Back to main page

WEATHER SATELLITES
===============
POLAR APT, DIGITAL and GEOSTATIONARY WEEKLY STATUS.
==============================================

Author : Douglas S Deans.
E-mail : dsdeans@btinternet.com
Twitter : Douglas Deans @GM4VZY

Sections 3 and 4 have updates.

SECTION 1: POLAR APT/LRPT REPORT – 13th May 2013
=========================================
Satellite Frequency (MHz) Status Image Quality

NOAA 15 137.620 (APT) on good
NOAA 18 137.9125 (APT) on good
NOAA 19 137.100 (APT) on good but see Note 6
Metop-A 137.100 (LRPT) off see Note 2
Metop-B No LRPT service
Meteor M N1 137.100 (LRPT) sporadic see Note 6

CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
None.

THIS WEEK'S POSSIBLE EVENTS.
None expected.

NOTES.
1. NOAA 16's APT transmission system failed a few months after launch.

2. Metop-A's A-side LRPT transmitter has failed. Currently the redundant
B-side transmitter is off until further notice (No further service
expected due to interference with HIRS instrument).

3. NOAA 14 was decommissioned on 23rd May 2007.

4. NOAA 12 was decommissioned on 10th August 2007.

5. NOAA 17 was decommissioned on 10th April 2013.

6. Signals have been reported from Meteor M N1 but they are
sporadic with periods off. Although classed as LRPT it does not
conform to the CGMS standard.
During in-fill carrier phase this satellite can cause interference to
NOAA 19 when footprints overlap.

7. Elements are available from :-
http://www.space-track.org and
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/

LAUNCHES.
None expected.

SECTION 2: POLAR HRPT/AHRPT REPORT – 13th May 2013
============================================
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
None.

THIS WEEK'S POSSIBLE EVENTS.
None expected.

Satellite Frequency Antenna Mode Image Quality
(MHz)
NOAA 15 1702.5 Omni HRPT Weak
NOAA 16 1698.0 RHCP HRPT Good ( note 4)
NOAA 18 1707.0 RHCP HRPT Good
NOAA 19 1698.0 RHCP HRPT Good
Feng Yun 1D 1700.4 RHCP CHRPT Off
Feng Yun 3A 1704.5 see note 6.
Feng Yun 3B 1704.5 see note 6.
Metop-A 1701.3 RHCP AHRPT Good (note 5)
Metop-B 1701.3 RHCP AHRPT Good.
Meteor M N1 1700 See note 7.
NPP see Note 8.

NOTES.

1. NOAA 14 was decommissioned on 23rd June 2007.

2. NOAA 12 was decommissioned on 10th August 2007.

3. NOAA 17 was decommissioned on 10th April 2013.

4. On Friday 19th September 2003 NOAA 16 developed AVHRR synch. problems
similar to those on NOAA 14 (and previously NOAA 15).
Since then reports have been mixed. Some periods of good data, some
poor.
Update 31st March 2012 :- After a short period of poorer images,
with signs of judder, there have been improvements in the scan motor
performance. Please see :-
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/weather-satellite-reports/message/2649

5. On 25 May 2009, Eumetsat extended the coverage of the Advanced High
Resolution Picture Transmission (AHRPT) system on Eumetsat's Metop-A
polar-orbiting satellite. The improved service provides additional
coverage over the Gulf of Mexico and Indian Ocean regions.
For more information, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Media/Features/710601

6. Feng Yun 3A was declared operational on 12th January 2009.
I am also grateful to Dave Wright of Dartcom for confirming that
unfortunately (as usual) the Chinese have not strictly complied with the
CGMS AHRPT Global Standard so reception using a standard Metop AHRPT
receiver is not possible.
Update: The second in the series, Feng Yun 3B was launched on
4th November 2010. I expect the information above for 3A will
equally apply to 3B.
My thanks to Johnny Lin for drawing this to my attention.

7. It appears that Meteor M N1 is neither using full HRPT or AHRPT and
cannot be received using current receivers. Please see other WSR mails
for further explanation :-
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/weather-satellite-reports/message/2098.
Continual sporadic problems with transmission.

8. As this weather satellite has no S-band transmitter, it is included for
information only.

LAUNCHES.
None expected.

SECTION 3: GEOSTATIONARY REPORT – 13th May 2013
=========================================
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
Meteosat 8 (RSS) parallel operation stopped 7th May.

THIS WEEK'S POSSIBLE EVENTS.
None expected.

Europe & Africa
------------------
Satellite : Meteosat 8 (3.5°E)
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital).
Operational : No, standby.

Satellite : Meteosat 9 (9.5° E) (note 6).
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes. RSS service.

Satellite : Meteosat 10 (0°).
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital).
Operational : Yes.

North America
----------------
East.
Satellite : GOES 13 (75° W).
Data: GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT (digital) - 1691 MHz
Operational: Yes.

West.
Satellite : GOES 15 (135°W).
Data : GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT (digital) - 1691 MHz
Operational : Yes.

Satellite : GOES 14 (105°W).
Data : GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT (digital) - 1691 MHz
Operational: No. Standby satellite.

South America
----------------
Satellite : GOES 12 (60°W)
Data : GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
Operational : Yes on South American project.

Asia (Russian Operated Satellite)
--------------------------------------

Satellite : ELECTRO-L (76° E)
Data : HRIT/LRIT.
Operational : Yes.

Asia (European Operated Satellites)
----------------------------------------
Satellite : Meteosat 7 (57.5°E)
HRI (digital) - 1691 MHz
Wefax (analogue) occasionally for ranging purposes
only.
Operational : Yes.

Asia (Indian Operated Satellite)
--------------------------------
Satellite : Metsat
Data : None available.
Operational : Yes.

Satellite : Insat 3A (Note 2.)
Data : VHRR (digital) 2599 MHz
Operational : Yes.

Asia (Korean Operated Satellite)
-----------------------------------
Satellite : COMS (128.2° E)
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes.

Asia & Oceania (Japanese Operated Satellites)
------------------------------------------------
Satellite : MTSAT-1R (140° E) (note 4.)
Data : HRIT (digital) - 1687.1 MHz.
LRIT(digital) - 1691 MHz.
(Note 5.)
Operational : yes

Satellite : MTSAT-2 (145º E).
Data : HRIT (digital) - 1687.1 MHz
LRIT(digital) - 1691 MHz.
Operational : Yes

Asia & Oceania (Chinese Operated Satellites)
----------------------------------------------------
Satellite : Feng Yun 2D (86.5°E).
Data : SVISSR (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes.

Satellite: Feng Yun 2E (104° E).
Data : SVISSR (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes.

NOTES.

1. Meteosat 7 stopped its 0° service at 09.00 UTC on 14th June 2006.

2. Insat 3A is a combined data and meteorological satellite.

3. For those interested in EMWIN data, the following sats/frequencies apply.

GOES 15 (135 W) 1692.700 MHz
GOES 13 (75 W) 1692.700 MHz
For further info. there are many sources but the following is
particularly informative:-
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/emwin/user-intro.htm

4. This satellite is also known as HIMAWARI 6.

5. HiRID and WEFAX was discontinued on 12th March 2008. It was replaced
with HRIT/LRIT (after many months of dual dissemination).

6. Only LRIT (1691.0 MHz) is provided in direct readout.
Full HRIT and LRIT service from Eumetcast.

LAUNCHES.
Japan’s Himawari-8 launch due 2014 (follow on to MTSAT).

SECTION 4: EUMETCAST REPORT – 13th May 2013
======================================

Service Status Eurobird 9A Satellite (9° E)

EARS On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Meteosat 8 (RSS) Off Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Meteosat 9 (RSS) On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Meteosat 10 On Transponder TP63 11976.82 MHz
DWDSAT On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
EPS(Metop-A) On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
EPS(Metop-B) On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Jason On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz

CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
Meteosat 10 Note added.
Meteosat 7 IODC Note updated.
Metop and NOAA Global Data Service Note updated.
Metop and NOAA Regional Data Service Note added.
SAF Products Note added.
Third-Party Data and Products Note updated.
Jason-2 Note added.
Future Events Note updated.

THIS WEEK AND FUTURE POSSIBLE EVENTS.
GENERAL NOTE.
Meteosat Straylight Predictions for Winter/Spring 2013 available on EUMETSAT
Website:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/ServiceStatus/index.htm?l=en
(See Section "Operational Schedules")

METEOSAT 10
15 May 2013.
Enhancement of the interchannel co-registration for Meteosat-10 The image
data processing will be tuned to generally improve the interchannel
co-registration.

METEOSAT 7 IODC.
14 May 2013.
Cloud Mask and Cloud Analysis products available on EUMETCast For full
details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/832345?l=en

14 May 2013 08:00 - 10:00 UTC.
Essential ground segment maintenance.
During this maintenance period the meteorological products from Meteosat-7
will not be available.
This will be followed by a high risk period of 4 hours.

15 May 2013 - 00:58 UTC.
Meteosat-7 East West Station Keeping Manoeuvre.
Users may observe degraded image quality for up to 6 hours following the
manoeuvre.

METOP AND NOAA GLOBAL DATA SERVICE.
15 May 2013 - 30 May 2013 (NB Dates updated).
Improvement of the timeliness of EPS operational services.
For full details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/831836?l=en

11-27 May 2013.
Metop-B IASI External Calibration, in support to an airborne campaign.
Risk of outage to IASI GDS Level 1C of 30 minutes every day during this
period.
For full details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/832852?l=en

15 May 2013 07:00 - 15:00 UTC.
16 May 2013 07:00 - 15:00 UTC.
Essential ground segment maintenance.
During this maintenance period there is a risk of short interruption or
delay of all METOP and NOAA products.

16 May 2013.
New ASCAT Level 1 products become operational For full details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/832545?l=en

19 May 2013 05:12 - 09:12 UTC.
Metop-A - IASI External Calibration.
IASI GDS Level 1C and Level 2 products will not be available.

METOP AND NOAA REGIONAL DATA SERVICE.
15 May 2013.
Start of new EARS-ATMS and EARS-CrIS services on EUMETCast.
For full details, please see the related product news:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/832338?l=en
as well as the web pages describing both services in more detail:
ATMS:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Satellites/GroundNetwork/EARSSystem/SP_201305894856911?l=en
CrIS:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Satellites/GroundNetwork/EARSSystem/SP_201305895754935?l=en

SAF PRODUCTS.
13 May 2013 06:00 - 07:00 UTC.
O3MSAF maintenance period.
During this maintenance period there will be a delay to production and
distribution of the Near Real Time Ozone Profiles (NOP) product in both BUFR
and HDF5 formats on EUMETCast.

THIRD-PARTY DATA AND PRODUCTS.
11 May 2013.
Change to TAMSAT Rainfall Anomaly products distributed on EUMETCast The time
period for calculation of the rainfall anomalies will be changed:
anomalies have so far been calculated against a 10-year average from 2000 to
2009 inclusive; from the first dekad of May 2013 anomalies will be
calculated against a 30-year average from 1983 to 2012.

JASON-2.
16 May 2013 01:14 UTC.
Jason-2 manoeuvre.
A temporary degradation of the quality of all products is to be expected
starting at the time of the manoeuvre.

FUTURE EVENTS.
Third-Party Data and Products.
May 2013 (exact date to be confirmed in due course).
Oceansat-2 - Update of processing software to version 1.4:
- Change in the correction factor for brightness temperature
- Change in rain water flagging algorithm based on noise

Test files are available at:
ftp://ftp.eumetsat.int/pub/EUM/out/OPS/User/Oceansat-2_Test_Data_April_2013/

Metop and NOAA Global Data Service.
13 June 2013.
The update of Metop-A GOME-2 level-1 data with new instrument calibration
key-data has been shifted from the originally planned 7 May 2013 to 13 June
2013. The update is in preparation for the forthcoming tandem operation
phase of both instruments on Metop-A and Metop-B.

The following EPS GDS products are available on Eumetcast.

EPS-2 PID 510 Metop AMSA operational
EPS-3 PID 510 Metop ASCAT operational
EPS-5 PID 510 Metop GOME operational
EPS-6 PID 510 Metop GRAS operational
EPS-7 PID 510 Metop HIRS operational
EPS-8 PID 510 Metop MHS operational
EPS-9 PID 510 Metop SEM operational
EPS-10 PID 510 Metop AVHRR operational
EPS-11 PID 510 Metop IASI operational
EPS-12 PID 510 Metop HKTM operational
EPS-13 PID 510 NOAA AMSA operational
EPS-15 PID 510 NOAA GAC operational
EPS-16 PID 510 NOAA HIRS operational
EPS-17 PID 510 NOAA MHS operational
EPS-18 PID 510 EPS Service News operational
EPS-19 PID 510 Test service operational
EPS-Africa PID 300 EPS Europe/Africa operational
EPS-Global PID 300 EPS Global data operational
(EPS-19 may sometimes be limited to Manufacturers)

NOTES.

1. Reports for all sections should be sent to :-
Douglas Deans. dsdeans@btinternet.com

2. For further information on the Eumetcast service see :-
David Taylor's web site : http://www.satsignal.eu
or the Eumetsat web site : www.eumetsat.int

GENERAL
=======
For further weather satellite related information join GEO, Group for Earth
Observation, and receive the informative quarterly magazine. See :-
http://www.geo-web.org.uk/

To download element sets for all satellites visit the following sites :
http://www.space-track.org and
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/