Humanriff
Verified CFHC User
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Posts: 24
Loc: Davenport, FL
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Can anyone explain to me why the western part of the Horn of Africa and the Atlantic close to it are "blacked out" on most of the satellite images? This is where a lot of the storms form, and it is frustrating not to be able to see this part of the world. I know that it didn't used to be like this. Is this political or technical?
Edited by Humanriff (Wed Sep 20 2006 10:48 AM)
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Clark
Meteorologist
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Two factors: GOES-EAST cannot view that far west without serious distortion, thus giving the appearance of black regions on the satellite image (e.g. http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/goes/east/catl/avn-l.jpg), while METEOSAT/MSG-1 data are available only every 6hr to the public except by special agreement. Thus, on pages like http://weather.msfc.nasa.gov/GOES/globalir.html, you'll only see images there every 6hr or so. That's a decision made by the European Union nations that are part of the METSAT group.
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Gibli
Unregistered
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Good hourly images available here:
http://oiswww.eumetsat.org/SDDI/cgi/listImages.pl?m=bnw
(change sector to full disc or 4 ot 5)
and here:
http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Image_Gallery/Derived_Product_Imagery/index.htm?l=en
(Choose dust or airmass etc ans sectors as above)
Gibli
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Myles
Weather Hobbyist
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Loc: SW FL
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Clark, do you know why they made that decision? What's to gain in restricing the availibility of satellite pics from the public?
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Clark
Meteorologist
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It was made a long time ago, though for what reasons I'm not sure -- perhaps political or economic/competative in nature. Ed might know better than I.
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Ed Dunham
Former Meteorologist & CFHC Forum Moderator (Ed Passed Away on May 14, 2017)
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Loc: Melbourne, FL
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The only thing that I ever heard was that it was strictly for monetary reasons. Usually weather data is free - worldwide. However, when METEOSAT was first launched, certain entities were willing to pay a fee for more frequent access to the data and the EU liked the idea as a means of offsetting costs. I guess that money rules - even in the weather business.
ED
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