Other Satellites

Overview | Introduction | Geostationary Satellite Data Applications | NOAA Data & Applications
Other Satellites | References

Meteosat and GOES Data

The Bureau accesses real-time, low resolution Meteosat imagery from the European Organisation for Exploitation of Satellites (Eumetsat). Also GOES imagery is accessed by mutual agreement with the Space Science and Engineering Centre (SSEC) using their propriety software via McIDAS's Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE). This software enables the Bureau to extract only that part of the GOES imagery required for analysis and prognosis requirements. The data are received electronically every three hours. They are not archived by the Bureau.

Feng Yun 1D (FY-1D)

China launched Feng Yun-1D (FY-1D) on 15 May 2002. FY-1D is a polar- orbiting satellite, which means that during it's orbit around the earth it (almost) overpasses the North and South poles. On board the satellite is an instrument called a Multichannel Visible and Infrared Scan Radiometer (MVISR), which has 10 channels. Four of these channels are in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, three in the near infrared, one in the short infrared and 2 in the long infrared. The spatial resolution of the instrument is 1.2 km.

The Bureau of Meteorology receives FY-1D data around 6 times per day. This is enough data to provide a complete coverage of Australia once per day.

Feng Yun 2 (FY-2)

China launched its latest geostationary meteorological satellite, Feng Yun-2B (FY-2B), on 25 June 2000 via a Long March-3 rocket from the Xichang Launching Centre, Sichuan Province, China. The satellite is located above the equator at 36,000 km altitude at longitude 105 degrees East and commenced transmissions in January 2001. The satellite provides hourly full-disk images of the Earth in visible and infrared wavelengths. The first successful test images received by the Bureau of Meteorology were obtained at 0132 UTC on 19 July 2000.

The Bureau has developed a full end-to-end processing system for FY-2B data for incorporation into the McIDAS system (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System, a suite of software tools for processing, analysis and display of meteorological and related data). Navigation and calibration issues are being addressed and the data are fully utilised within the Australian Integrated Forecast System (AIFS) environment and archived as part of Australia's climate record. FY-2B is not operational and for technical reasons there are no image transmissions for about 90 days each year, mainly in Autumn and Spring.

ERS-2 & QuikSCAT

The Bureau receives altimeter data from ERS-2, and scatterometer data from QuikSCAT via the GTS network (or internet). This data is used to supplement the conventional data with surface wind speeds for input into the global and regional NWP models.

MTSAT

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) has now developed the second Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT-2), which is planned to be operational in a geostationary orbit at 140 E in 2008. It is the successor to MTSAT-1R which was successfully launched in February 2004.

MTSAT-1R is equipped with an infrared sensor at 3.7 microns (IR 4) in addition to the infrared sensors (IR 1-3) and visible sensors (VIS) on GMS-5. The MTSAT-1R ensemble is fairly similar to that which was on board GOES-9 which was the back-up satellite for GMS-5.

Terra and Aqua