Status of the Multi-Functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) Program

Prepared for APSDEU-6, 1-3 June 2005, Seoul/Korea

Akihiko NakazonoOffice of International Communications,

Forecast Dept., Japan Meteorological Agency

Nozomu OhkawaraMeteorological Satellite Centre,

Japan Meteorological Agency

IR4 (3.7mm)VIS

IR3(WV:6.7mm)IR1 (11mm)

First images from MTSAT-1R ( 24 March 2005)

IR2 (12mm)

• MTSAT-1 was failed to launch in November 1999

• GMS-5 had been deteriorating its function – The imaging function has been backed

up by GOES-9, in cooperation with NOAA/NESDIS, since 22 May 2003

Back-up of GMS-5 with GOES-9

The left end of a picture is

missing

Sub-satellite point of GOES-9

●●

Sub-satellite point of the GMS-5

MTSAT (-1R / -2) Program

• The successor to the GMS-5 – 3 axis stabilized satellite– 2 missions

• Aeronautical Mission (JCAB)• Meteorological Mission (JMA)

MTSAT-1R

• MTSAT-1R was successfully launched on 26th Feb 2005.

• The in-orbit test of MTSAT-1R has been performed.

• After checking-out of the whole system, including ground facilities, dissemination of imagery from MTSAT-1R will be started. – Test dissemination started on 31th May– The commencement of operational dissemination is

to be announced as soon as defined.

MTSAT-2

• The functions are same as MTSAT-1R

• MTSAT-2 is planned to be launched within the fiscal year (by the end of March 2006).

Improved Functions(Common to MTSAT-1R/-2)

GMS5 MTSAT GMS5 MTSAT

Visible VIS 0.55~0.90 m 6 bits 10 bits 1.25 km 1 km

IR1 10.3~11.3 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR2 11.5~12.5 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR3 6.5~7.0 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR4 3.5~4.0 m ---- 10 bits ---- 4 km

Infrared

QuantizationSensor Channel

Spectral band(MTSAT)

Spatial Resolution*

• An additional 3.7mm channel (IR4)• Improved data quantization : 10 bits (1024 levels) /pixel

Note: * At the sub-satellite point New Function Improved Function

Improvement of Services• Half hourly observation for northern hemisphere• No cancellation of observations caused from eclipse pheno

mena • New HRIT and LRIT dissemination services• Continuance of HiRID (S-VISSR compatible) and WEFAX diss

emination services to support user’s migrations• Separate and Independent dissemination service for MDUSs

and SDUSs• Continuance of the Internet dissemination service for MDUS

users (IR1 only)

Observation Schedule of MTSAT-1R

: Full-disk ObservationN S

: Northern Hemisphere ObservationN

: Southern Hemisphere ObservationS

Low Rate Information Transmission (LRIT, 2005~)

• Digital data transmission (64Kbps)– Conventional data compression (JPEG, lossless or lo

ssy)• Contents

– MTSAT Imagery– MANAM

VIS6bits

IR18bits

IR28bits

IR38bits

IR48bits

The Full Earth's Disk Imagery 5km* - o - o -The East Asia Imagery 6.4km o o - O O

The north-east of Japan Imagery 2.4km O - - - -The south-west of Japan Imagery 2.1k O - - - -

o Same products on WEFAXO New products

Spectral Channel

Imagery TypeSpatial

Resolution

* at the subsatellite point

High Resolution Imager Data (HiRID, 2005~2007)

• Compatible with S-VISSR format of GMS-5• IR data with 10 bits level resolution are available• An additional 3.7mm data are also available

S-VISSR FORMAT

IR1

IR2

IR3

VIS1

VIS2

VIS3

VIS4

8 bits 6 bits

IR1

IR2

IR3

VIS1

VIS2

VIS3

VIS4

Upper 8 bits 6 bits

HiRID FORMAT

IR3

IR2

IR1

IR4

10 bitsLower 2 bits

Time gap(No signal)

Doc

umen

tatio

nD

ocum

enta

tion

High Rate Information Transmission (HRIT, 2005~)

• Digital Data Transmission (3.5Mbps)– Conventional data compression (JPEG, lossless)

• Contents– Full resolution imagery of all channels

• Spatial resolution of all channels are improved• VIS data are also available with 10 bits resolution

– NAMAM

GMS5 MTSAT GMS5 MTSAT

Visible VIS 0.55~0.90 m 6 bits 10 bits 1.25 km 1 km

IR1 10.3~11.3 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR2 11.5~12.5 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR3 6.5~7.0 m 8 bits 10 bits 5 km 4 km

IR4 3.5~4.0 m ---- 10 bits ---- 4 km

Infrared

QuantizationSensor Channel

Spectral band(MTSAT)

Spatial Resolution*

Timetable of observation and imagery dissemination

　

　

　

　

X

Summary of Satellite Operation and Data Dissemination

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

MDUS　 Users

Internet(RSMC-DSS)

SDUS Users

Direct Broadcast

Internet(JMA-HP)

GMS-5 operation Stand-by

MTSAT-1R operation Stand-by

Stand-by MTSAT-2 operation

GOES-9 back-up operation started in May 2003

S-VISSR

JMA Web

LRITWEFAX

　HRIT

S-VISSR(IR1)

Direct BroadcastHiRID

Satellite

HRIT(IR1)

Expected improvements of Products

• Sea Surface Temperature (SST)

• Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT)

• Cloud & Water Vapor Motion Winds

(CMWs & WVMWs)

• Cloud Grid Information Data (CGID)

Sea Surface Temperature (SST)

• IR4 (3.7mm) data was useful to discriminate low level clouds from cloud-free sea in nighttime- Decrease the error due to misjudged low level clouds in

nighttime

Comparisons between satellite SST with/without 3.7mm data and buoy measurements ( Left : bias, Right : RMSE )

bias (mean) RMSE (mean) With 3.7m -0.21 (K) 　 1.55 (K)Without 3.7m -0.29 (K) 　 1.78 (K)

Comparisons between satellite SST and surface temperatures of numerical weather prediction (NWP) model

( Left : SST calculated with 8 bits IR simulation data Right : SST calculated with 10bits IR simulation data )

with 8 bits data with 10 bits dataCORR 0.994 0.998RMSE 0.873 0.441

• IR channels data with 10 bits level resolution is expected to improve the accuracy of calculated SST

Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT)

• VIS data with 10 bits level resolution will enable the calculated AOT resolution to be 0.01 from 0.1

Cloud & Water Vapor Motion Winds (CMWs and WVMWs)

15 minutes 30 minutes

CMWs 169 104

WVMWs 239 177

• 15 minutes interval observations increased the number of CMWs and WVMWs about 20%

(Tokuno, 1997)

Cloud Grid Information Data (CGID)• CH4 (3.7mm) data will improve the classification

of low level clouds in nighttime

(Tokuno, 1999)

• General Informations, Announcements and Imageries http://www.jma.go.jp/JMA_HP/jma/jma-eng/satellite/index.html

• Time Table http://www.jma.go.jp/JMA_HP/jma/jma-eng/satellite/NEWS/timetable_test.pdf http://www.jma.go.jp/JMA_HP/jma/jma-eng/satellite/NEWS/dissemination_plan.pdf

• Technical Informations & Samples http://mscweb.kishou.go.jp/

• MANAM Examples http://mscweb.kishou.go.jp/user_support/manam_sample/mtsat_manam.htm

For Your Reference

Thank you for your attention!

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