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2006-07-03 - Direct-Down-Link As reported previously a cooperative effort is underway involving GSFC Earth Science Missions Operations (ESMO) Project personnel and representatives of the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument to test the Direct Down-Link (DDL) capability to a DDL receiving antenna at the Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) ground station in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in case of SSR failure. The test of those capabilities will occur in 3 periods starting in the latter half of July and early August. As noted before, the key aspect of this effort as far as MODIS is concerned is the determining if the Direct Broadcast stations in North America can successfully capture MODIS data via the I-channel using current ground station resources. To do this will require switching Direct Broadcast (DB) of MODIS data presently being accomplished on the �Q� channel to another data readout channel (the �I� channel). The concern is that the I-channel make not work well with the smaller (~2.5 meter) dishes used by several MODIS DB users. The principal representative of the MODIS DB users is Liam Gumley from the University of Wisconsin. There will be some DB users participating in the test located in Texas, at Goddard, Wisconsin, and perhaps other places.
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