NOAA-Port Systems and Software
Marta Systems' Windows-based NOAA-Port Groundstations acquire National Weather Service (NWS) hydrometeorological data and information directly from the C-band NOAA-Port satellite broadcast which is carried on the SES Americom AMC-4 spacecraft (previously named GE-4).
ABOUT NOAA-PORT
The NOAA-Port satellite broadcast is operated by the U.S. Government to provide hydrometeorological data and information to over 150 NWS Weather Forecast Offices.
NOAA-Port Groundstation users enjoy timely reception of meteorological data, the reliability of a satellite broadcast, and the unrestricted royalty free use of the data, after the one-time investment in the groundstation.
With deployment of DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcast - Satellite), the NOAA-Port broadcast can be easily upscaled to meet the demand when new science data becomes available and delivery to the NWS field is required.
Hydrometeorological data and information from multiple sources are routed to the NOAA-Port Network Control Facility and processed for transmission over the following four channels:
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GOES Channel The GOES Channel contains information from the GOES East and the GOES West satellite. The GOES East satellite is a data stream consisting of the following imagery products: visible, infrared, and water vapor for the Eastern Conterminous United States (CONUS), Puerto Rico, supernational composites, and Northern Hemisphere (NH) composites. The GOES West satellite is a data stream consisting of the following imagery products: visible, infrared, water vapor for CONUS, Alaska, and Hawaii; supernational composites, and NH composites.
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NCEP/NWSTG Channel From the NWS Telecommunications Gateway (NWSTG), a data stream consisting of model output from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP); the observations, forecasts, watches and warnings produced by NWS Forecast Offices; WSR-88D radar products; and most observational data over North America.
In addition to making all the individual WSR88D radar products available, our NOAA-Port systems can automatically generate custom National and Regional radar mosaics, including a Winter Storm Mosaics that differentiates rain, mixed, and snow.
- NCEP/NWSTG2 Channel The NWSTG2 channel supplements the NWSTG channel.
- Non-GOES Imagery/DCP Data Channel This channel's data stream includes GOES DCP data, GMS/GOES-West/GOES-East/METEOSAT-5/METOSAT-7 composites for visible, IR, and water vapor products (every 3 hours), and OCONUS grids.
TURNKEY SYSTEM SOLUTION
Marta Systems' NOAA-Port Ground stations are turnkey systems, consisting of an RF downlink, and a powerful data acquisition and display workstation utilizing our Yosemite meteorological software suite.
Yosemite NOAA-Port software may also be purchased separately for use with customer provided RF downlinks and or server hardware.
RF DOWNLINK
The groundstation consists of a 12-foot diameter parabolic satellite antenna and galvanized steel mount, CLNB/feedhorn and satellite data receiver/demod with lightning shunt protection.
Optional non-penetrating roof mounts, antenna motor actuator and controllers are available.
DATA ACQUISITION & DISPLAY WORKSTATION
Workstations are based on premium quality commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) servers, running Microsoft's Windows XP Professional or Server 2003 operating system. The systems utilize Intel Pentium dual-core processors or dual Xeon processors and hard drive RAID's to achieve the highest level of performance and reliability.
SMART MULTI-CHANNEL DATA ACQUISITION & DIAGNOSTICS
Multiple data acquisition software receivers can be tuned to any of the available NOAA-Port channels by simply clicking on the desired channel.
The software receivers run as Windows services, in the background, and continue acquiring data even when the user is logged off the system.
Real-time receiver link performance readouts are provided for system data acquisition and processing modes. Real-time readouts include raw Bit Error Rate (BER), corrected BER and signal strength.
Received data is stored on the workstation in the Marta directory structure for use with Marta Systems' Yosemite display and analysis software.
The raw received data may also be made available to third party software via a socket connection. Both local data storage and data export may be utilized simulataneously or either may be diabled by the user.
BUILT-IN DISPLAY & ANALYSIS SOFTWARE FEATURES
Alphanumerics and graphic imagery display and enhancement are handled by Marta Systems’ powerful Yosemite meteorological software suite.
Data fusion supports the ability to overlay any combination of station data, gridded model data, Nexrad radar and satellite imagery.
Web-ready movies incorporating Nexrad, satellite imagery and gridded model data can be published automatically, and are updated with the latest data automatically.
Yosemite support simultaneous File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for product export to a designated host, providing digital imagery throughout a local campus environment (e.g., real-time satellite/radar imagery, watches/warnings, and gridded model analysis on an Internet home page).
Image analysis tools include temperature, histogram, and real-time zoom and pan. User definable palettes, built-in country, rivers/streams, state, county, highway, and airspace map overlays, and a comprehensive drawing set which includes scalable symbols, front lines, and a text editor are included. Real-time navigation readouts follow mouse cursor movement providing latitude and longitude, and distance in nautical miles between any two points.
Please refer to Marta Systems' Yosemite meteorological software suite for additional information.
NETWORK READY
Marta Systems' Yosemite software was designed to support server/client architecture. Network users running only a Yosemite Viewer program on their client workstations have access to all imagery and alphanumeric data, and possess the same graphical enhancement capabilities and movie features built into the Yosemite server system. Yosemite client Viewer applications are available separately for network workstations.
WARRANTY
The longest NOAA-Port system warranty in the industry, Marta Systems provides a One Year Limited Warranty which includes technical phone support and software updates at no charge.
NOAAPORT SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS