Direct Broadcast

HRPT sites | Operational NOAA Polar Satellites | Research Satellites | Future Satellites | EARS

HRPT Sites

The SSSP co-chairs conducted a survey of operational HRPT stations who actively receive, ingest, process and archive weather polar satellite data. Feedback was good, thank you. We kindly request the HRPT representatives who still have not responded to provide the requested information using the survey template as a guide.

More than one hundred HRPT stations are operating around the world. The following map shows a selection of operational stations, thanks to WMO.

HRPT characteristics are provided when available in detailed form from the survey feedback (points in red on the figure) or from the station web page (in yellow).

This survey provides information on the following issues:

description of current and planned direct readout systems within the next ~3 years
description of scientific processing methodologies and regional data application,
participation / plan to expanded coverage of preprocessed HRPT data
for external users:

local data access and distribution protocols,
available scientific packages for ingesting/processing local observation,
available validation datasets

Also, the Direct Broadcast service provides information on ground stations which receive and process those EOS Terra and Aqua data at http://directreadout.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.cfm?section=links&page=eos_db_sites

So far, each station traditionally processes measurement data independently for their own purpose. However, some projects exist which put together information from multiple stations.

In the case of ATOVS, the World Meteorological Organisation has set up a project to co-ordinate data from a number of Regional ATOVS Retransmission Services (RARS) - see the WMO RARS page for the current status of the networks.

One of these regional networks is the EARS system, now operational at EUMETSAT since early 2003, which provides ATOVS level1C data with a timeliness better than 30 minutes suited to the needs of European operational short range regional numerical weather prediction models. EARS makes use of up to 10 different HRPT stations that provide a large coverage of the North Hemisphere. Data are processed with the AAPP pre-processing package and distributed via the GTS and via EUMETCast. EUMETSAT also distribute EARS-AVHRR data from a limited number of European stations via EUMETCast. For more details, see the EUMETSAT EARS page.

Also see for example a map showing the selection of stations that participate in the SeaWIFS project: http://oceancolor.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/hrpt_station_info.pl