A Windows NT-Based GOES I-M Data Collection System

Since 1978, the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) has operated a satellite earthstation, primarily for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). CIRA’s computer platforms have historically been large servers that were expensive to maintain and operate. Over the last few years CIRA has been migrating away from these expensive servers to lower cost, PC-based systems. It was found that these PCs, when coupled with the Windows NT operating system, provided equal power for researchers and data collection, eliminated maintenance contracts because they can be self-maintained, and they can be easily upgraded to yield better ongoing performance. Therefore, CIRA developed a Windows NT-based GOES ingest system.

To design for a new Windows NT-based GOES data collection system, several important criteria were observed. The first was that the software would require little or no human intervention. This means that the software must be robust and be able to handle a wide range of error conditions. A second consideration was to have the capability to collect and store the full GVAR data stream that includes simultaneous imager and sounder products, priority frames, and all ancillary products. The system must also process or extract any areas required including full, partial, and sampled images, with a great reliability. In addition, processing time needed to improve so images could be generated in real-time with the final products being made available to users immediately.

This paper describes the design and algorithms used to implement the GOES data collection functionality on a Windows NT-based computer. Topics include specialized hardware design, ingest capabilities, image generation, file transfer, and collection monitoring.