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Further Reading

GOMS

The year 1994 witnessed the long-awaited debut of the Geostationary Operational Meteorological Satellite (GOMS) system of Elektro spacecraft. Originally proposed for a maiden flight in 1978-1979, GOMS has suffered both technical and budgetary problems. The objectives of the program, as stated in 1991, are as follows:

• "a to acquire, in real time, television images of the Earth surface and cloud within a radius of 60 degrees centered at the sub-satellite point in the visible and IR regions of the spectrum;
• to measure temperature profiles of the [Earth surface (land and ocean) as well as cloud cover;
• to measure radiation state and magnetic field of the space environment at the geostationary orbital altitude;
• to transmit via digital radio channels television images, temperature and radiation and magnetrometric information to the Main and regional data receiving and processing centers;
• to acquire the information from Soviet and international data collection platforms (DCPs), located in the GOMS radio visibility, and to transmit the obtained information to the main and regional data and processing centers;
• to retransmit the processed meteorological data in the form of facsimile or alphanumerical information from the receiving and processing centers to the independent receiving stations via satellites;
• to provide the exchange of high-speed digital data (retransmissions via the satellite) between the Main and regional centers of the USSR State Committee for Hydrometeorology;
• to call for the data collection platforms to transmit the information to the satellite." (Reference 661).

The GOMS network will eventually consist of three spacecraft spaced 90 degrees apart in the geostationary ring: at 14 degrees W, 76 degrees E, and 166 degrees E. Each 2.6-metric-ton spacecraft will have a payload capacity of 650-900 kg with an estimated operational lifetime of at least three years. The satellites will be 3-axis-stabilized and receive a maximum of 1.5 kW (900 W for the payload) produced by two rectangular solar arrays (Figure 4.80). Twelve communications channels will link the spacecraft to the receiving and processing centers, the independent data receiving center, and the data collection platforms. The main data receiving and processing center is in the Moscow region while two regional centers are located at Tashkent and Khabarovsk (Figure 4.81).

The Elektro spacecraft instrument suite is summarized in Table 4.6, although the 6-7 1lµm scanning radiometer might not appear until the second mission. The telephotometer is limited to a total of 24 frames per day (each framing session lasts 30 minutes of which 15-20 minutes is imaging time), and only 4-5 frames can be successively taken at the 30 minute per frame imaging rate. This high frame rate will normally be employed around 0000 and 1200 GMT, in part, to permit the calculation of wind speed and direction data. DCP information will be collected and transmitted at three-hour intervals each day, i.e., 0300 GMT, 0600 GMT, etc. (References 661-663).