Notifications

We are pleased to announce the release of new LSA SAF operational products based on MSG measurements.

Derived Land Surface Temperature (DLST) products provide 10-day syntheses of MSG/SEVIRI LST in the form of temporal composites (LSA-003A) and thermal surface parameters (TSP; LSA-003B), both with an improved spatial continuity. In contrast to individual LST observations, TSP summarise the thermal behaviour of the land surface: therefore, they are readily combined and analysed with other space-derived parameters, e.g. vegetation indices, land cover maps and burn scar maps, to additionally provide applications with thermal information.

The LSA SAF is pleased to announce the release of the new version of the MSG Toolbox software.
MSG Toolbox is a software intended to prepare operational LSA-SAF products for further analysis and use in GIS and Remote Sensing software, in particular by preparing temporal composites and/or by remapping to geographic lat/lon coordinate system and reformatting.

The main change in this second release is the support for LSA-SAF products with coverage of the full MSG Disk.

Next Wednesday (19th July 2017) between 09:00 and 15:00 UTC there is a high risk of missing and/or delayed products due to a planned upgrade on the MSG processing system.

Next Wednesday (5th July 2017) between 13:00 and 16:00 UTC there is a high risk of missing and/or delayed products due to a planned upgrade on the network assets at IPMA's processing centre.

During the following hours and until the 6th July 2017 the upgrade intervention shall continue which might cause some punctual delays on the products distribution. 

The LSA SAF is revisiting the database of users registered in the website. 

All the accounts associated to invalid e-mails were canceled.

Duplicate user registrations (associated to a same e-mail account) were also removed.

We are pleased to announce the release of the following pre-operational products derived from Metop/AVHRR measurements:

• Land Surface Temperature, product LSA-002 (EDLST), corresponding to daily updates of night-time and daytime LST made available on a global 1km sinusoidal grid.
• Albedo, product LSA-103 (ETAL), corresponding to 10-daily updates of land surface albedo made available on a global 1km sinusoidal grid..
• Snow Cover, product H-32, corresponding to daily updates of land surface pixel classification (snow-covered, snow-free, cloud-covered/non-classified) on a global 0.01ºx0.01º regular grid. This product is generated by the LSA SAF system on behalf of the H-SAF (http://h-saf.eumetsat.int).

We are pleased to announce the release of a new LSA SAF operational product based on the MSG/SEVIRI instrument: Reference Evapotranspiration (METREF).

The METREF is produced on a daily basis and is freely available via the Downloading page or via ftp pull service upon request to helpdesk.landsaf@ipma.pt.

METREF is suitable for water management, drought and climate monitoring.

Due to a power supply failure at the IPMA's facilities the LSA SAF production was suspended from 2016/07/12 18:00 to 2016/07/12 23:45.

The following products were not produced during this period:
LST, DSSF, DSLF, FRP-PIXEL, FRP-GRID, ET and FD&M.

The daily products of 2016/07/12 might also be affected by the low number of available observations during that day.
Products affected: DIDSSF, DIDSLF, DMET, MDAL, MFVC, MLAI, MFAPAR.

The FRM products were not affected by this event. 

A minor bug in the pre-processing of data that serves as input to some LSA SAF products has been identified and corrected. The error was related to the reprojection of atmospheric forecast data to satellite grid in coastal regions: under some conditions the interpolation algorithm was wrongly using information from grid-points over sea.

This issue affects particularly products that explicitly use NWP forecasts, such as LST, DSSF, DSLF, ET and FRP.

The algorithm has been corrected and implemented from timeslot 2016/07/07 00:00UTC onwards.

The LSA SAF team would like to announce that the daily and 10-daily vegetation products (FVC, LAI) have been upgraded by the 6th July. 
The new algorithm provides a more accurate identification of the vegetation and soil components, which reduces a positive bias of FVC and LAI values for South America and South Africa regions, and also improves the consistency with other satellite based products. A new condition has been added to better identify pixels with residual snow over Europe.

Due to missing MSG images most of the LSA SAF high-frequency products were not produced yesterday, 11/05/2016 between 07:00 and 12:30 UTC. This issue preceded other period with missing and delayed products (between 10:45 and 12:30 UTC) caused by a planned maintenance activity in the operational processing chain. 

LSA SAF New Operational Product ENDVI: 10-day NDVI synthesis estimated from AVHRR/Metop.

ENDVI10 is available:

• in Near Real Time (LSA-410) and
• as a Climate Data Record starting in March 2007 (LSA-453).

Due to a spacecraft anomaly on MSG3 the nominal service was shifted to MSG1 on 2015/11/15.

This event was associated with a delay in the reconfiguration of the LSA SAF system to operate the backup satellite, which caused an outage in the high frequency products from 2015/11/15 03:30UTC to 2015/11/15 15:30UTC.
Products affected: LST, DSSF, DSLF, FRP-PIXEL, FRP-GRID, ET and FD&M.

The daily products from  2015/11/15 might also be affected by the low number of available observations during that day.
Products affected: DIDSSF, DIDSLF, DMET, MDAL, MFVC, MLAI, MFAPAR.

The LSA SAF products were produced with MSG1 data from 2015/11/15 15:45UTC to 2015/11/18 11:45UTC when the nominal service resumed to MSG3.

The FRM products were not affected by this event. 

The LSA SAF will upgrade the operational MSG production system by 11/Nov/2015.

Product outages are expected during the system migration (08:00-15:00 UTC).

MAIN CHANGES

· Products generated for the full MSG disk.

· Product Output Format: HDF5 upgraded to V1.8.11.

· More reliable operational system (less outages are expected).

· No changes in the product algorithms except for FRP products (reformulated software packages with minor bug corrections).

IMPACT ON USERS

EUMETCast

· No significant impact is foreseen.

· Products will be disseminated through EUMETCast in the same geographical regions: NAfr, SAfr, SAme, Euro.

· A test dataset with products generated by the new LSA SAF - MSG system is available

FTP Push & FTP Pull Services

· Products will be disseminated in a single region: MSG-Disk (the 4 geographical areas will be discontinued). 

· Dimensions of the new region: 3712X3712 pixels.

· Larger file sizes (full disk).

· A test dataset with products generated by the new LSA SAF - MSG system is available

Off-line data request (website)

· New products will be available for a single region: MSG-disk (the 4 geographical areas will be discontinued).

· Dimensions of the new region: 3712X3712 pixels.

· Larger file sizes (full disk).

· Archived products generated by the old system will remain available in the former 4 geographical regions.

6th LSA SAF Workshop - Presentations available

Presentations from the 6th LSA SAF Workshop that took place in Reading last June are now available in the LSA SAF web page.

6th LSA SAF Workshop - Programme available

The programme for the 6th LSA SAF Workshop to be held at the University of Reading (UK) from 8th to 10th June 2015 is now available .

The user´s assessment of LSA SAF products and service is very important for the continuity and preparation of LSA SAF future activities. Taking this into account the LSA SAF has prepared an online questionnaire, available at:

https://landsafworkshops.wufoo.com/forms/lsa-saf-users-survey-2015/

We kindly ask you to follow this link and take a few minutes to complete our questionnaire.

Please note the introduced data are not kept until you click the key submit at the end of the questionnaire but this must only be done when the questionnaire is finished.

The 6th LSA SAF Workshop will be held at the University of Reading (UK) from 8th to 10th June 2015.

(Deadline for abstract submission: 27 April 2015)

During the period between 08/12/2014 00:00 and 08:30 UTC LSASAF products were not generated due to the reception of corrupted MSG images.
The swap back to MSG3 has been anticipated to Monday 08/12/2014 at 09:30 UTC following a contingency. This caused an interruption of nominal service until 15:30.

The normal operations were resumed 08/12/2014 at 15:45UTC.

From 02 December 2014 09:00 UTC to 09 December 2014 09:00 UTC MSG nominal service will shift from MSG3 to MSG1.
During this period the LSA SAF production will be based on the MSG1 image data.
There is a small risk of interruptions, to the LSA SAF production, during the shift operations.

Following LSA SAF message from 2013/05/21 16:00, the dissemination of FRP (Fire Radiative Power) products is resumed.

Please be aware that FRP products generation between 19.02.2014 and 04.06.2014 was impacted by a code error and therefore these data should not be used.

On Tuesday, December the 3rd 2013, offline products distribution shall be resumed via website. Products from 2009 onward will be made available.

Note that, the Website offline distribution service will be provided on a trial basis and can be turned off at any time. However, LSA SAF team will do its best effort to keep it running until the new archive system is operational.

An essential maintenance intervention on IPMA?s Internet link is schedule for tomorrow (27-06-2013) at 06:00 UTC.
From 06:00 till 07:30 UTC there is a high risk of interruption of the connection to the internet and LSA SAF products will be distributed with a delay.
During the rest of the day small outages might be expected but with no significant impact on the LSA SAF distribution.

The dissemination of the FRP (Fire Radiative Power) products will be suspended until further notice.

A bug in the FRP code prevented the algorithm to work as expected after the transition from MSG2 to MSG3 satellite. The period affected by this bug started in19th of February.

Measures to correct it are under way, but a solution may take some time to be implemented. Reprocessing is being considered.

Users will be informed of any developments.

The final tests of LSA SAF system working with MSG3 will be perform today (18-02-2013). There is a medium risk of outage during this day.

By the end of the day it is expected that the LSA SAF system is fully operational with the MSG3.

An essential maintenance intervention on the LSA SAF Database system is schedule for next Wednesday (06-02-2013) at 09:30 UTC , with a foreseeable duration of up to 8 hours.

During this period, small outages are to be expected.

Please note, that as a consequence of the change of the former Institute of Meteorology to the new Portuguese Sea and Atmosphere Institute (Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera - IPMA) the corresponding internet domain changed from meteo.pt to ipma.pt, as well as the email address (example helpdesk.landsaf@meteo.pt changed to helpdesk.landsaf@ipma.pt). Reception of emails sent to meteo.pt will be guaranteed for some time.

For more information, doubts, or problem reporting, don?t hesitate to contact our Helpdesk.

Following the tentative to open the web dissemination services last March, resulting in a crash of the interim storage system, a new archive system is now being tested.

For this test, a limited sample of LSA SAF data is available, namely the full year of 2010 and 2012 from 08-05-2012 13:30 till present.

For data retrieval, the only ordering method available will be the Random slot ordering.

Please allow for 24 hours for the reception of the data. If after this period the data is not available please try again.

The interim storage system currently being used by the LSA SAF was unable to cope with the high volume of products requested through the WEB page. As consequence, the automatic dissemination through the WEB page was suspended and will continue so, for an undetermined period of time.

Meanwhile, the LSA SAF team will continue to process requests made directly to the Helpdesk (helpdesk.landsaf@meteo.pt ).

The project team is working on a solution to reactivate the Web dissemination as soon as possible.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Following the problems detected in the IM Archive System, namely the degradation on data transfer, incompatible with the automatic off-line dissemination, it was necessary to suspend it, at the end of 2011 (see news on 14-12-2011).

As it was stated in the same new, a non-hierarchal new archive system, fully compatible with the next phase of operations, CDOP2 starting in March 2012, it is planned and it will be implemented during 2012.

In meantime LSA SAF products, up to 2011 and all products of 2012, have already been transferred from the IM Archive System to an external interim storage system, called SAAB, which will be used to support the automatic off-line dissemination, including web distribution services.

The transfer of all remaining products (January to December 2011), still on the IM Archive, is running and the data will be progressively made available in the SAAB.

The SAAB system has some limitations in the performance but, in general, shall be able to respond to all user requests, even if increasing a bit the response time.

From 21 to 25 November 2011, the SAF for Land Surface Applications (LSA-SAF) will present itself by organising an event week in which presenters will explain the applications, validation and the access to the various products developed.

This event week will consist of several online sessions given by different institutes represented in the SAF.
Participation is free of cost, you are however asked to register.
Please go to eumetrain to find more details about this event.

Following several outage events, occurred during this week, cause by instability issues in the satellite reception system (VCS), an extraordinary intervention on the VCS system is schedule for tomorrow (2011-06-09). No downtimes are expected, but there is the risk for small interruptions in both the reception and the distribution.
From now on till the intervention, the VCS system will be more strictly monitored by VCS technicians in order to avoid or minimize further outage events.

Since the beginning of this week, several interruptions to the LSA SAF production were registered. These interruptions were caused by an anomaly of the satellite reception system (VCS) preventing the normal flow of satellite images to the LSA SAF systems.
The satellite reception system is schedule to be updated within the next few days.

LandSAF has developed an e-learning module for EUMeTRAIN Project. The training module gives an overall view on the use of Meteorological satellite data for monitoring vegetation cover and properties. It was thought for a broad community and allows users to learn new concepts and techniques in a set of interactive exercises and examples.

Since the 1st of June the LSA SAF webpage presents a new feature concerning the product ordering system accessible through the Download menu.

This new feature consists on separating the Long time series orders from the already existent random slot ordering.

Users can now get a long time series just by specifying the series date interval, the product and area of choice (i.e. without having to select the specific slots after a search on the catalogue).

For more information, doubts, or problem reporting, don’t hesitate to contact our helpdesk.

From this moment on, news messages announced in the LSA SAF Webpage shall be emailed to the interested users.

To start/quit receiving emails from the Webpage regarding a given subject (namely news concerning specific products), users must access their profile in the LSA SAF Webpage and update it accordingly.

Implemented 2 minor modifications allowing to distinguish between sea/space pixels and non-processed pixels over land (in current version -4.0.2- non-processed pixels over land, sea and space pixels had the same QF (-1)).

Memory allocation procedure has been enhanced.

The EUMETCast service provider will perform maintenance on the internet access in the following time period:

Start: 8 Apr 2010 01:00 (UTC)

End: 8 Apr 2010 03:30 (UTC)

Impact:

During this period the data delivery by EUMETCast may be interrupted for periods up to 30 minutes.

For more information please contact EUMETSAT via the usual channels.

On the 23th of March the FRP-GRID product has been declared PRE-OPERATIONAL by LSA SAF Steering Group.

For more information regarding this product, check the Product description page

The values for the following attributes were changed: 
-PRODUCT_ALGORITHM_VERSION: 4.0.1 => PRODUCT_ALGORITHM_VERSION: 4.0.2  
-SATELLITE: MSG (10 times) = > SATELLITE: MSG2  
-INSTRUMENT_ID: SEVI (10 times) = > INSTRUMENT_ID: SEVI  

- Avoid negative ET values and to set missing ET values effectively to -1 instead of -10000 == ET*scaling_factor. 
- Account for a DLSF QF value that lead to unprocessed lines in early morning and night.. 

The FRPPixel product has been declared operational on 01/10/2009.
More detailed information, regrading the algorithm and the FRP product, can be obtained from the documents available from the Document List

- Modification of the FRP estimation and implementation of a new method for the estimation of the FRP error. 
- Global and dataset attributes checked and updated as needed. 
- Storing of all error terms (as requested by Martin). 
- Bug fix for one term of the FRP error. 
- Fixed bugs on the dataset labels. 
- Correction of some attributes value to be compliant with the UMARF specifications.

- Runs over full MSG disk(4 regions) while V03 only over Europe 
- Corrections of instabilities that in version 03 led to systematic non-processed areas. 
- Generates skin temperature as additional output.

This extended maintenance will include:

     LSA SAF essential maintenance - The intervention shall start at 09:00 UTC and is expected to last for 3 hours.

     Electric intervention - The intervention shall start at 09:30 UTC and is expected to last for 1 hour.

     Archive upgrade - The intervention shall start at 10:00 UTC and is expected to last for 5 hours.

     Resuming operational status - Expected time 1 hour.

 During this period (09:00-18:00 UTC) the LSA SAF system will be affected.

This interruption may affect the LSA SAF.