Metop-SG Direct Broadcast Software

Metop-SG direct broadcast software

For Metop-SG direct broadcast, the conversion from VCDU to level 1b (or 1c in the case of IASI-NG) is performed by software that has been procured by EUMETSAT and is distributed and supported by the NWP SAF.

Release: 30th April 2026

The first set of packages are now released: the processors for: Level 0 (L0), MWS and METimage (VII). These, together with a package of wrapper scripts provided by the NWP SAF, are available from the “Software Downloads” tab, as for other NWP SAF deliverables. Click on “update software preferences” and select the four new EPS-SG packages (or the packages that you are interested in).

The IASI-NG processing software will be provided later.

Please see the User Manual for details on how to download, install and run the packages.

Test data and ancillary files can be found at epssg_db_ancillary_files

Updates 15/06/2026:

  • A new MWS CCDB is available for download in epssg_db_ancillary_files, which relaxes the calibration thresholds for the noisy 183 GHz channels and avoids some data gaps. Download the MWS_AUX_CCDB file into your directory ${EPSSG_DATA}/AUX/MWS, untar it and edit scripts/mws_config.sh to suit.
  • There is a bug in scripts/run_EPSSG_test_data.sh. Lines 192 and 210 should be changed from “cd $common_aux” to “cd $EPSSG_DATA/AUX/common”.

Upcoming release

  • L0 V3.1.1: Run time performance improved for VCDU (greatly) and CADU (significantly, but less) inputs
  • MWS v2.6.1: Mitigation of NedT spikes in the presence of L0 gaps
  • IASI-NG L1CLOP V3.3: Implementation of degraded case: Radiance classification even in the absence of METimage products as input.
  • VII v 4.2.7: Improvement of radiometric quality: striping on thermal channels reduced.

Further information

This presentation from the May 2026 CSPP User’s Meeting gives information on how to run the packages and initial experiences.

Here is a RT-STPS configuration file for Metop-SG-A1, to convert from raw to VCDU (see slide 7 of the above presentation). Download the file and edit it, setting L0_DIRECTORY to your chosen location for the vcdu files. Then you can run the RT-STPS script bin/batch.sh with arguments (i) the configuration file and (ii) the raw file.

Many of the details on requirements for user reception systems are discussed in EUMETSAT’s Metop-SG Direct Readout Guide and in the three documents linked from the bottom of that page.

Two-line elements for Metop-SG A1 are available from EUMETSAT’s TLE page.

Here is an extract from an ITSC-25 poster (6p.02) by Booton et al., explaining the status as of May 2025: