We’re sad to report the passing of former ESA Director of Science Prof. Roger-Maurice Bonnet on 19 January 2026, aged 88. 🔗 esa.int/About_Us/Cor... @cmundell.esa.int @science.esa.int @josefaschbacher.esa.int

From a FengYun 3H pass today at 12:22 UTC: a crop of Sicily with lots of smoke coming from mount Etna and colourful algae blooms around the island

#OTD: 12 November 2014, @esa.int's Rosetta Philae lander made history by touching down on the surface of a comet, the first spacecraft ever to do so. The landing was confirmed at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET 🧪🔭 www.esa.int/Science_Expl... @cnes.fr @dlr-de.bsky.social @operations.esa.int @science.esa.int

Spent today X-band tracking "Le quattro stagioni" of FengYun weather satellites: 3D, 3E, 3F and 3H (and 3G) - data processing is a lot of work, so images later. First this solar FY3E XEUVI image with some nice solar flares and plasma arcs (and a cosmic ray hitting the detector)

Lots of condensation trails can be seen on this Netherlands crop from a FY3F pass @ 10:55 UTC - but if these semi circles near the middle are condensation trails, what was that pilot doing ??

A false colour crop of the Iberian peninsula from a Fengyun 3F pass @ 10:55 UTC. Absolutely shocking to see how big the burnt areas from the recent wildfires are !

From a FY3F pass @ 09:46 UTC today, a Colour Infra Red (CIR) crop centered on Greece. A vast amount of bush fires can be seen, including what looks like a big one on the Island of Chios.

From a X-band pass of FengYun 3D @ 14:33 UTC today a MERSI false colour and true colour UK/Ireland crop.

Infinitely better than the ESA original

From the METEOR-M2 4 KMSS pass this PM, a few European small to mid-sized Isles. 1: Oléron and Ré, 2: Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney (rest under the clouds), 3: Wight, 4: Texel

Using the great SatDump s/w - from @aang23.satdump.org et al - on the verywip branch I managed to salvage some semi-decent image from a bad METEOR-M2 4 pass (4.7 dB pk S/N) from last Friday, showing the Rhine river in between the Vosges and the Black Forest

Italy from the ISS. Enlarged and levels adjusted by me.

Part of todays received X-band harvest. From ELEKTRO-L 2 a (semi)geo-stationary satellite a view of the Western hemisphere with: top-middle Newfoundland and the St Lawrence river to Quebec city, lower left Cuba. From JPSS-2 W-Europe with London, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels.

Proba-3 achieves its first ‘artificial total solar eclipse’ in orbit. The mission can create these eclipses once every 19.6-hour orbit & make them last up to 6 hours. With such observations scientists will be able to answer long-lasting questions about our star 👉 www.esa.int/Enabling_Sup... 🔭 🧪 ☀️

Was busy with two space related activities today: 1. Receiving an X-band image from ELEKTRO-L 2 @ 14:30 UTC today (peak S/N 11.0 dB, avg 10.3 dB) and 2. Reviving a 2014 OpenSUSE VirtualBox VM for processing @science.esa.int Mars-Express data; a Nadir channel image of Phobos by the HRSC camera

From ELEKTRO-L2 @ 17:00 (local) - channel 3.Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic/Haiti, Cuba, Florida and Columbia and Venezuela can be clearly seen.

Using the verywip branch of the mighty SatDump to align the METEOR-M2 4 KMSS channels of an earlier recorded pass (20250402) - a Colour Infra Red view of the Wadden sea and the Northern part of my country. Excellent job @aang23.satdump.org !

I have been using some French and Dutch coastline scenery to optimise my own CADU reading/geometry correction software using a FY3F pass at 12:22 today and the CADU created from it with the unique SatDump S/W. Still some way to go, but not bad. Dotting the i's crossing the t's.

From FY3F @ 11:31 and FY3D @ 15:12 today - in just under 4 hours there is a vast movement and weather evolution in this area around Southern Italy/Sicily.

Two crops from a difficult Suomi NPP X-band pass @ 13:48 local. Southern Italy and NW Europe. Wild signal variations as usual.

A while back I monitored the ELEKTRO-L 2 carrier 16 hours assuming its power would tell me when image transmission signal is best. Today I followed that recipe and received my first "images" of the season, far from perfect. Also noted in between images a low rate TM signal (BPSK ?)

From the METEOR-M2 4 KMSS pass @ 15:20 yesterday. A crop of the Netherlands and the Northern part of Denmark.

While visiting @operations.esa.int today for witnessing the Gaia passivation activities (honoured to have been invited) I noted these portraits at the entrance to the press center: Vera Rubin and Katherine Johnson ….. bravo @esa.int

Crop from a FY3F pass @ 11:06 - Sahara dust blown over the Mediterranean from the Tunisian and Libyan deserts.

True colour crop from the FengYun 3F pass @ 10:38 today. Some of the major European mountain ranges in full glory.

From a FengYun 3E X-band pass at 17:14 today - a fairly cloudless Europe

It must be getting boring, but from further tests today using a FY3F pass at 10:34 local, crop of the Gulf of Bothnia (w. Sea Ice), Norway, Sweden and Finland. The @rfnotmagic (X) SDR @ 122.88 MHz, recorded with @ryzerth (X) SDR++, demodulated and decoded with @aang23.satdump.org et al SatDump

From the second FengYun 3F weather satellite pass today at 12:37 local, some more tests: crop of the UK/Ireland. Using the @rfnotmagic (X) SDR @ 122.88 MHz, recorded, demodulated and decoded with the @aang23.satdump.org et al SatDump software.

From the FengYun 3F weather satellite pass this AM at 10:54 local, some further tests: crop of the North Africa Mediterranean coastline. Using the @rfnotmagic (X) SDR @ 61.44 MHz, recorded, demodulated and decoded with the @aang23.satdump.org et al SatDump software

From the FengYun 3F weather satellite pass this AM at 11:14 local: sun over my country in between the clouds. Doing some testing using the @rfnotmagic (X) @ 61.44 MHz, recorded with @ryzerth (X) SDR++ and decoded with @aang23 et al SatDump software

A big power company wants to build a huge industrial complex near Paranal, the top astronomical site in the world (VLT, ELT etc.). Here is a petition for physics/astro professionals 🧪🔭, please consider signing. Even if you're not, pls help raise awareness by sharing the links in the petition. Thx! 🙏

From METEOR-M2 4 KMSS - channel 3, the area between Wales and the Lake District on the UK's west coast - bottom left the Isle of Anglesey. And from this AM a nice NOAA 21 view of the Black Sea with plenty of snow in the areas around it.

Some recent tests under Mint 22.1. From METEOR-M2 4 a KMSS crop (14:56 today) of Normandy showing the massive floods from storm Hermine (for the nice colours ask @petermeteor or @g5juergenm ). Also two crops from FY3D @ 14:59 yesterday. Storm Hermine and a crop of the Alps.

Couldn’t resist posting this one from Banksy art official on FB

I think we can safely call this the calm before the storm (False colour, Airmass and Water vapour images from FY3D @ 15:16) - and pls ignore Stockholm being in the mid-Atlantic, little s/w problem. Thank you #satdump

Using a GIMP recipe by g5juergenm (X) passed on to me by petermeteor (X) : revisiting a METEOR-M2 4 KMSS pass from 23-oct-2024. Danube delta region/Romanian Black Sea coast - Just need to master Jürgens superior colouring skills ;-) And of course behind the scenes the amazing #SatDump.

Today marks the end of the @esa.int science data taking after some 10.5 years. The data processing by the Gaia DPAC (and ESA) will continue with 2 more data releases around 2026 and the end of the decade. Standing on the sunshield of a Gaia 1:1 model at ESAC back in my @esa.int days.

Here in Holland we started to doubt whether the Sun still existed, but this morning we had blue skies. From a Fengyun 3F pass @ 11:15 - crop of the Netherlands with some snow in the South-East. Also plenty of snow in the UK.

Once again using the #SatDump down convertor on an X-band pass of NOAA 20 @ 13:40. Small crop showing snow deposits on the North of Ireland, Scotland and England. Also, roughly the same area a few hours later in the thermal infrared by Fengyun 3E.

Finally got around to testing the #SatDump X-band down convertor and out of the box, with a little wiring, it worked very well. More real testing to do, but for now pretty happy ! Tested on SYRACUSE 3B and FENGYUN 3E (somewhere under those clouds my country is well hidden).

From a METEOR-M2 4 pass @ 14:37 with max elevation 80.7 east, some KMSS crops. First the Danish east coast, second (North) Yorkshire with snow/frost on the Moors and top left the Pennines. Colour channel alignment is difficult.

From an FY3E pass @ 16:36 - crop of SE Europe in the InfraRed. And for the in-crowd XEUVI was on.

From an X-band pass of Fengyun 3D at 14:14. Seasonal greetings and all the best wishes for 2025.

From an AQUA pass just now @ 15:46 local. The north of Spain with snow on the Pyrenees and the coastal mountain range in northern Spain but also on the Sierra de Guadarrama (NW of Madrid). This satellite was launched probably before the lead developer of #SatDump (the processing s/w used) was born.

2024.12.12 FY-3G | 7790MHz | IR False Color image. | AOS 20:08utc | LOS 20:18utc | TCA EL 56.7 degree | SatDump software by @aang23.satdump.org | UltraTrack by @usa-satcom.bsky.social | Always space for improvement! 👋

2024.12.12 FY-3G | 7790MHz | IR False Color image of the Alps. Adjusted X-Band RF chain boosts signal levels. Still some tracking errors due to poor calibration of the auto-tracking rotator. But because of the cold and wet weather it has to wait to fix that. 73

Decoding SARAL X-Band data from @redplanet00.bsky.social's IQ. It's 16M QPSK, 1/2 10232-bits CADUs. At first glance looks similar to other radar instruments.

Good old AQUA (22.5 years since launch) in X-band from a pass @ 14:00 local. Crop of one of the rare areas in Europe enjoying sunshine.

From a FengYun 3D pass @ 13:55 local - most of NW Europe solidly covered under a blanket of grey. The Alps can just be seen sticking out above the low hanging clouds.

Recently I visited my son, who is doing an internship for his PhD near Dublin. We both wanted to see the giants causeway and we met in Belfast and made a small tour the Irish way ;-) (Dunluce castle, the giant's causeway and the tour bus - Paddywagon)