Episode Transcript

As well as looking to the future, the University of Dundee watches the skies. The images used by broadcasters and newspapers to illustrate particularly bad weather over the UK are generated by the University’s satellite receiving station.

The NERC satellite receiving station has been recording these images since 1978, with a full archive kept to supply images on demand, for six days online and following that on request.

There are QuickLook images online, which show the full satellite pass as received in Dundee in low resolution.

The images captured by the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station can be used to study the atmosphere, including cloud patterns and weather phenomena. They can provide a closer look at the oceans, gauging sea temperature and, importantly, ice cover. The images that tend to be picked up broadcasters are those that show the land. These can detail features of the terrain or show, quite beautifully, when the whole of the UK is covered with snow.

The Dundee Satellite Receiving Station receives and archives polar orbiting satellites, as well as Meteosat, a geostationary satellite. To know where to point the antennae, it uses a set of orbital parameters for each satellite, and from there can then make predictions of when it will pass again. This means it can produce customised predictions for customers anywhere in the world.  

As well as receiving the data and archiving, it can offer near-real time and archive scientific processing. With systems running around the clock, the most recently processed data can be available for view over online within two hours of it being received at Dundee, or about seven hours for global data.

It can also provide guidance and advice to scientists in the field regarding the conditions for launching marine research cruises and aircraft campaigns.
Also with its roots at the University, is STAR-Dundee Ltd. This is a spin-out company, dealing with spacecraft and focusing on Spacewire technology.

A computer network for use on board spacecraft, Spacewire connects instruments, mass-memory, processors, the downlink telemetry, and other onboard sub-systems.
It was established in 2002 by Professor Steve Parkes, an academic entrepreneur. One of its main clients is NASA but it also has links across Europe and China.The Spacewire technology is a collaborative project involving the European Space Agency (ESA), as well as academia and partners in industry.

STAR-Dundee works in partnership with the University but also has partners across the globe. The £1.87m it received to collaborate on Very High Speed Serial Interfaces was awarded by the EU.

The University of Dundee has retained equity in the company and therefore receives regular dividends. The relationship is key to further advancements, as the company continues to develop and license technology from the University.

The University can also progress knowledge enhancement within the company and know that STA-Dundee is a source of employment for postgraduates and PhD students.