EUMETSAT Service Interruption 20/03/03
Service News
Last Update: 21 March 2003, day 080
Previous Update: 20 March 2003, day 079
Service Interruption 20/03/03
Around 15:15 UTC on 20/3, EUMETSAT lost all communications links between the Mission Control Centre in Darmstadt and our primary ground station in Fucino, due to a technical problem on the comms equipment. After securing all three satellites via our backup ground station, engineers worked to isolate the problem and recover the links. This finally succeeded around 19:00 UTC, after which Meteosat-7 was configured in full mission mode and resumed dissemination with the slot ending 20:30 UTC (slot 41). Because Meteosat-5 was then still in eclipse, the dissemination of Meteosat-5 data only resumed when the spacecraft was configured in mission mode after the end of the eclipse, which was with the slot ending at 21:30 (slot 43).
Rapid Scanning with Meteosat-6 was suspended as a result of these technical problems with the comms system, and will not be resumed before midday on 25/3 at the earliest to allow comms system investigations to take place.
The root cause of the problems with the comms equipment is not yet fully understood. Specifically, the cause of the loss of synchronisation between the multiplexers resulting in the loss of both the prime and redundant links is a very complex problem to investigate whilst minimising the impact on the operational services.
Test scenarios are urgently being developed which will allow a better understanding to be developed, whilst minimising the impact on the operational services. Currently, both prime and redundant links have been re-established with sufficient performance and stability to allow the safe operations of both Meteosat-5 and Meteosat-7.
