Between space and the Internet
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about solar eclipses from the Electro-L satellite. The material unexpectedly scored a large number of positive reviews, and I realized a simple thing: with all the skepticism with which the Russian cosmonautics are accepted on the Internet, people are ready to be proud of domestic achievements, if they really are. For many, the photographs of Electro-L became the discovery, and for the science center receiving satellite imagery, the discovery was the interest with which people rushed to the site and began to download uploaded photos.
Literally a week later, I had the opportunity to visit the Scientific Center for Operational Earth Monitoring (NTZ OMZ) and in passing to find out how photos from Russian satellites get on the Internet.
True, the visit took place without a camera: the shooting should be separately coordinated at Roskosmos, and this is a long matter, with an uncertain outcome. Therefore, I had to be content with taking pictures from the street from the center .
NTS OMZ is located in Moscow between the metro stations "Otradnoe" and "Botanical Garden". From a distance, the antenna antennas located on the roof of a ten-story building are already attracting attention, evoking cosmic moods among the gray concrete of the capital’s sleeping area.
Actually from the "plates" and began my acquaintance with the Center. On the roof, I was shown a few antennas, which differ in diameter and the ability to track satellites passing by. The largest plate is 7 m, the rest are smaller - 2.5-5 meters.
“Electro-L” is located in a geostationary orbit, therefore, to receive its signals, there is a sufficiently fixed antenna directed toward the device.
The information is received at the 2.5 meter antenna developed by NTs OMZ, which provides reception at a frequency of 7.5 GHz at a speed of 30.72 Mbit / s, excluding any atmospheric interference (the antenna complex itself allows receiving information at speeds up to 300 Mbit / s and not only from geostationary satellites). For all users, the satellite broadcasts information in the 1.7 GHz band in HRIT / LRIT format, and it can be received with three-meter plates. Anyone who has a suitable antenna can do this, only a decoding format is needed. That is, the results of the satellite are not encrypted and are available in almost the entire hemisphere, which it just removes
')
For sticking and relaxing effect: 7 minutes option
Other satellites fly past quite quickly and require tracking in order to have time to merge all the information.
In addition to Elektra, NTs OMZ receives data from the ISS and from the Resource-DK1, Kanopus-V, BSA, Meteor-M, MKA-FKI, Terra, Aqua, NOAA satellites. The last three are foreign meteorological satellites, information from which is accessible to all. The BSA is also formally foreign - “Belarusian Spacecraft” - although, in fact, it is a clone of our “Canopus-V”, which flies with it in the same orbit with a difference of 180 degrees and works in a single complex.
For Internet users who like beautiful pictures with high details, “Resource - DK1” and “Kanopus-V” (BKA) are of the greatest interest from the Russian technology. They shoot with a resolution of up to 2.1 m per pixel. From civilian space technology - this is our domestic limit. The military may have something more detailed, but, of course, there is no access to it. Although 2.1 m / pix already lags behind the same Goole Map and, in some places, Yandex Maps, but the value of such a survey is repeatable. That is, it is possible to monitor not only the current state of objects on the surface, but also, comparing with previous images, to assess the degree of change. Such observations are important in the event of natural disasters such as fires or floods. In addition, you can monitor the status of water bodies, forests, glaciers, monitor the ice situation in the seas and rivers. The truth is that there is no open access to personnel, therefore we can only be glad for the state structures that use them.
Meteor-M has a low resolution limit of 50 m per pixel. Its results are more relevant specifically for meteorologists or MES. When we entered the Information Reception Complex , the image from the passing “Meteor” just went on the screens.
As they explained to me: “this is not a bug - this is a feature” the technology has been developed by the forces of the NTs OMZ. The satellite was provided for shooting, accumulation and transmission of information, and it was learned to use it as an orbital webcam while there is a direct connection with the Center. On other monitors, the position of the satellite is tracked, telemetry is broadcast, a separate screen shows the position of the antenna on the roof, which monitors the device. The reception complex is located on the 10th floor - closest to space. From there, the images are transferred to the Processing Complexes , where the full technological cycle of data preparation for further use is carried out.
At the end of this stage, the materials are archived on magnetic tapes and sent to an automated tape library, where they are stored without a statute of limitations.
After backup, the images are transferred to the Thematic Processing Complex , which provides for monitoring of land use, forests and fires, ecological and geological monitoring, seismic forecast. A Complex of interaction with consumers provides information to specific customers.
Seismic forecasting is a special topic. It seems that from a satellite you can only see the effects of an earthquake: destruction, cracks, landslides, etc. But it turned out not only. You can even predict with a probability of 90%, accuracy of 0.2 points and three / two / one week. How this is done, I will tell separately it is too difficult and at the same time just to try to explain in two words.
For "Electro-L" has its own camera. The meaning of the satellite is to promptly provide information, so the Reception Complex is immediately involved in processing the images and sending them to the user, Rosgidromet, and directly to the network, that is, for us, to an open FTP server .
On the server, full-length photos are in archives in two formats: JPEG and L15. Each archive contains 11 files. 1,2,3 - this is RGB channels, 4-10 - different infrared bands, and the 11th - combined color snapshot. With the “jeep” is understandable, and L15 is a “secret” format available only to meteorologists. There is no software in the network that allows you to open it and see. True, I was assured that from the point of view of the picture, there is the same thing as on JPEG, and the additional information is just text — everyone there, altitude, temperature, speed ...
Looking at the pictures with the "Electro-L" you can see that the entire field of view outside the Earth's disk is artificially blocked. At first, I thought that this was done mechanically - there was a hood in the cell that cut off the extra external illumination.
But they explained to me that this is not so. Dark background is superimposed programmatically, at the stage of automatic processing. Frames from the satellite come in L10 format (logically, they are L1.0 and L1.5, but in the format name without dots). It still has a lot of digital noise, all sorts of artifacts and there are inconsistencies between the two halves of the frame. The fact is that the device that takes pictures: MSU-GS (multi-zone scanning device of hydrometeorological support) is not a camera and it does not have a matrix.
This is a scanner that has two scanning CCD lines that pass through its field of view, making up the two halves of the future image. The rough combination of the halves is carried out even on the satellite, and the processing and final reduction in the Information Reception Complex at the stage from L10 to L15.
In L10 in the pictures you can see the space. True, apart from the Moon and the Sun, there is nothing to discern, since the pictures are taken in a short exposure, even the night light of megalopolises is not visible on them, not to mention the stars. Such dark pictures were made deliberately, it allows to exclude flare in white clouds and to reveal their multi-level structure. At my request, we found pictures in L10, on which the moon hit, transferred to tiff and uploaded to an FTP server - the Luna.rar archive. It is hoped that comets ISON and PANSTARRS , which are expected this year, will be bright enough to get on the Electro-L frames. The last one will arrive in three weeks. If the staff of the NTs OMZ are as kind as in the case of the Moon, we will see comets from an unusual, in fact, unique perspective.
Design on your desktop on the topic " Earth and the Moon from Electro-L "
When the previous article about our satellites was discussed, in the comments we noticed a large number of gray heads in the radioastron group picture.
They say that space is aging, but there is no replacement.
Walking through the SC of OMZ, I noted that, probably, at least 60% of all the employees we met were younger than 40, and many were 30 years old. The monitoring center has no relation to Radioastron, but my observation: as an illustration of the situation in the modern space industry. In general, the impressions of the Center were very optimistic: the technology is modern, the team is young and enthusiastic. At first glance - no difference from the usual office center: the same girls-designers, the same servers, the same motivating posters with the company's products on the walls, the same jokes in the smoking-room on the stairs, but every morning all employees going to work, plates on the roof they remind you that this office is just space. At some point, associations with the working atmosphere “Monday begins on Saturday” of the Strugatskys have surfaced. With such a resource, it would be possible to indulge with NASA at least in the media field, and there, I hope, it will come to the Solar System.
However, it was enough to stick his nose out of the competence of the Monitoring Center, as he had to return to the current "Roskosmosovskiy" realities. The legacy of military tradition and the heavy bureaucracy affected when it came to the idea of ​​removing the span of asteroid 2012 DA14 .
The asteroid flew on February 15 inside the ring of geostationary satellites at a distance of about 27 thousand km from Earth and 9 thousand km from satellites.
Moreover, its trajectory took place in the field of view of the Electro-L satellite.
The distance and dimensions of the asteroid, in theory, excluded the possibility of observation: the body diameter was 50 m, and the resolution of the satellite at that distance was about 250 m / pix. But there was a modest hope, if the conditions of shooting and lighting were successful. In any case, it would seem "an attempt not to torture." The technical specifications of the satellite indicate that the shooting frequency can be increased from the normal 30 min / frame to 15 min / frame. But in fact, in order to do this, it is necessary to go through a whole chain of approvals: from the camera developer - Russian Space Systems OJSC, to the end user - Roshydromet, only after approval of those and others to apply to the MCC to adjust the operation mode there. In our system, it was impossible to do this in three days.
And most importantly, how to explain why all this? There is no scientific value, and the argument “This is cool!” Will not work for any responsible persons. Designers are experiencing how something is not revealed in the course of extreme, albeit provided by the design, modes of operation. “Roshydromet” is generally offended by “Electro-L” for its quality , so it makes no sense for him to make any efforts to popularize his work. Nobody even understood and didn’t calculate whether it is possible to remove an asteroid. The principle “If it works, do not touch anything” reigns over everything. As a result, darkness:
A similar story repeated after 3 days, when the car collapsed on Chelyabinsk. Who dealt with pictures on open FTP noticed that there are no frames for each day from 6:30 to 8:00. This happens not because of what they are hiding, but because of the fact that the pictures are taken not by the NTs OMZ in Moscow, but by the Novosibirsk branch of Roshydromet. Accepts and holds. The car in Chelyabinsk flew at 7:20, that is, in the pictures at 7:30, its trace in the sky should be clearly visible. The Europeans jumped in, checked their shots and, literally a few hours after the fall, the media around the world flew around the pictures of the satellites Meteosat-9 and Meteosat-10.
"Electro-L" also took off! Where are the frames? And the shots in the Novosibirsk Hydromet are on the shelf. “ Write a written letter, send it to the official reception, we will consider your request. There is no online service, we accept only paper . ” In short, take a bite , the Internet, neither an asteroid nor a meteorite. About the Russian satellites in the news will tell you when some fall again!
In the pictures for 8: 30-9: 30, only the shadow of the scattered meteorite trail was already visible. Although the angle was more successful than the Europeans.
According to “Electro-L”, the Scientific Center specialists were asked a lot of questions, some did not even cope with some and redirected to the developer. I think the satellite will prepare a detailed technical review a little later, when there is enough information. If there are any questions now, let's take a thread for this in the comments, I will try to find the answers.
Photo and video processing of satellite images carried out by members of the community Electro-L Vkontakte.
Literally a week later, I had the opportunity to visit the Scientific Center for Operational Earth Monitoring (NTZ OMZ) and in passing to find out how photos from Russian satellites get on the Internet.
True, the visit took place without a camera: the shooting should be separately coordinated at Roskosmos, and this is a long matter, with an uncertain outcome. Therefore, I had to be content with taking pictures from the street from the center .
NTS OMZ is located in Moscow between the metro stations "Otradnoe" and "Botanical Garden". From a distance, the antenna antennas located on the roof of a ten-story building are already attracting attention, evoking cosmic moods among the gray concrete of the capital’s sleeping area.
Actually from the "plates" and began my acquaintance with the Center. On the roof, I was shown a few antennas, which differ in diameter and the ability to track satellites passing by. The largest plate is 7 m, the rest are smaller - 2.5-5 meters.
“Electro-L” is located in a geostationary orbit, therefore, to receive its signals, there is a sufficiently fixed antenna directed toward the device.
The information is received at the 2.5 meter antenna developed by NTs OMZ, which provides reception at a frequency of 7.5 GHz at a speed of 30.72 Mbit / s, excluding any atmospheric interference (the antenna complex itself allows receiving information at speeds up to 300 Mbit / s and not only from geostationary satellites). For all users, the satellite broadcasts information in the 1.7 GHz band in HRIT / LRIT format, and it can be received with three-meter plates. Anyone who has a suitable antenna can do this, only a decoding format is needed. That is, the results of the satellite are not encrypted and are available in almost the entire hemisphere, which it just removes
')
For sticking and relaxing effect: 7 minutes option
Other satellites fly past quite quickly and require tracking in order to have time to merge all the information.
In addition to Elektra, NTs OMZ receives data from the ISS and from the Resource-DK1, Kanopus-V, BSA, Meteor-M, MKA-FKI, Terra, Aqua, NOAA satellites. The last three are foreign meteorological satellites, information from which is accessible to all. The BSA is also formally foreign - “Belarusian Spacecraft” - although, in fact, it is a clone of our “Canopus-V”, which flies with it in the same orbit with a difference of 180 degrees and works in a single complex.
For Internet users who like beautiful pictures with high details, “Resource - DK1” and “Kanopus-V” (BKA) are of the greatest interest from the Russian technology. They shoot with a resolution of up to 2.1 m per pixel. From civilian space technology - this is our domestic limit. The military may have something more detailed, but, of course, there is no access to it. Although 2.1 m / pix already lags behind the same Goole Map and, in some places, Yandex Maps, but the value of such a survey is repeatable. That is, it is possible to monitor not only the current state of objects on the surface, but also, comparing with previous images, to assess the degree of change. Such observations are important in the event of natural disasters such as fires or floods. In addition, you can monitor the status of water bodies, forests, glaciers, monitor the ice situation in the seas and rivers. The truth is that there is no open access to personnel, therefore we can only be glad for the state structures that use them.
Meteor-M has a low resolution limit of 50 m per pixel. Its results are more relevant specifically for meteorologists or MES. When we entered the Information Reception Complex , the image from the passing “Meteor” just went on the screens.
As they explained to me: “this is not a bug - this is a feature” the technology has been developed by the forces of the NTs OMZ. The satellite was provided for shooting, accumulation and transmission of information, and it was learned to use it as an orbital webcam while there is a direct connection with the Center. On other monitors, the position of the satellite is tracked, telemetry is broadcast, a separate screen shows the position of the antenna on the roof, which monitors the device. The reception complex is located on the 10th floor - closest to space. From there, the images are transferred to the Processing Complexes , where the full technological cycle of data preparation for further use is carried out.
At the end of this stage, the materials are archived on magnetic tapes and sent to an automated tape library, where they are stored without a statute of limitations.
After backup, the images are transferred to the Thematic Processing Complex , which provides for monitoring of land use, forests and fires, ecological and geological monitoring, seismic forecast. A Complex of interaction with consumers provides information to specific customers.
Seismic forecasting is a special topic. It seems that from a satellite you can only see the effects of an earthquake: destruction, cracks, landslides, etc. But it turned out not only. You can even predict with a probability of 90%, accuracy of 0.2 points and three / two / one week. How this is done, I will tell separately it is too difficult and at the same time just to try to explain in two words.
For "Electro-L" has its own camera. The meaning of the satellite is to promptly provide information, so the Reception Complex is immediately involved in processing the images and sending them to the user, Rosgidromet, and directly to the network, that is, for us, to an open FTP server .
On the server, full-length photos are in archives in two formats: JPEG and L15. Each archive contains 11 files. 1,2,3 - this is RGB channels, 4-10 - different infrared bands, and the 11th - combined color snapshot. With the “jeep” is understandable, and L15 is a “secret” format available only to meteorologists. There is no software in the network that allows you to open it and see. True, I was assured that from the point of view of the picture, there is the same thing as on JPEG, and the additional information is just text — everyone there, altitude, temperature, speed ...
Looking at the pictures with the "Electro-L" you can see that the entire field of view outside the Earth's disk is artificially blocked. At first, I thought that this was done mechanically - there was a hood in the cell that cut off the extra external illumination.
But they explained to me that this is not so. Dark background is superimposed programmatically, at the stage of automatic processing. Frames from the satellite come in L10 format (logically, they are L1.0 and L1.5, but in the format name without dots). It still has a lot of digital noise, all sorts of artifacts and there are inconsistencies between the two halves of the frame. The fact is that the device that takes pictures: MSU-GS (multi-zone scanning device of hydrometeorological support) is not a camera and it does not have a matrix.
This is a scanner that has two scanning CCD lines that pass through its field of view, making up the two halves of the future image. The rough combination of the halves is carried out even on the satellite, and the processing and final reduction in the Information Reception Complex at the stage from L10 to L15.
In L10 in the pictures you can see the space. True, apart from the Moon and the Sun, there is nothing to discern, since the pictures are taken in a short exposure, even the night light of megalopolises is not visible on them, not to mention the stars. Such dark pictures were made deliberately, it allows to exclude flare in white clouds and to reveal their multi-level structure. At my request, we found pictures in L10, on which the moon hit, transferred to tiff and uploaded to an FTP server - the Luna.rar archive. It is hoped that comets ISON and PANSTARRS , which are expected this year, will be bright enough to get on the Electro-L frames. The last one will arrive in three weeks. If the staff of the NTs OMZ are as kind as in the case of the Moon, we will see comets from an unusual, in fact, unique perspective.
Design on your desktop on the topic " Earth and the Moon from Electro-L "
When the previous article about our satellites was discussed, in the comments we noticed a large number of gray heads in the radioastron group picture.
They say that space is aging, but there is no replacement.
Walking through the SC of OMZ, I noted that, probably, at least 60% of all the employees we met were younger than 40, and many were 30 years old. The monitoring center has no relation to Radioastron, but my observation: as an illustration of the situation in the modern space industry. In general, the impressions of the Center were very optimistic: the technology is modern, the team is young and enthusiastic. At first glance - no difference from the usual office center: the same girls-designers, the same servers, the same motivating posters with the company's products on the walls, the same jokes in the smoking-room on the stairs, but every morning all employees going to work, plates on the roof they remind you that this office is just space. At some point, associations with the working atmosphere “Monday begins on Saturday” of the Strugatskys have surfaced. With such a resource, it would be possible to indulge with NASA at least in the media field, and there, I hope, it will come to the Solar System.
However, it was enough to stick his nose out of the competence of the Monitoring Center, as he had to return to the current "Roskosmosovskiy" realities. The legacy of military tradition and the heavy bureaucracy affected when it came to the idea of ​​removing the span of asteroid 2012 DA14 .
The asteroid flew on February 15 inside the ring of geostationary satellites at a distance of about 27 thousand km from Earth and 9 thousand km from satellites.
Moreover, its trajectory took place in the field of view of the Electro-L satellite.
The distance and dimensions of the asteroid, in theory, excluded the possibility of observation: the body diameter was 50 m, and the resolution of the satellite at that distance was about 250 m / pix. But there was a modest hope, if the conditions of shooting and lighting were successful. In any case, it would seem "an attempt not to torture." The technical specifications of the satellite indicate that the shooting frequency can be increased from the normal 30 min / frame to 15 min / frame. But in fact, in order to do this, it is necessary to go through a whole chain of approvals: from the camera developer - Russian Space Systems OJSC, to the end user - Roshydromet, only after approval of those and others to apply to the MCC to adjust the operation mode there. In our system, it was impossible to do this in three days.
And most importantly, how to explain why all this? There is no scientific value, and the argument “This is cool!” Will not work for any responsible persons. Designers are experiencing how something is not revealed in the course of extreme, albeit provided by the design, modes of operation. “Roshydromet” is generally offended by “Electro-L” for its quality , so it makes no sense for him to make any efforts to popularize his work. Nobody even understood and didn’t calculate whether it is possible to remove an asteroid. The principle “If it works, do not touch anything” reigns over everything. As a result, darkness:
A similar story repeated after 3 days, when the car collapsed on Chelyabinsk. Who dealt with pictures on open FTP noticed that there are no frames for each day from 6:30 to 8:00. This happens not because of what they are hiding, but because of the fact that the pictures are taken not by the NTs OMZ in Moscow, but by the Novosibirsk branch of Roshydromet. Accepts and holds. The car in Chelyabinsk flew at 7:20, that is, in the pictures at 7:30, its trace in the sky should be clearly visible. The Europeans jumped in, checked their shots and, literally a few hours after the fall, the media around the world flew around the pictures of the satellites Meteosat-9 and Meteosat-10.
"Electro-L" also took off! Where are the frames? And the shots in the Novosibirsk Hydromet are on the shelf. “ Write a written letter, send it to the official reception, we will consider your request. There is no online service, we accept only paper . ” In short, take a bite , the Internet, neither an asteroid nor a meteorite. About the Russian satellites in the news will tell you when some fall again!
In the pictures for 8: 30-9: 30, only the shadow of the scattered meteorite trail was already visible. Although the angle was more successful than the Europeans.
According to “Electro-L”, the Scientific Center specialists were asked a lot of questions, some did not even cope with some and redirected to the developer. I think the satellite will prepare a detailed technical review a little later, when there is enough information. If there are any questions now, let's take a thread for this in the comments, I will try to find the answers.
Photo and video processing of satellite images carried out by members of the community Electro-L Vkontakte.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/169887/
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