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

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

Section 4 has updates.

SECTION 1: POLAR APT/LRPT REPORT – 20th 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 – 20th 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 – 20th May 2013
=========================================
CHANGES SINCE LAST REPORT.
None.

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 – 20th 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.
General Note updated.
Meteosat 10 Note updated.
Meteosat 9 (RSS) Note added.
Meteosat 7 IODC Note updated.
Metop and NOAA Global Data Service Note updated.
SAF Products Note updated.
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")

The EUMETCast Europe service will be upgraded from DVB-S to the DVB-S2
standard in August 2014. For detailed information, please see:-
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/DataAccess/EUMETCast/SP_2013041693924407?l=en

METEOSAT 10
22 May 2012 02:13 UTC.
Meteosat-10 East West Station Keeping Manoeuvre.
Users may experience degraded image quality for up to 3 hours following the
manoeuvre.
Users may experience degraded meteorological product quality for up to 3
hours following the manoeuvre.

23 May 2013 08:00 - 15:00 UTC.
Essential ground segment maintenance.
During this maintenance period there is a risk of a short interruption to
the mission data.

METEOSAT 9 (RSS).
22 May 2013.
Rapid Scan Active Fire Monitoring Product available on EUMETCast.
For more details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/833150?l=en

22 May 2013 09:00 - 13:00 UTC
Essential ground segment maintenance.
During this maintenance period there is a risk of interruption to the Rapid
Scan Service.

METEOSAT 7 IODC.
21 May 2013 09:28 UTC.
Infrared Channel gain change from 12 to 11.

METOP AND NOAA GLOBAL DATA SERVICE.
11 May 2013 -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 - 30 May 2013.
Improvement of the timeliness of EPS operational services.
For full details, please see:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/News/ProductServiceNews/831836?l=en
20 May 2013 - 07:40 UTC orbit 34162
Metop-A - ASCAT Gain Compression.
A short outage of all ASCAT products can be expected.

23 May 2013 07:00 - 15:00 UTC.
24 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.

25 May 2013 19:14 UTC orbit 34240.
Metop-A - GOME2 monthly measurements of GOME-2 polarisation (PMD) data in
raw readout mode (PMDRAW).
Near real-time products from O3M SAF (L2 NTO) will be affected (see SAF
PRODUCTS below).

28 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

SAF PRODUCTS.
25 May 2013 19:14 UTC orbit 34240.
Metop-A - GOME2 operations (see above), O3M SAF Near Real Time Total Column
products (Total Column Ozone, the Total Column NO2, and the Tropospheric
NO2) will be unavailable.

FUTURE EVENTS.
Meteosat 10.
4 June 2013.
Change in dissemination time of the Divergence Product (DIV).
The product will be disseminated five minutes earlier.

Meteosat 9 (RSS).
27 May 2013 09:00 UTC - 29 May 2013 09:00 UTC.
Monthly RSS interruption.
Meteosat-9 Rapid Scanning Service will be suspended for scheduled Full Earth
Scanning.
As a test in view of future operational implementation, Meteosat-8 RSS
SEVIRI image data will be provided in place of the Meteosat-9 RSS image data
during this timeframe (no meteorological products from Meteosat-8 will be
disseminated).
An outage of 15 minutes (or slightly more) can be expected when switching to
and from Meteosat-8.

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.

Third-Party Data and Products.
28 May 2013.
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/

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/

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