Dominic Flach has recently returned from Athens after completing an X-band radio frequency (RF) survey at the National Observatory of Athens. Before building a ground receiving station it is necessary to make sure there aren’t high levels of contaminating RF signals (e.g. from mobile phone networks) that might interfere with the signal down-linked from the satellite.

The ground station will form a part of the BEYOND project, which is building a centre of excellence for monitoring natural disasters using satellite Earth observation data. The ground station will receive data from the EOS Terra & Aqua (MODIS), NPP & JPSS (VIIRS, ATMS, CrIS, OMPS) satellites and derive products that will help monitor a range of parameters, but particularly atmospheric pollution caused by fires and emissions, which can have serious effects on public health.