Monthly Archives: January 2018

Products Generated by the Community [12]

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Diego, from the ClimaSurGBA webpage (Quilmes, Argentina), is creating very nice plots for the ABI channels 13 and 02 using data downloaded from Amazon S3. High resolution images from his webpage for channel 13 here and for channel 02 here. Diego followed the Python Tutorial Series, changing the image projection. You may see a script to download GOES-16 NetCDF’s from Amazon on this Blog post.

climasurgba-IR-lowclimasurgba-VIS-low

This Blog series shows the products developed by the community in the Americas. Most of them refers to data received from GNC-A, however, we also post the development with data received from other means (Amazon S3, FTP, etc). Please find below the other posts from this series:

Community Development.png

New Operational GNC-A Station: COPECO (Station n° 76!)

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We have a new GNC-A operational station! It was installed at COPECO, the Permanent Contingency Commission of Honduras. The antenna is shown at the picture below:

Honduras - COPECO.png

Amazing photo of the antenna with the Flag of Honduras in the background! 

They are using the following hardware:

LNB:

  • Manufacturer: NORSAT
  • Model: 3525 C-Band (3.4-4.2 GHz) PLL LNB
  • Manual: Link

DVB-S Receiver:

  • Manufacturer: NOVRA
  • Model: S75+
  • Supported technology: DVB-S
  • Webpage: Link

Honduras - COPECO 2.png

Thanks COPECO!

Do you have a newly installed GNC-A instation that hasn’t been shown in the Blog? Please send us a photo to [email protected].

GEONETCast-Americas Portable Station

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Portable_GNC-A_1.png

Today we made a successful test (thanks Cesar!) with a portable (and cheap) GNC-A Station, using a gasoline power generator. The image below shows an illustration of this concept:

Portable_GNC-A_13.png

And this is the real setup we used:

Portable_GNC-A_2.png

First, we adjusted the antenna azimuth / elevation and the LNB Skew according to www.dishpointer.com:

Portable_GNC-A_3

And we got a signal lock (the “LOCK 1” LED on the Ayecka SR1 Receiver turned green):

Portable_GNC-A_4

The notebook started ingesting, storing the data on the 1 TB external hard drive. The incoming data is shown on the FAZZT Received Files Log:

Portable_GNC-A_5Portable_GNC-A_6

The image below shows a Natural Colors RGB (METEOSAT) from Jan 23 2018, 12:00 UTC, uploaded by INPE:

Portable_GNC-A_7.png

We did a quick test, uploading a text file to the GNC-A “Training Channel” (you should see this text file in your station!). The images below show an online machine in our office at Cachoeira Paulista, Brazil, sending the text file via FTP to the GNC-A teleport, on Ellenwood, Georgia, USA:

Portable_GNC-A_8.jpgPortable_GNC-A_9

Then, the text file is sent to the GNC-A uplink system server, encoder and modulator, sent to the GNC-A rebroadcast satellite (IS-21) and received by all GNC-A stations:

architecture

The image below shows the file being received at the offline Portable Station:

Portable_GNC-A_10

And the file opened:

Portable_GNC-A_11.png

This is the total cost of this setup:

  • Antenna (1,5 m): USD 100,00
  • Tripod: USD 100,00
  • LNBF: USD 100,00
  • Ayecka SR1 DVB-S2 Receiver: USD 600,00
  • FAZZT Professional Client Licence: USD 500,00
  • Gasoline Generator: USD 223,00
  • Notebook: USD 460,00
  • External HD: USD 70,00

Total: USD 2153,00

Portable_GNC-A_12.png

We’ll continue testing this setup and look for partners (Civil Defense?) in order to make this really useful. Here are some advantages:

  • Only need power for the DVB-S receiver (and notebook if it is discharged)
  • No internet connection needed
  • Ability to add data to the GNC-A broadcast on demand – no format restrictions!
  • Ability to add data prepared within or outside the region of interest
  • GEONETCast-Americas approved for use as auxiliary data distribution system by the International Charter “Space and Major Disasters”.

Products Generated by the Community [11]

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INMET, the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology, one of the Brazilian GNC-A users, is using Python (our good old friend) to convert data received from GNC-A to binary, so it can be read and plotted by SeaSpace Terascan.

GOES_MSG_IV_P_hPa_201801181200.png

They are using GOES-16, METEOSAT and GFS model data. GOES-16 data may be found at “GOES-R-CMI-Imagery” GNC-A folder, METEOSAT data can be found at “MSG-0degree/IMG-3h/” and GFS data can be found at both “ISCS-GRIB2” folder (Global) and “MARN-El Salvador” folder (South and Central Americas / Caribbean). More about GNC-A and GFS here and here, and more about GNC-A and MSG here and here.

GNC-A Folders Example.png

And below, some more examples:

AS12_TN201801181445.jpgGOES_MSG_IV_v200hPa_201801181200.pngAS12_VA201801181515.jpgbr_VPR201801181530.jpgbr_VI201801181530.jpg

INMET has six GNC-A Stations, at Brasilia (Federal District), Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul), Recife (Pernambuco), Belém (Pará),  São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro:

INMET Stations.png

Here are some nice photos! Warning: Our Brazilian jungles everywhere! 😆

Brazil – INMET-PA
Brazil – INMET-DF
Brazil – INMET-SP
Brazil – INMET-RJ
Brazil – INMET-RS
Brazil – INMET-PE

Thanks for sharing INMET!

This Blog series shows the products developed by the community in the Americas. Most of them refers to data received from GNC-A, however, we also post the development with data received from other means (Amazon S3, FTP, etc). Please find below the other posts from this series:

Community Development.png

JPSS-1 (NOAA-20) GNC-A Channels Already Set Up

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20171213-VIIRS_FirstLight.png

NOAA-20 VIIRS First Light Image (December 13, 2017) broadcasted throught the GNC-A “JPSS\EVENTS” Channel

Soon, the three GEONETCast-Americas channels that will broadcast NOAA-20 will already be visible at the FAZZT Professional Client channels list (“Configuration” > “Channels”), as in the picture below. For now, the stations will see only the “EVENTS” folder, that has already been used.

JPSS FAZZT Channels Square

In your GNC-A ingestion directory, a “JPSS” folder will be created, with three folders inside it, called “BANDS”, “EVENTS” and “PRODUCTS”.

JPSS FAZZT Folders

Inside the “BANDS” folder, VIIRS bands will be broadcasted in NetCDF. At first, the Day Night Band and the I5 Band (10.5 ~ 12.4 μm) will be broadcasted. Inside the “PRODUCTS” folder, MIRS and GCOM products will be received. Finally, inside the “EVENTS” folder, imagery from events will be broadcasted, like the wildfire in California from the picture on the beginning of this post, received on GNC-A stations in december.

We’ll post the details on the products as soon as the broadcast starts. Stay tuned!

DISCLAIMER: Until NOAA-20 (JPSS-1) satellite has been declared operational, its data are preliminary and will be undergoing testing. Users receiving these data through any dissemination means (including, but not limited to, GNC-A, PDA and HRD) assume all risk related to their use of the NOAA-20 data and NOAA disclaims any and all warranties, whether express or implied, including (without limitation) any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Products Generated by the Community [10]

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CONAGUA, one of the Mexican GNC-A users, is using GDAL to generate several plots from the GOES-16 NetCDF’s received through the system. Below are some nice examples:

CONAGUA-IR-Global.jpgCONAGUA-IR-WVCONAGUA-MX-VISIBLE.jpgCONAGUA-VIS-Valle.jpgCONAGUA-IR-CONUS.jpgCONAGUA IR - America Central.jpgCONAGUA-RGB-YucatanCONAGUA-RGB-Caribe.jpg

The RGB above is generated using Channel 02 as Red and Green and Channel 14 as Blue.

CONAGUA has five GNC-A Stations, two at Mexico City, one at Tuxtla Gutierrerez (Chiapas), one at Merida (Yucatán) and one at Boca del Río (Veracruz):

Conagua stations.png

Mexico – CONAGUA-YUCATÁN
Mexico – CONAGUA-VERACRUZ
Mexico – CONAGUA-SMN
Mexico – CONAGUA-CHIAPAS
Mexico – CONAGUA-DF

Great job CONAGUA! Do you also want to learn GDAL? Please take a look at our GDAL tutorial.

This Blog series shows the products developed by the community in the Americas. Most of them refers to data received from GNC-A, however, we also post the development with data received from other means (Amazon S3, FTP, etc). Please find below the other posts from this series:

Community Development.png

New Operational GNC-A Station: INAMHI (Station n° 75!)

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We have a new GNC-A operational station! It was installed at INAMHI, the National Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology, Ecuador. The antenna is shown at the picture below:

ecuador-inamhi.png

The station was installed by MB de Colombia, who provided a Capacity Building session on the system. The next session will be about SIGMACast!

Ecuador - INAMHI Training.jpg

Welcome to the community INAMHI!

Ecuador - INAMHI B.png

Do you have a newly installed GNC-A instation that hasn’t been shown in the Blog? Please send us a photo to [email protected].

GNC-A Stations From Knight-Sky (Stations 73 and 74!)

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Knight-Sky, the GNC-A Service Provider, kindly shared some information about their two confidence remote GNC-A stations.

USA - Knight-Sky

One of their terminals is located at their office in Frederick, Maryland and the other at the GNC-A teleport in Ellenwood, Georgia. Both terminals use the KenCast Edgespan 1U Appliance allowing access via web, ftp and smb/cifs.

EdgeSpan.jpg

As for antenna/LNB, the receiver at Ellenwood is connected to the large teleport antenna (the same one used to broadcast the DVB-S carrier) receive chain. In Frederick, they use a 1.8M GD SATCOM/Prodelin Antenna (Series 1184) on a Baird Non-Penn mount located on the roof of their office, with a Norsat 3000 Series LNB.

The GNC-A Blog reached 20,000 views from more than 100 countries!

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20000_Views_Globe.png

In the last week the GNC-A Blog reached 20000 views from more than 100 countries! Thank you to all our readers!

20000_Views_Map.png

The most viewed pages are:

The top 10 visitor countries are:

  • 1 – Brazil
  • 2 – USA
  • 3 – Peru
  • 4 – Mexico
  • 5 – Germany
  • 6 – Colombia
  • 7 – Cuba
  • 8 – Canada
  • 9 – Argentina
  • 10 – Costa Rica

New Operational GNC-A Station: DMH-DINAC (Station n° 72!)

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We have a new GNC-A operational station! It was installed at the Atmospheric Surveillance Unit of DMH-DINAC, the Directorate of Meteorology and Hidrology of the National Directorate of Civil Aeronautics, Paraguay. The antenna is shown at the pictures below:

Paraguay - DINAC A.png

The station was used to receive the EUMETCast-Americas broadcast and now it has been converted to GNC-A. This is the setup they are using:

Antenna:

Manufacturer: BAKOF
Model: 2.60 m
Web: Link

LNB:

Manufacturer: GREATEK
Model: SPL3703AX
Web: Link

DVB-S Receiver:

Manufacturer: Technisat
Model: SkyStar PCI

Paraguay - DINAC B.png

Do you have a newly installed GNC-A instation that hasn’t been shown in the Blog? Please send us a photo to [email protected].