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See below. They're now on the backup uplink Master Ground Station (MGS) in Fairmont, WV. Monday morning at 9 AM CT (15Z), they'll cut back over to the primary uplink Master Ground Station in Hauppage, NY. And this mess will finally be over. The following is commentary and might be worth exactly what you paid for it, but here's some things I've thought about, learned, and things burned into my mind during this event... 1. I've got to say it: The NOAAport signal right now is utterly fantastic. The NWS needs to not only pay for the 30 mb/sec upgrade, they need to have the signal 4 db stronger ALL THE TIME, like it is now. Several years ago, it was this strong...then longtime Yahoo! NOAAport users group documented the signal drop. Although then-Americom denied anything was done, anyone with a scope saw what happened. This signal is now a C-band flamethrower, and can survive severe weather assaults. 2. I'd really like to know what happened during those two NOAAPort outages. What caused them, and what the NWS is doing or has done to ensure that it doesn't happen again.3. Hang with me here: It's absolutely needed that the NWS has two locations for an uplink backup...that's a must-have, and it's
currently being utilized, which is wonderful! However, every major broadcast TV network I know of has multiple redundant paths...either via fiber or satellite, to get their products (TV shows) to their end users. For instance, NBC's owned and operated station in Chicago, WMAQ-DT, has fiber from their New York City central video hub to receive all their programming (even the local commercials are fed from New York), but theyalso have a satellite dish as a backup to receive programming in case the fiber fails, or there isn't enough bandwidth to deliver HD programing.
Due to fiber bandwidth constraints two years ago, NBC had to show a few NHL Chicago Blackhawks games in standard definition in Chicago. Enraged Blackhawks fans lit up the WMAQ phones about that, so NBC got WMAQ a satellite dish to pick up the HD feed via satellite. They already had a dish (and still do, AFAIK) to pick up the backup NBC standard def feed on another satellite in case the high def feed ever goes down (which it does whenever it rains hard in New York City, since they uplink it via KU(!) band, received by affiliates on small dishes(!)). All U.S. TV broadcast networkshave two uplink centers, one in or near Los Angeles, the other in New York, so that if one goes down, the other can provide uninterrupted programing. Jay Leno's show is sent in HD to both
New York (primary uplink center) and is also recorded in LA in case New York goes down (which has happened a few times in the last few years with him and his predecessor's shows). I say all that to make the point: these expensive backup systems are simply so that the entertainment flows to us uninterrupted. I can live without Jay Leno. But if NOAAport goes down, tornado warnings don't get out (and God help the WFO spewing out warningsduring a tornado outbreak if that ever happens...right, Texas Panhandle NWS offices?). External users have EMWIN and NOAA Weather Wire Service (NWWS) from Dyncorp which bypasses NOAAport and still work when NOAAport goes down...but those are very limited in what data is sent. Even worse,
the NWS WFO's can't even access either of them! So as I thought about it, here's what I want to see the NWS do so that this doesn't happen again: 1. WFO's must have a NOAAport backup. I suggest A T3 NOAANet connection at each WFO to get the data. Too expensive? Then... 2. NOAAport on a second bird. If SES-1 pulls a Galaxy 15 and loses telemetry, or power...we're all toast, folks. Sure, the NWS will find another home on another bird. But do you know how long that would take to get every WFO's dish repointed? Your dish repointed? (and what's your plan if that happened tomorrow?) I don't know. I'm guessing it wouldn't be hours for many offices... maybe days, or even weeks, for others. Who knows? And if their fiber uplink (the only way they can get data to the NWS HQ) goes dead, again, they're out of luck. And of course, construction workers never slice and dice fiber, and trucks don't catch fire under a bridge below a major fiber conduit crossing, do they? 3. It currently costs over $20,000 per month in comms and rental costs to have the Accu-Weathers, the WSI's, etc to have their own direct connection to the NWS to keep the data flowing during NOAAport outages. And that is too expensive, pretty much, for everyone else. Universities and research entities should be able to access ONE outgoing NOAAport signal via fiber IF AND ONLY IF the feed from the bird goes dead. I say it can be done without hardly any additional cost to the NWS, using the LDM/IDD and UNIDATA as a distribution point. If someone told me that "we can't provide a .EDU feed and the NWS WFO's a fiber feed at the same time, we can only do WFO's"...I wouldn't be happy, but I'd understand, so long as everyone could get the critical data via NWS websites and emails. Right now, we're not even there. And yes, what I propose costs significant bucks, to be sure. But if a tornado hits your home and kills you without warning because you were watching Jay Leno and the station's NOAAport feed was down, you won't be dying laughing. Alright, enough...here's the NWS updates. See below. ******************************************************************************* Gilbert Sebenste ******** (My opinions only!) ****** Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University **** E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx *** web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu ** ******************************************************************************* 386 NOXX01 KWBC 190510 ------------------------------------ UPDATE NUMBER - 001 ------------------------------------ FROM - NWSTG TO - ALL NOAAPORT-SBN CUSTOMERS SUBJECT - GALAXY-15 MITIGATION UPDATE . THE FIRST STEP OF RECONFIGURING THE AWIPS SBN DATA FLOW BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL CONFIGURATION HAS SUCCESSFULLY BEEN COMPLETED. THE AWIPS NOAAPORT-SBN UPLINK IS NOW OPERATING FROM THE BACKUP MASTER GROUND STATION -BMGS- LOCATED IN FAIRMONT, WV. . THE NEXT STEP OF THE PROCESS WILL INVOLVE MOVING THE UPLINK FROM THE BMGS TO THE PRIMARY MGS IN HAUPPAUGE, NY ON DEC 20TH AT 1550Z. . NWSTG . TO REVIEW NWSTG STATUS MESSAGES - GO TO WEATHER.NOAA.GOV FORWARD SLASH TGSTATUS . ---------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------ REMINDER - REMINDER - REMINDER ------------------------------------ FROM - NWSTG TO - ALL NOAAPORT-SBN CUSTOMERS SUBJECT - GALAXY-15 MITIGATION UPDATE . RECONFIGURATION OF THE AWIPS SBN DATA FLOW BACK TO ITS ORIGINAL CONFIGURATION BEGINS TONIGHT. . DEC 19TH - 0500Z THE TEMPORARY MASTER GROUND STATION -MGS- CONFIGURATION WILL BE REMOVED AND THE AWIPS NOAAPORT-SBN UPLINK WILL BE RETURNED TO THE BACKUP MGS STATION LOCATED IN FAIRMONT WV. . DEC 20TH 1515Z THE AWIPS UPLINK WILL BE RETURNED TO THE PRIMARY MGS LOCATED IN HAUPPAUGE NY. . THE RETURN OF THE AWIPS NOAAPORT SBN TO ITS NORMAL CONFIGURATION IS NOT EXPECTED TO CAUSE ANY INTERRUPTIONS. ANY PRODUCTS THAT ARE IMPACTED DURING THE TRANSITION WILL BE RETRANSMITTED. . NWSTG .
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