Neil Lonie, manager of Dundee University's Satellite Receiving Station, explains how his team gather the images that provide vital information for weather forecasting, climate research – and even airline pilots.

- View the Satellite Receiving Station's images of the January storm.

The Satellite Receiving Station at the University of Dundee is one of the main stations in the UK receiving data from Earth Observation satellites.

Its primary purpose is to collect data and process this into image form, disseminating data and images to UK environmental scientists, and to archive the data to support future investigations.

The receiving station currently has four operational satellite dishes, each approx. 3m in diameter, and a number of other antennas used for research purposes. Staff at the station provide the essential electronic hardware and software expertise to design, build, operate and maintain the receiving systems in-house. The high level of expertise allows rapid repair of systems, which helps maintain a high success rate for collecting data.

The data and images are collected from what most people think of as weather satellites, but are more accurately described as Earth Observation satellites because of the wide range of applications they cover.

There are two types - polar orbiting and geostationary satellites. The polar satellites orbit about 500 miles above the Earth taking 100 minutes for each orbit. They cross the north and south poles during each orbit and pass over our area for about 15 minutes during some orbits.

We track them during these periods using our moving/steerable satellite dishes and receive live data they are collecting of the Earth below. This means we can receive data covering Europe and the North Atlantic to the North Pole.

Geostationary satellites

For the geo-stationary satellites they have a higher altitude orbit about 20,000 miles above the Earth and see a full Earth disc area below. The geostationary satellites orbit in time with the earth’s rotation so each one views its own area, but combined they provide us with full global coverage. The geostationary images are relayed to stations such as ours via communication satellites.

Polar satellites

The polar satellites we receive from provide the highest resolution images we collect. Maximum resolution of our images is generally 1km, but 250m in some cases. This is suitable to show features down to city/regional level, for example, but wouldn’t give detail at street level. There are higher resolution satellites available of course, but data we receive is intended to give regular coverage of larger-scale features.

Staff at the station are not involved with in-depth analysis of the data we receive. Our remit is to receive and archive material and provide the information to support studies in a number of areas.

Our data has been useful in areas such as meteorology, and for marine, biological and geological studies - research which is linked to science priority areas including climate system, biodiversity, natural hazards, pollution and human health.

In the marine sector, for example, data from the station contributes to directing research cruises where it is used to monitor different aspects including sea temperatures and the development and extent of algal blooms. For the terrestrial environment, data have been used for monitoring studies of vegetation and crop yield, wildfire monitoring and bird habitat studies of great bustards in Spain.

Atmospheric studies can include weather conditions and phenomena and the archive has also been used for a long-term study of aircraft contrails.

The station also makes imagery available to news media cross the globe and to the public through free access to imagery on its website. This includes imagery illustrating major and topical events, whether natural or man-made.

Over its 30 years of operations, notable events covered include the Fastnet yacht race storm of 1979, the Buncefield oil depot fire in 2005, volcanic eruptions in Iceland and at Mount Etna, Greek forest fires, severe winter conditions experienced in the UK and Ireland during winter 2010/11, and the recent storms which struck the UK & Ireland.

The archive currently contains over 150,000 recordings from various polar orbiting satellites that provide coverage of Europe and the North Atlantic regions. It also has current and archive images from geostationary satellites that provide global coverage of the Earth.

There is great public interest in the station, particularly through images that are freely available on the website, with around 5 million images downloaded each year. Airline pilots often consult the images before they fly to check weather conditions, and they are also used by flight planning services, satellite operators and national meteorological services.

Over 60 per cent of our registrations are for personal interest and the website imagery is popular with all kinds of users from teachers, students and pupils to individuals. This indicates the level of public interest and the success in promoting public understanding of science, which is also part of the station’s remit.

The Satellite Receiving Station at the University of Dundee is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and offers a combined service with colleagues at the Plymouth Marine Lab. www.sat.dundee.ac.uk