude and longitude, you can use this as a one-stop meansof collecting all the necessary data for aligning your dish.
At my location the variation is just under 2° at the moment,
giving an approximate azimuth for Eutelsat 9A of 165°, butremember this is different for other parts of Europe. Anothersite you may find useful to find this information iswww. dishpointer.com

Initial Rough Dish Alignment
To start aligning your dish, first rotate it round to theappropriate azimuth angle and lock it in place. Next, deal
with the dish’s elevation. This will vary with latitude, so startwith 10° and be prepared to increase or decrease it laterin stages from there. The farther north your station, theshallower will be the elevation angle.
Preparing the Software for Accurate Dish Alignment
Now go to your DVB World receiver, making sure that theantenna downlead is connected. The most popular cable is
CT100, which consists of braided copper with an aluminium
foil screen and single stranded copper inner conductor.
All my connections are made with F-Type connectors, withshrink-tubing as extra waterproof protection.
Run the DVB World software by clicking on the icon andyour DVB receiver will initialise. The image shown in figure 2
should appear on your screen. Click on the setup icon (whichlooks like a spanner), next to the IP button at the top of thisscreen. This will open the Configuration panel (figure 3).
Start with the Sat Config tab, go to the Sat drop-down list, clickon the right hand end-arrow and look for ‘Eurobird 9 at
9° East’ in the list of satellites that opens up. Click on this tohighlight it then click the Apply button at the foot of the tab.

Figure 1 - Selecting EUTELSAT 9A in WXtrack

First, you must drag the entry for ‘Eutelsat 9A’ from the‘Available’ list to the ‘Active’ list, as shown above.
Secondly, you must edit your location details into the
My Location Details panel at the bottom right of the tab. Just
click the Edit button, input your details (City name, latitude,
longitude), and click OK.

At the top right of the tab, open the Transponder drop-down list
and click ‘TP14_11977_27500’ to highlight it and again click
the Apply button. The following fields should now display as
follows:
Transponder:
TP14_11977_27500
Type:
Fixed
11977 MHz
Frequency:
Symbol Rate:
27500 ksps
Polarization:
Horizontal
Puncture Code: DVBS QPSK ¾

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Figure 2 - The DVB World start-up screen

Figure 5 - The EUMETCast IP Config Tab and the PID input window

Figure 3 - The EUMETCast Sat Config Tab
Figure 6 - Using WXtrack to determine Eutelsat 9’s azimuth and elevation

If any of those fields are not as above, then change them toagree. Most important is the Polarization, which must read as‘Horizontal’.
Open the IP Config tab (figure 4) which sets up the system towork correctly. What follows is very important as it sets up
the parameters to receive EUMETCast data correctly. In theTransponder Information panel the Satellite should be shownas ‘Eurobird 9’, below which is a list that you scan to find
‘11977-27500’. Select this and transfer it to the right handpanel by clicking the ==> arrow. Once done, click Apply.
Move down to the PID Information panel where you must insert
the required PID values that EUMETCast uses for datatransmission. Click on the Add box and another small box
marked ‘PID Info’ will appear (figurer 5).

Figure 4 - The EUMETCast IP Config Tab

26

It’s here that you will input your required packet IDs (PIDs),
as follows: click into the Decimalization box, remove the zerofrom the box, input ‘100’ then click OK. You will see ‘100’
appear in the lower box. Now it’s important that you enter all
the other PIDs in exactly the same way: 300, 301, 302, 500,
509 and 510. When completed all PIDs will be visible in the
PID Information box. Now click Apply.

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Final Accurate Dish Alignment
Return now to the Sat Config tab and click on Lock TP. Immediately,
you will see a box appear indicating Strength and Quality. At this point,
you must go back to the satellite dish and readjust its azimuth andelevation to get the best figures possible. You are looking for Strength in
the range 60% to 95% and Quality between 50% and 75%. Here, at mylocation, I am receiving Strength 95% and Quality 60% with my onemetre dish. Your figures will differ somewhat due to the local terrain
and any objects that may lie between you and the satellite. Once you
are satisfied that the figures are the best you can get, lock the satellite
dish securely so it cannot move in the wind.
Preparing for EUMETCast Reception
By now it is assumed that you have received all the relevant softwareand EKU from EUMETSAT. Place the EKU into a suitable USB socket
and load the EUMETCast CD (which should be version 5.6) in the PC.
When the screen menu opens, select EKU Software, then select RTE_3.65
and install. You will be informed if there are any problems.
Go back to the menu and select Tellicast then select T-Systems andinstall this. You will get a prompt to enter your EUMETSAT key code.
Make sure you copy and paste this code in place. Do not type it in—because
this just does not work. Once done, exit setup, remove the CD andrestart the PC. The Tellicast Icon should now appear in the toolbar at
the foot of your screen: it will either show as red with a black ‘T’ oryellow with a black ‘T’.
Required Modifications
The first step here is to make sure that DVB World is going to connect
with Tellicast or nothing will happen. To do this, click the Windows
Start Button followed by Run to bring up the window shown in figure 7.
Type in ‘CMD’ then click OK to reveal a command prompt box witha flashing icon. Here, type in ‘ipconfig/all’ and press the ‘Enter’ key.
Immediately, a list of all items connected to you PC will appear. Look
for DVB Net ETAdaptor, locate it and check what its IP Address is. It
should read as ‘192.168.238.238’. If not, you will have to change it.
If the value is correct, skip the following paragraph.

Figure 7 - Running Windows CMD utility

If the IP Address is wrong, go to Start, Control Panel, and open Network
Connections. Find and select DVB Net ETAdaptor and right click it toshow the Properties tab. A box will appear as ‘Local Area Connection
Properties’. Highlight ‘Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)’ and again click
Properties when yet another box appears. This time, select use theFollowing IP Address, click in the tab, go to the IP Address line and type in‘192.168.238.238’. Move down to the next line, Subnet Mask, and type in‘255.255.255.0’ (or it may simply drop in place for you). Finally, keep
clicking OK to exit, then close Network Connections.
Updating the Tellicast Configuration Files
If you have never been involved with editing configuration files before
I suggest that you regularly save everything as you go along. The files
you will have to edit are called recv.ini and recv-channels, and are to befound in the Program Files / T-Systems / Business TV-IP folder. Navigate to thisfolder and double-click recv.ini file to open it.
The first lines to change are in the [Watchdog] section. Insert the line
max_memory_usage=500000000 then save the file. Move down to the [Logging]section and change the log file number to ‘2’ and log level to ‘quiet’ andsave once more. In the [parameters] section, type in tmp_directory=temp andsave.

www.geo-web.org.uk

Figure 8 - This Metop-A image dates from July 21, 2012
Image © EUMETSAT 201227

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Figure 9 - A typical channel-1 Meteosat-10 image displaying in MSG DataManager
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

# recv.ini - TelliNet+TelliCast+TelliVision: central Receiver Configuration File# additional files: see license.ini, recv-channels.ini (optional)# for more information on file format use help menu in Tellicast shell## 2-4-3 10-10-2005#[recipient]user_name=MichaelStevens
user_key_[shell]login=none
port=2517
refresh=3[EUMETSAT Data Channel 1]
target_directory=received[EUMETSAT Data Channel 2]target_directory=received[watchdog]
max_memory_usage=500000000#error_script=none./error.sh#error_script_cause_announcement=30

Listing 2 - Essential edits to the recv-channels.ini file

Note:‘#’ at the start of a line means that it is‘commented out’ so will not receive any data.

[logging]
log_file_size=1000000
log_file_number=2
log_level=quiet[locations]
file_database_directory=receiving/tmp
log_file=>>recv.log
license_file=C:\Program Files (x86)\T-Systems\BusinessTV-IP\license.ini
channels_file=C:\Program Files (x86)\T-Systems\BusinessTV-IP\recv-channels.ini[announcement_channel]
address=224.223.222.223:4711
name=TSL Announcement Channel

Directly under that you will see the interface_address
which should be the same as the one you entered in
the properties box. Finally, you need to change thefile_database_size to read ‘300000000’ (eight zeroes),then save again to close the file. Listing 1 shows thewhole of my own recv.ini file for reference. If you wish
to set yours up exactly the same as mine, then yoursystem should certainly work.
Now double-click on the recv-channels.ini file toopen it to make some more edits. If you don’t, all
the satellite data will pile up into a single received
file and overload it. First, you have to get rid of thewildcard symbol [*] and re-direct all the data to its
correct file. Listing 2 is a cut-down version of the fileshowing its opening lines to give you a guide as to
how to start ‘channelizing’ your data. These will allow
you to receive the basic Channel‑1 and Channel‑2
data streams.

[parameters]
tmp_directory=temp
interface_address=192.168.238.238
file_database_size=300000000
file_delivery_counter=50
file_delivery_speed=20000000
Listing 1 - The author’s recv.ini file28

# recv-channels.ini - TelliCast+TelliVision Client channel
configuration file## 2-4-3 10-10-2005#
target_directory=received# target_directory: Directory for received files. The target_
directory name#is relative to the current working directory.
#syntax: target_directory=<directory>#
default: received

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Figure 10 - This false colour Meteosat-10 image dates from 13:15 UT on March 17, 2013
Image © EUMETSAT 2013

I am not going to lay out the complete files here as it will
be your choice what you actually receive via EUMETCast,but you can refer to my full recv‑channels.ini file, shown in
Listing 3, and copy the features you require.
There are varying ways of editing these files, and a look at
David Taylor’s excellent EUMETCast web pages will explaineven further. Here you will find lots of very good information,
including details of the complete set of data channels. The
two channels shown in Listing 2 will get you operational tostart with.
http://www.satsignal.eu/

System Check
Let’s do a system check to make sure everything has been
covered. If you have successfully completed the following
eight steps, you are ready to start imaging.

•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

Tellicast software Installed
EKU and Software Installed
DVBWorld Receiver and Software Installed.
DVB World Configuration done and PIDs installed
Command check for correct IP Address
recvd-ini file updated.
recvd-channel.ini file modified to receive data
Satellite dish aligned and secure.

Activate DVB World by clicking on its desktop icon. The
software will initialise and load. Now go to the IP Button at the
top of the box (figure 2) and double click it. Both the Strengthand Quality bars at bottom left of the window should go green,
as should the IP bar at lower right. The main Tellicast icon
on your lower tool bar should show as a Pink ‘T’ on a whitebackground. If all is well, you should be receiving EUMETCast
data files. You can now move to the Received File folder within
the Tellicast Software Folder and see incoming data files.

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The Group for Earth Observation# recv-channels.ini - TelliCast+TelliVision Client channel configuration file## 2-4-3 10-10-2005#
target_directory=received# target_directory: Directory for received files. The target_directory
name#is relative to the current working directory.
#syntax: target_directory=<directory>#
default: received[EUMETSAT Data Channel 1]
target_directory=received

June 2013[WWW-Channel]
target_directory=www/eumetsat
tmp_directory=receiving/tmp/files# tmp_directory: If this parameter is given tc-recv will internally#store/compose all received files within the given directory and#later move them to the target directory.
#
While this option requires an additional move operation it#
guarantees that all files appearing in the target directory are#
fully written to the file system.
#
syntax: tmp_directory=<directory>#
default: undefined=off, but default value may be redefined in#recv.ini# Section per channel or channel group identified by channel name(wildcard# "*" allowed at end of name)[EUMETSAT Data Channel 2]target_directory=received#activate_ftp_forwarding=1# activate_ftp_forwarding: Will activate FTP forwarding for the correctly#
received files according to the recv.ini [ftp_forwarding]#parameters.
#
syntax: activate_ftp_forwarding=<value of range>#
range: 0/1#
default: 0=off[EUMETSAT Data Channel 3]target_directory=received[EUMETSAT Data Channel 4]target_directory=received#[EUMETSAT Data Channel 5]#target_directory=received-MSG-RSS#tmp_directory=receiving/tmp/files# tmp_directory: If this parameter is given tc-recv will internally#store/compose all received files within the given directory and#later move them to the target directory.
#
While this option requires an additional move operation it#
guarantees that all files appearing in the target directory are#
fully written to the file system.
#
syntax: tmp_directory=<directory>#
default: undefined=off, but default value may be redefined in#recv.ini#[EUMETSAT Data Channel 6]#target_directory=received-MSG-RSS[EUMETSAT Data Channel 11]
target_directory=received[EUMETSAT Data Channel 12]
target_directory=received[DWDSAT]target_directory=C:/Received Files-DWDSAT#tmp_prefix=.
# tmp_prefix: Like tmp_directory, but files are composed within the final#
target directories but stored with the given prefix in front of#
the normal filenames until the files are fully written.
#
syntax: tmp_prefix=<file name start>#default: undefined=off, but default value may be redefined in#recv.ini[EPS-10]target_directory=received-AVHRR[EPS-15]
target_directory=received-NOAA-GAC#tmp_suffix=.tmp# tmp_suffix: Like tmp_prefix, but adding a suffix to the normal filenames#
until the files are fully written.
#
syntax: tmp_suffix=<file suffix>#
default: undefined=off, but default value may be redefined in#recv.ini[Info-Channel-1]
target_directory=received[Info-Channel-2]
target_directory=received

Listing 3 - The author’s complete recv-channels.ini file

You can now load and activate David Taylor’s MSG-Data
Manager software and start watching the incoming satellite
pictures on your screen.
Note: MSG DataManager software for viewing EUMETCast
images can be downloaded fromhttp://www.satsignal.eu/software/msg_dm.htm

Although this software is not free, it does come with an
initial 30-days of free usage to allow you to evaluate it
before having to purchase a registration code (£59.95).
In order to use this software, you must open its Setup tab andensure that the File controls section contains the correct paths
for accessing the EUMETCast data and saving the decoded
images (figure 11). If you now open the program’s MSG HRIT tab,you should start to see the various channels of MSG imagery
building up on the screen (figure 12).
Be warned that all this data coming into your system, if
not controlled, will soon fill up your hard drive—so makesure you do some cleaning-up now and again. Helpfully,

30

Figure 11 - Checking the file paths in MSG DataManager

MSG DataManager contains options to delete data after aselected time interval.
When you have fully understood all the workings of
EUMETCast you will be able to receive satellite imagery fromwww.geo-web.org.uk

June 2013

The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 38

numerous sources in addition
to Meteosat: these include highresolution AVHRR images from
Metop-A, Metop-B and the NOAAs
as well as MODIS-L1 imagery
from NASA’s Terra and Aqua
satellites. It just depends on what
you choose to receive. Software
for generating images from allthese data sources is available
from David Taylor’s excellent
website where there is also a
wealth of fantastic information.
The pictures from Meteosat-10(MSG-3) and the Metop satellites
are amazing.
If you do experience problems
there are people on hand tohelp so don’t be afraid to ask.
Particularly useful is David
Taylor’s SatSignal YAHOO! User
Group athttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/
SatSignal/

We all had to learn, so have funand enjoy.
My thanks to all who have helped
me in the past. Happy weather
watch from Portland.

Figure 12 - The various MSG images building up in MSG DataManager

Holger Eckert

Although the GEO Shop has been supplying the new R2FU APT
weather satellite receiver since early this year, little has been
heard from readers who have purchased units. Hopefully, there
will be some feedback in the months ahead, perhaps including
a detailed review of the unit. Meantime, in an attempt to fill theinformation void, we contacted the designer of the R2FU, Holger
Eckert, who emailed back the following information.

About 70% of the R2FU circuit design is new, the most obvious
difference being the USB interface, incorporation of which actuallycaused me the most design problems. USB 2.0 clocks at 400 MHz
and I was surprised how much noise that makes if you want toreceive signals with -120 dBm of power. It was the number of
PCB re-designs required that delayed the release of the receiverfrom June till December 2012. I originally wanted to integrate asoundcard chip into the board as well, but that would have required
shielded compartments and would have exceeded my cost target.
The USB interface is designed as a virtual COM port. That
guarantees that all the programs which control the receiver stillwork without changes.
The RF front-end is similar to that of the R2FZ, which means that
I am using a highly selective crystal filter instead of the earlier
ceramic one. Nearby interference sources should not, therefore,
harm the reception of weather satellite signals.
The USB supply made it necessary to use 3.3 volts internallyinstead of 5 V, and this required the replacement of the silicontransistors of the input stage and the mixer by GaAsFETs. This
had the welcome side-effect of improving the noise figure by half a
decibel. The surplus gain of the GaAsFETs made it possible to use
a better band select filter, and image rejection therefore improved
from 50 to 80 dB, which is even better than with the R2FZ.
There are a few other small changes: you no longer have to open
the lid to reposition a jumper if you want to switch on the remotesupply for an external LNA, as this is now done by a softwarecommand. The LNA supply includes a fuse which, hopefully, will
provide protection in the event of a short at the antenna port. The
disadvantage of USB is that most of the commercially available
external LNAs do not work any more because they need 12 volts.
So I have developed a 5 V compatible LNA for the receiver.
On the PCB there are provisions to switch the IF bandwidth to
make it possible to receive other satellites like Orbcomm, Tubsat,
SAFIR and whatever else may be transmitting on the 137 MHz
band. This feature is not implemented at present however, as I
don’t know if people are interested in such things.

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2013

A NASA Earth Observatory Report
Text adapted from Melt Pond ‘Skylights’ Enable Massive Under-Ice Bloom in the Arctic by Rebecca Lindsey, NOAA ClimateWatch Magazine

Wrangell Island and the Chucki Sea as viewed by Aqua on July 10, 2011.

A plot of chlorophyll levels (due to plankton blooms) in the same region, as detected by

For much of the winter, the sun barely rises over the Arctic Circle.
In mid-winter, it doesn’t rise at all. Most of the Arctic Ocean iscapped by ice, and beneath this, phytoplankton—the microscopic,
photosynthesising organisms that underpin the entire ocean foodweb—take a “long winter’s nap”. But when sunlight returns in thespring and the ice retreats, it’s like a cover being drawn off the roofof a greenhouse. The water along the edge of the retreating ice
explodes with blooms of phytoplankton.
The images above offer two views of a phytoplankton bloom in
the Chukchi Sea, northwest of Alaska, as imaged by the MODIS
instrument aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite on July 10, 2011.
The upper image is a natural colour view while the lower one isa plot showing the concentration of phytoplankton in milligrams
per cubic meter of seawater. Blue indicates areas with low
concentrations of chlorophyll, and yellow indicates areas with highconcentrations; land is light gray, and areas where MODIS could
not collect data due to clouds or sea ice blocking the satellite
sensor’s view are dark gray.

32

on July 10, 2011.

North of Wrangel Island, the sea ice has a dingy look in the natural
colour image. Although this could result from sediment, its distancefrom shore—plus the fact that the ice is fringed by waters withextremely high levels of chlorophyll—suggests that the ice has
been discoloured by algae and other phytoplankton.
According to Arctic oceanographer Karen Frey, the discolouration isconsistent with an unusual phenomenon that she encountered whileon a research cruise in the Chukchi Sea in July 2012: a massive
bloom of phytoplankton stretching some 100 kilometres beneath theice-pack. Historically, the ice in this area had been thick enough,even in spring, to keep the waters beneath in darkness. But in thepast decade ice conditions have changed dramatically, leaving athinner ice cover laced with shallow ponds of meltwater. These
ponds act like skylights, allowing light to filter through and support
phytoplankton blooms beneath the ice.
—————
NASA Earth Observatory images created by Jesse Allen, using MODIS data from the Land
Processing Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC).

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GEO Quarterly No 38

33

GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation

June 2013

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

The Peary Channel separating Melville Island and Victoria Island is choked with ice on July 17, 2012.
NASA image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).

Just over two weeks later, the Peary Channel appears largely ice-free on August 3, 2012.

NASA image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE).

Ice retreated rapidly in the Parry Channel,
part of the famous Northwest Passage,
between mid-July and early August 2012.
These images, acquired by the Moderate
Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer(MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, show
significant changes over two weeks. The
top image shows Parry Channel chokedwith ice on July 17. The lower image shows
the same region on August 3, when open
water dominated the scene, with only
remnant ice still clinging to the shores ofVictoria and Melville Islands. On July 30, ice
cover was roughly 33% compared with thelong-term median of 79%.

34

However, thin sea ice can evade detection
by satellite sensors such as MODIS yet
still be thick enough to impede shipping so,while the Parry Channel appeared almost
entirely free of ice, it was not necessarily
open for navigational purposes. Close
examination of the image from early Augustdoes show lingering patches of ice south ofMelville Island.
Regardless of whether ships can easily
pass through it, recent studies suggestthat certain organisms have begun totake advantage of open water along theNorthwest Passage. A 2007 study on
Neodenticula seminae, a plankton species

www.geo-web.org.uk

historically endemic to the Pacific Ocean,discovered that the species had turned
up in the North Atlantic. The researchsuggested that the plankton’s route included
the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.
And a 2012 study on bowhead whales,
where individuals were tracked using
satellite transmitters, revealed that Pacificand Atlantic populations had begun tooverlap in the Northwest Passage as earlyas August 2010.

NASA Earth Observatory images by Jesse Allen, using
data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability
for EOS (LANCE).

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GEO Quarterly No 38

The Group for Earth Observation... continued from page 13

number of options, most of which, fortunately, are already set
up with working default values. These options are for you toexperiment with as you gain more experience of the software.
One option that it is most important to change, however, is in theSatellite panel at lower right. You must make sure that you highlightthe correct reception satellite for your data or you will not receive

June 2013

If a reminder were needed that the era of APT is drawing to anend, the number of available satellites transmitting this mode
decreased to three when NOAA 17 was decommissionedon April 10 this year. Launched in June 2002 and assuming
operational status the following October, NOAA 17 provided
flawless APT and HRPT imagery until its scan motor started todevelop problems during 2010 and finally stalling in October thatyear. The problem proved insoluble, and after a lengthy period
when no imagery was produced, even though the carrier could
still be detected, the satellite was deactivated.
The only remaining APT satellites (and remember there are no
more in the pipeline) are NOAA 15, still operating after 15 years
in orbit, NOAA 18 (launched 2005) and NOAA 19 (launched2009). Once three fail, the era of APT will be at a decisive end.

Figure 8 - The MSG HRIT channels screen

anything. David Taylor discussed this in GEO Quarterly 37.
Please refer to that for clarification. Suffice it to say that the current
MSG satellite is now MSG-3 and not MSG-2.
You should now be ready to actually receive EUMETCast data.
Return to the main MSG HRIT tab at the top of the screen and click
the Start button in the bottom left-hand corner. Within just a few
minutes you should observe images of Earth starting to build up on
the screen as illustrated in figure 8.
As soon as all the global discs are complete, move the mouse overthe first one and right-click on it. A small box will appear asking you
for your preferences—click on View with Detail 1, and the full-sizedimage will appear in a new tab named Detail 1. Having viewed thisimage, you may now want other options. If so, right-click over the
Image and a list of options will appear. Most of the options are self
explanatory.
Some of the options like the ‘Thermal LUT’ and ‘Visible LUT’ canlead to the creation of coloured images (figures 3, 4) but may
require an additional program, GeoSatSignal, to be installed before
they become fully operational.
MSG DataManager is a fantastic piece of software with which
to look at the Earth and its weather. As you become moreexperienced, do try out more of the different parameters built into
the software. You will be amazed at some of the results you obtain.
References
1 EUMETCast and MSG Setup - GEOQ38 (this issue), page 28
2 GeoSatSignal 5: the basic functions - GEOQ9, page 34 (2006)
3 GeoSatSignal 5: advanced options - GEOQ10, page 16 (2006)36

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The Group for Earth Observation

GEO Quarterly No 38

A NASA Earth Observatory Report

On February 17, 2013, the MODIS radiometer aboard NASA’s
Aqua satellite captured this natural-colour image of an atmosphericeddy off the coast of Southern California. This pattern is known
to meteorologists as a Catalina Eddy, or coastal eddy, and forms
when an upper-level air flow interacts with the rugged coastline andislands off southern California.

Catalina eddies can bring cooler weather, fog, and better air quality
into southern California as they push the marine boundary layer
farther inland. These mesoscale eddy patterns can be up to 200
kilometres across and can last from a few hours to several days.
They form most frequently between April and October, peaking in
June.

The interaction between low- and high-pressure systems—with
offshore winds blowing from the north and coastal winds fromthe south—gives the marine stratus clouds a cyclonic, counterclockwise spin. The eddy is named for Santa Catalina Island, one ofthe offshore Channel Islands between Los Angeles and San Diego.

A time-lapse video from the GOES-West weather satellite showsthe evolution of the eddy over roughly eight to ten hours, and canbe downloaded from the URL at the foot of this page.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from the Level 1 andAtmospheres Active Distribution System (LAADS). Caption by Michael Carlowicz

http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/80000/80591/goes_eddy_2013048.h264.mov
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GEO Quarterly No 38

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

GEO Helplines
Douglas Deans

Dunblane, Perthshire, SCOTLAND.

All aspects of weather satellites from APT,
HRPT to Meteosat-9 DVB/EUMETCast
systems.
• telephone:(01786) 82 28 28• e-mail: dsdeans@btinternet.com
John Tellick
Surbiton, Surrey, ENGLAND.
Meteosat-9 advice: registering for the various
MSG services, hardware and software
installation and troubleshooting. John will
also field general queries about any aspect ofreceiving weather satellite transmissions.
• telephone: (0208) 390 3315
• e-mail: info@geo-web.org.uk
Geoff Morris GW3ATZ
Shotton, Flintshire, NE WALES.
Geoff has lots of experience with aerial,coax,connectors, mounting hardware etc. andhas also done a lot of work with the orbiting
satellites. Geoff has been a EUMETCast
Meteosat-9 user for some time and is familiar
with David Taylor’s MSG software. He
should be able to share his experiences with
newcomers to this branch of the hobby.
• Tel: (01244) 818252• e-mail: gw3atz@btopenworld.com
Mike Stevens
Portland, Dorset, England.
Assistance with reception of EUMETCast
to include Metop-A and Metop-B; also MSG
Data reception and set-up within the PC, andassistance with dish alignment and set-up.
• email: mikeg4cfz@gmail.com
Guy Martin G8NFU
Biggin Hill NW Kent, ENGLAND
Guy is prepared to advise anyone who wishing
to receive MSG/Metop using Windows 2000 or
XP. Can also help with networking and ADSL
router setup.
• gmartin@electroweb.co.uk
Hector Cintron
San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
Hector is prepared to field enquiries on HRPT,
APT, EMWIN and NOAAPORT• Phone: 787-774-8657• e-mail: n1tkk@hwic.net
Email contact can of course be made at any
time, but we would ask you to respect privacy
by restricting telephone contact to the period
7.00 - 9.00 pm in the evenings.

38

The Group for Earth Observation

Weather Satellite Reports
If there is a single Internet Forum that isrelevant to all weather satellite enthusiasts,
it must surely be Douglas Deans’ Weather
Satellite reports.
Here you will find every conceivable type of
information about weather satellites, whether
polar or geostationary, APT, HRPT, LRIT orwhatever.
Absolutely everything is covered, and theinformation is updated every week. Special
additional bulletins may be issued if an
important change takes place mid week.
You can read the bulletins from this URL
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/
weather-satellite-reports/
or, even better, elect to have the reports sent
to you by email every Monday.

Internet Discussion Groups

There are a numerous Internet-based
discussion groups available to weather satellite
enthusiasts. You can join any of these by
sending an e-mail to the appropriate address,
with a request to subscribe. Indeed, a blanke-mail containing the word ‘subscribe’ in its
Subject line is all that is required. Some of themore useful groups and their contact addresses
are listed below.
APT Decoder
This is a group where users of Patrik Tast’s
APTDecoder can share information andproblems.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/APTDecoder/
GEO-Subscribers
This is GEO’s own group, where members can
exchange information and post queries relating
to any aspect related to weather satellite
reception (hardware, software, antennas etc),
Earth observation satellites and any GEOrelated matter.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/GEO-Subscribers/
Satsignal
An end-user self help group for users ofDavid Taylor’s Satellite Software Tools(SatSignal, WXtrack, GeoSatSignal, HRPT
Reader, GroundMap, MSG Data Manager,
AVHRR?Manager and the ATOVS?Reader).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/SatSignal/
MSG-1
A forum dedicated to Meteosat Second
Generation (MSG), where members share
information about the EUMETCast reception
hardware and software.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/
group/MSG-1/
www.geo-web.org.uk

June 2013

Copy Deadline for
GEO Quarterly No 39 is
Sunday, July 28
The Editor is always delighted to receive
articles and images for inclusion in
GEO Quarterly. These can relate to any
aspect of Earth Imaging, especially• Technical articles concerning relevant
hardware and software• Construction projects• Weather satellite images• Reports on weather phenomena• Descriptions of readers’ satellite imaging
stations• Activities from overseas readers• Letters to the Editor• Problems and Queries for our experts toanswerContributions should of course be original
and, where possible, should be submitted
to the editor in electronic format (e-mailattachment, CD, DVD). But of course, wewould also accept handwritten or typed copy.
Please note, however, that major articles
which contain large numbers of satellite
images, photographs or other illustrations
should be submitted as early as possible,
so that they can be prepared and made up
into pages in time for publication.
Images and Diagrams
Images can be accepted in any of the major
bitmap formats: JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF etc.
Images in both monochrome and colour are
welcomed. Line drawings and diagrams are
preferred in WMF, EPS or postscript formats.
We can also scan original photographs,
negatives and slides.
Gridding, Overlays and Captions
Please note that readers’ satellite images
should be provided without added grid lines,
country outlines or captions unless these areconsidered essential for illustrative purposes
within an article.
If your article submission contains embedded
images and diagrams, please note that you
must also submit copies of the original
images in one of the formats describedabove: these are essential for page make-up
purposes.
Submission of Copy
Materials for publication should be sent to
the editor,
Les Hamilton
8 Deeside Place
Aberdeen AB15 7PW
ScotlandThe most efficient way to do this is by email
attachments to the following address
geoeditor@geo-web.org.uk
Particularly large attachments (8 MB andabove) can be transmitted via YouSendIt
www.yousendit.com_________________________
And finally . . .
if you do have material ready for the next
issue of GEO Quarterly, please submit it
as soon as it is ready—do not wait till thedeadline above: this will simply create an
editorial log-jam and delay publication.

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GEO Quarterly No 38

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The Group for Earth Observation

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June 2013

This striking image from Meteosat-10, acquired at 13:30 UT on February 18, 2003, was downloaded via EUMETCast by Mike Stevens
Image © EUMETSAT 2013This composite of four NOAA 18 passes on March 9 this year was produced by GEO member André T’Kindt from Ronse in Belgium