OMI Direct Broadcast - Real Time Arctic view with two Receiving Stations
Hassinen, Seppo¹; Tamminen, Johanna¹; Tukiainen, Simo¹; Hakkarainen, Janne¹; Krotkov, Nickolay²; Veefkind, Pepijn³; Joiner, Joanna²; Cable, Jay⁴; Aulamo, Osmo¹; Pirttijärvi, Timo¹; Heilimo, Jyri^1
1FMI, FINLAND; ²NASA, UNITED STATES; ³KNMI, NETHERLANDS; ⁴UAF/GINA, UNITED STATES

The modern society is more and more dependent on real-time information about the atmospheric composition impacting the air quality and air traffic, in particular. The need and usefulness of near-real time (NRT) satellite data products of volcanic ash was clearly recognized during the last major Icelandic volcanic eruptions. While geostationary satellites provide information continuously at lower latitudes the high latitudes are best covered with polar- orbiting satellites.

The NASA's EOS-Aura satellite has a Direct Broadcast (DB) capability, i.e. the ability to broadcast data at the same time as it is measured. This possibility is utilized in the OMI Very Fast Delivery (VFD) Service (http://omivfd.fmi.fi). The service has been operational since 2006 providing almost real time information about atmospheric composition (ozone, aerosols and SO2) and UV radiation, within 20 minutes after measurements are taken. The spatial coverage of these products have been restricted by the fact that the satellite has to be visible from the receiving ground station in Sodankylä, northern Finland. Until recently, the OMI VFD service has provided data only above Europe and Arctic Ocean.

In order to extend the OMI VFD coverage FMI and NASA are updating the service by starting to utilize the second receiving station located in Alaska, USA, and operated by GINA/UAF. The two Direct Broadcast receiving stations (Fairbanks and Sodankylä) will together provide a complete coverage of the Arctic regions for monitoring volcanic emissions, UV radiation and ozone. This allows monitoring of volcanic emissions in addition to Iceland also in Kamatchka peninsula, Aleutian islands and Alaska. In practice, the coverage is still limited by the polar night during the winter months when the OMI products are not available.

In this presentation we demonstrate the operational OMI VFD system and available products.