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G4ROA > WXSAT 20.04.09 08:10l 475 Lines 16900 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: WX Sat Status report 20/4
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To : WXSAT@WW
WEATHER SATELLITES
================
POLAR APT, DIGITAL and GEOSTATIONARY WEEKLY STATUS.
===============================================
Author : Douglas S Deans. dsdeans@tiscali.co.uk
Sections 3 and 4 have updates.
SECTION 1: POLAR APT/LRPT REPORT -- 20th April 2009
===========================================
Satellite Frequency (MHz) Status Image Quality
NOAA 15 137.500 (APT) on good
NOAA 17 137.620 (APT) on good
NOAA 18 137.100 (APT) on good
NOAA 19 137.9125(APT) on see Note 6
Metop-A 137.100 (LRPT) off see Note 3
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
None.
THIS WEEK'S POSSIBLE EVENTS.
Possible switch-on of NOAA 19 AVHRR IR channel for APT.
(should happen eventually !).
NOTES.
1. Three of the older NOAA weather satellites which have been
decommissioned and are tumbling freely are known to sporadically put
out
a carrier on 137.500 MHz. The satellites are TIROS-N, NOAA 6 and NOAA
9
When the relevant footprints overlap this will cause interference to
NOAA 15 when active on this frequency.
Latest report below.
10/04/09 - Report of interference on NOAA 15 signal over east coast of
America (probably from NOAA 9). My thanks to Steven Ross for this
report.
2. NOAA 16's APT transmission system failed a few months after launch.
3. 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).
4. NOAA 14 was decommissioned on 23rd May 2007.
5. NOAA 12 was decommissioned on 10th August 2007.
6. For several weeks the APT will carry 2 visible images (channels 1 and
2). The infra-red system requires out-gassing before being switched
on and is the reason for the delay (usually about 2/3 weeks) in its
operation. My understanding is that the outgassing prevents
precipitation (and contamination) when the coolers are switched on.
Thereafter the APT format should follow the norm of Channel 2
(visible)
and channel 4 (IR) during daylight passes, switching automatically
to channels 3 (3A) and 4 during darkness.
Note : It seems that the normal APT channel arrangement is not applied
until the satellite is operational.
7. Elements are available from :-
http://www.space-track.org and
http://celestrak.com/NORAD/elements/
LAUNCHES.
None due.
SECTION 2: POLAR HRPT/AHRPT REPORT -- 20th April 2009
============================================
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 1702.5 LHCP HRPT Mixed ( note 3)
NOAA 17 1698.0 RHCP HRPT Good
NOAA 18 1707.0 RHCP HRPT Good
NOAA 19 1698.0 RHCP HRPT Good
Feng Yun 1D 1700.4 RHCP CHRPT Good
Feng Yun 3A see note 5
Metop-A 1701.3 RHCP AHRPT Good (note 4)
NOTES.
1. NOAA 14 was decommissioned on 23rd June 2007.
2. NOAA 12 was decommissioned on 10th August 2007.
3. 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: Scan motor performance has recently improved.
4. On 29 September 2008, EUMETSAT commenced a partial Metop-A AHRPT
Direct Readout service. Due to the operational constraints, the
activation of AHRPT is for a limited geographical region covering
the North Atlantic and European area (southbound passes only). This
service is being introduced for a trial period of up to 2 months,
following which the activation scenario will become operational. For
further details on this service see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Access_to_Data/Metop__amp__NOAA_Servic
es/SP_1117714487826?l=en
5. Feng Yun 3A was declared operational on 12th January 2009. My thanks
to
Johnny Lin for drawing this to my attention.
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.
LAUNCHES.
None due.
SECTION 3: CONTINENTAL GEOSTATIONARY WORLD
===========================================
WEATHER SATELLITE REPORT -- 20th April 2009
====================================
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
Meteosat 9 off.
Meteosat 8 now operational satellite.
THIS WEEK'S POSSIBLE EVENTS.
None.
Europe & Africa
------------------
Satellite : Meteosat 8 (9.5°E)
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes, RSS and Standby for Meteosat 9.
Satellite : Meteosat 9 (0°) (note 7).
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : No.
North America
----------------
East.
Satellite : GOES 12 (75.0° W)
Data : GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT (digital) -1691 MHz
Operational : Yes
West.
Satellite : GOES 11 (135°W)
Data : GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT (digital) - 1691 MHz
Operational : Yes
South America
----------------
Satellite : GOES 10 (60°W)
GVAR (digital) - 1685.7 MHz
LRIT - No service.
Asia (Russian Operated Satellite)
--------------------------------------
Satellite : GOMS N2 / ELECTRO-L
Data : HRIT/LRIT.
Operational : Launch date unknown.
Asia (European Operated Satellites)
----------------------------------------
Satellite : Meteosat 7 (57.5°E)
HRI (digital) - 1691 MHz
Wefax (analogue) occasionally for ranging purposes
only.
Operational : Yes.
Satellite : Meteosat 6 (67.5°E) (Note 2).
Asia (Indian Operated Satellite)
-----------------------------------
Satellite : Metsat
Data : None available.
Operational : Present....
Satellite : Insat 3A (Note 3.)
Data : VHRR (digital) 2599 MHz
Operational : Yes.
Asia & Oceania (Japanese Operated Satellites)
-----------------------------------------------------
Satellite : MTSAT-1R (140° E) (note 5.)
Data : HRIT (digital) and LRIT(digital) on 1691 MHz.
(Note 6.)
Operational : Yes.
Asia & Oceania (Chinese Operated Satellites)
----------------------------------------------------
Satellite : Feng Yun 2C (105°E)
Data : SVISSR (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes.
Satellite : Feng Yun 2D (86.5°E).
Data : SVISSR (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : Yes. Parallel operation with 2C.
(My thanks to Johnny Lin for the update).
Satellite: Feng Yun 2E (123.3° E)
Data : SVISSR (digital) and LRIT (digital)
Operational : No. Commissioning.
NOTES.
1. Meteosat 7 stopped its 0° service at 09.00 UTC on 14th June 2006.
2. Meteosat-6 arrived on station at 67.5 degrees East, on the 27 April
2007.
After a short testing campaign, Meteosat-6 is now supporting the DCP
mission over the Indian Ocean during eclipse periods.
3. Insat 3A is a combined data and meteorological satellite.
4. For those interested in EMWIN data, the following sats/frequencies
apply.
GOES 7 (175 W) 1690.725 MHz.
GOES 11 (135 W) 1690.725 MHz
GOES 12 (74.5 W) 1690.725 MHz
For further info. there are many sources but the following is
particularly informative:-
http://iwin.nws.noaa.gov/emwin/user-intro.htm
5. This satellite is also known as HIMAWARI 6.
6. HiRID and WEFAX was discontinued on 12th March 2008. It was replaced
with HRIT/LRIT (after many months of dual dissemination).
7. Only LRIT (1691.0 MHz) is provided in direct readout.
Full HRIT and LRIT service from Eumetcast.
LAUNCHES.
GOES O ....... Launch delayed from 28th April until mid May at the
earliest.
SECTION 4: EUMETCAST REPORT -- 20th April 2009
======================================
Service Status Eurobird 9A Satellite (9° E)
EARS On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Meteosat 8 On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
Meteosat 9 Off Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
DWDSAT On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
EPS(Metop-A) On Transponder TP63: 11976.82 MHz
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
General Notes updated.
Metop Note updated.
THIS WEEK AND FUTURE POSSIBLE EVENTS.
General Notes.
Due to essential archive maintenance from 21/04/09 at 10:00 UTC to
23/04/09
at 13:00 UTC, UMARF orders will not be processed, but will queued for
processing once normal operations have resumed.
Users interested in Archive activities can subscribe to the Message Type;
U-MARF Archive Services News found under the following URL:
http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/UNS/webapps/dataHome.do
Due to essential maintenance on 22/04/09 between 09:00 and 10:00 UTC,
there
is a risk of interruption to RMDCN and Internet Services.
Due to essential EUMETCast maintenance on 22/04/09 between 02:45 and
03:45
UTC, there is a high risk of interruption to all EUMETCast data for less
than 1 minute.
Due to essential maintenance on 22/04/09 between 09:00 and 10:00 UTC,
there
is a risk of interruption to EUMETCast data.
Meteosat 8 / Meteosat 9.
Due to the triggering of a Meteosat-9 safe mode on 17/04/2009 (day 107) at
15:52 UTC, all Meteosat-9 operational services with the exception of LRIT
and meteorological products (these last will follow) have been swapped to
Meteosat-8 with effect from 19:15 17/04/2009 (day 107).
Investigations into the cause of the safe mode triggering are in progress.
Once the cause is understood recovery operations of Meteosat-9 will
commence and operational services will be resumed.
Further announcements will be made as the investigation proceeds. During
this time users will receive SEVIRI, DCP (except IODC) and Met Products
on EUMETCast data channels 2 and 3 with the file name and contents
labeled
as MSG-1.
The files will appear in the same receive directory as the MSG-2 files
were
previously received. No change to the Tellicast client configuration is
needed.
However reconfiguration of the local processing or visualisation software
maybe required for the MSG-1/Meteosat-8 data.
FUTURE EVENTS.
On 07/05/09, EUMETSAT will combine the LEO and Meteosat Operations Weekly
Schedules into one generic Operations Weekly Schedule. The common
Operations Weekly Schedule will be delivered to the User community via
EUMETCast, the UNS Web pages and as part of the email alert service. The
delivery format on EUMETCast will be ASCII and the target directory will
be
Info-Channel-2. Users registered for email alerts will have their
existing
subscription automatically transferred to the new combine Operations
Weekly
Schedule.
FSD.
GOES11_135W eclipse from 09/02/09 to 28/04/09: 09:00 UTC and 10:00 UTC
files
may not be available.
GOES12_75W eclipse from 14/02/09 to 28/04/09: 05:00 UTC and 06:00 UTC
files
may not be available.
MTSAT-1R_140E eclipse from 15/02/09 to 25/04/09: 14:00 UTC and 15:00 UTC
files may not be available.
Metop-A.
21 April 2009, Ground segment maintenance activities present a risk of
short interruptions to or delays to dissemination services.
21 April 2009, BUFR encoding software for ASCAT L2 wind products will be
upgraded to cover the two following aspects:
1) The "Originating sub-centre" field in Section 1 will be set to the
value
of '1' for EARS-ASCAT L2 wind products. The global ASCAT L2 wind products
from the OSI SAF are unaffected by this change.
2) All ASCAT L2 wind products are currently encoded using local BUFR
tables.
After the change, WMO tables version 13 will be used.
Test files encoded using the new software are available on the KNMI
website:
For global OSI SAF ASCAT L2 wind products -
http://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer/ascat_20090405_234800_metopa_12776_eps_o_2
50_ovw.l2_bufr
22 April 2009, Ground segment maintenance activities between 09:00 and
10:00 UTC present a risk of interruption to EUMETCast, RMDCN, and
Internet Services.
ASCAT monthly calibration. Short data interruptions can be expected for
the
following sensing times:
23 April 2009 07:17 orbit 13022
24 April 2009 18:17 orbit 13043
25 April 2009 08:15 orbit 13051
21 April 2009 10:00 - 23 April 2009 13:00, Due to essential archive
maintenance from UMARF orders will not be processed, but will queued for
processing once normal operations have resumed.
Users interested in Archive activities can subscribe to the Message Type;
U-MARF Archive Services News found under the following URL:
http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/UNS/webapps/dataHome.do
EUMETCAST
22 April 2009 02:45 - 03:45, Essential maintenance activities present a
high
risk of a short (less than 1 minute) interruption to all EUMETCast data.
JASON II
None foreseen
EARS
Update to AAPP v6.8 for EARS ATOVS on:
20 April 2009 for Lannion, Athens, Edmonton and Gander
21 April 2009 for Kangerlussuaq, Maspalomas and Svalbard
22 April 2009 for Gilmore Creek, Wallops, Monterey, Ewa Beach and Miami
The update is primarily to adjust NOAA-15 AMSU-B gross limits.
See http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/interproj/nwpsaf/aapp/ for more
details on AAPP 6.8.
21 April 2009, BUFR encoding software for ASCAT L2 wind products will be
upgraded to cover the two following aspects.
1) The "Originating sub-centre" field in Section 1 will be set to the
value
of '1' for EARS-ASCAT L2 wind products. The global ASCAT L2 wind
products from the OSI SAF are unaffected by this change.
2) All ASCAT L2 wind products are currently encoded using local BUFR
tables.
After the change, WMO tables version 13 will be used.
Test files encoded using the new software are available on the KNMI
website:
For EARS-ASCAT L2 wind products -
http://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer/ascat_20090405_230533_metopa_12775_ear_o_2
50_ovw.l2_bufr
Note that both of the above changes also affect the EARS-ERS L2 winds
demonstration service. Test files for this demonstration service are also
available on the KNMI website:
For EARS-ERS L2 wind products -
http://www.knmi.nl/scatterometer/scatt_20090405_231050_ers2___00000_ear_o_2
50_ovw.l2_bufr
The following EPS GDS products are available on Eumetcast.
EPS-2 PID 510 Metop AMSA operational
EPS-3 PID 510 Metop ASCAT operational
EPS-4 PID 510 Metop ATOVS 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-10 PID 510 Metop AVHRR operational
EPS-11 PID 510 Metop IASI operational
EPS-13 PID 510 NOAA AMSA operational
EPS-14 PID 510 NOAA ATOVS 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
NOTES.
1. Reports for all sections should be sent to :-
Douglas Deans dsdeans@tiscali.co.uk
2. For further information on the Eumetcast service see :-
David Taylor's web site
http://www.satsignal.eu => Weather Satellites, Using EUMETCast
or Satellite Tools, MSG
Data
Manager.
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/
==========================
73's - Adrian, G4ROA @ GB7COV
Message timed: 06:39 on 20 Apr 2009
Message sent using WinPack V6.70 (R)
(Prog written by Roger Barker, G4IDE/G8MZX, Silent Key 09/09/04)
Member of:
AMSAT, RSGB, GEO & RAYNET
QTH Loc - IO92gj
NGR SP 342 765
GPS 52deg 23.15min N
001deg 29.83min W
E-Mail: G4ROA@AOL.com
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