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[Datastream #LLM-354086]: Access to GOES-10 South America data

Hi Elvira and Vanesa,

First, let me apologize for my tardy reply...

Elvira asked:

> There is no way to access to the data without using McIDAS?

For the real-time data the answer is no.  For near real-time
data the answer is yes, but not by FTP.  Please see below for
more information on another possibility.

> I would to like automatize the process of downloading the data for
> South America. Can it be done using McIDAS (or any other software) in
> a batch way?

Yes, once can script McIDAS commands to do the download using ADDE.

> Do you know of any program already written to do it?

One typically runs McIDAS/IDV/McIDAS-V out of a script that is kicked
off by cron at appropriate times.  The process is not hard once you
have played with any of these applications.  There is no specific
program that is available for you to do what I think you want.

re: We are curious: can you tell us what your intended use is for
near real-time GOES-10 data?

> Actually, we made a mistake, we are mainly interested by GOES-12 with
> a focus on South America.

OK.  The only problem with GOES-East (currently GOES-12) data is that there
is no fixed schedule for South American surveillance outside of the three-hourly
full disk scans. Since the current series of GOES satellites can not scan fast
enough to image all of the full disk all of the time, scanning is prioritized
to monitor significant weather in the northern hemisphere.  The inability to
monitor the full disk on a more frequent basis than once every three hours was
the principle reason that GOES-10 (formerly GOES-West) was re-purposed for South
American surveillance.  Given this, I believe that you really do want to use
GOES-10 data.  Hopefully, one of the other GOES satellites will be re-purposed
for South American surveillance after GOES-10 is decommissioned!

> We are currently developing a short-term forecast method for large
> convective cloud systems.  To do so we would like to have access to the
> data and not the post-processed images such as usually available in jpg on
> Weather Services Sites.

I understand.  Having the data is _always_ preferable to having pictures
of data.

Question:

- would half hourly composite GOES-East + GOES-10 images be useful?

We generate composites of the 0.65 (VIS), 3.9, 6.5/6.8, and 10.7 (thermal
IR) um channels every half hour and distribute them to our sites with our
LDM/IDD technology (in the UNIWISC datastream).  These images are not true
real-time, but they are pretty close to being so.

The following animated GIF contains thumbnail examples of what the composites
of the various imager channels look like:

http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/staff/tom/storm/uniwisc.gif

The compositing procedure uses as much GOES-East data as possible (since
it is the operational satellite for the eastern part of the western hemisphere)
and composites in GOES-10 data when available and temporally proximate (i.e., 
when
GOES-10 scans are within 15 minutes of GOES-12 scans).  The Universidad de 
Buenos
Aires and INPE/CPTEC (Brazil) both get this datastream via the IDD.  It is
possible that they might be willing to relay you the data.

re: were you aware that GOES-10 is scheduled to be de-orbited
in the first part of December, 2009?

> No we did not know.

We had a meeting about this today.  The current date for de-commissioning
is December 1.  Again, we are hopeful that either GOES-12 or GOES-11 will
be re-purposed for South American scanning in the not too distant future. 

> Thanks for your help

No worries.

Cheers,

Tom
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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: LLM-354086
Department: Support Datastream
Priority: Normal
Status: Closed