Topic: GOES-16/17 Spring 2020 Solar RFI predicted times are now available

Date/Time Issued: March 6, 2020 0200 UTC

Product(s) or Data Impacted: GOES-16/17 Imager and Sounder Data plus Ancillary Services (GVAR, SAR, LRIT, EMWIN, DCS, GRB, etc.)

Date/Time of Initial Impact: February 29, 2020 1709 UTC

Date/Time of Expected End: March 8, 2020 2150 UTC

Length of Outage: See table in details.

Details/Specifics of Change: The potential for solar radio frequency interference (RFI) with a satellite downlink circuit will occur whenever the Sun passes into the beam of the ground station receiving antenna.

We received the following information from our Mission Operations Division concerning the potential for outages of the GOES data stream including GOES Rebroadcast (GRB), SAR (Search and Rescue), High Rate Information Transmission (HRIT) Emergency Managers Weather Information Network (EMWIN) GOES Data Collection System (DCS), Sensor Data (SD), Telemetry and Command (T&C), Data Collection Platform Report (DCPR), Multi-use data link (MDL), Raw Data Link (RDL), etc.

The Wallops and Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Stations (CDAs) and Environmental Satellite Processing Center (ESPC) receiving antennas may experience periods of Solar RFI as predicted below. Solar RFI can cause loss of telemetry lock and command capability, as well as degradation or loss in the GRB data.

Solar RFI predicted times for the Spring 2020:

SOLAR RFI PREDICTED TIMES FOR SPRING 2020

SPACECRAFT | DATE | TIME | STATION | OPERATIONAL IMPACT
GOES-16 | 29 FEB - 7 MAR | 1709 - 1720Z | WALLOPS | RDL, GRB, T&C, HRIT, DCPC
| 29 FEB - 7 MAR | 1708 - 1719Z | SUITLAND | SAR
| 29 FEB - 7 MAR | 1706 - 1718Z | FAIRMONT |
GOES-17 | 1 MAR - 8 MAR | 2140 - 2151Z | WALLOPS | RDL, GRB, T&C, HRIT, DCPC
| 1 MAR - 8 MAR | 2140 - 2151Z | SUITLAND | SAR
| 23 FEB - 1 MAR | 2114 - 2125Z | FAIRBANK |
| 1 MAR - 8 MAR | 2139 - 2150Z | FAIRMONT | PDA outage 03/04 2140-2147 UT

Contact Information for Further Information: ESPC Operations at ESPCOperations@noaa.gov at 301-817-3880

Web Site(s) for applicable information:

See https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/messages.html for this and other satellite related messages.

See https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/schedules.html for full GOES scanning schedules and scan sectors.

See https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/Operations/GOES/eclipse.html for GOES Eclipse Schedules

See https://www.noaasis.noaa.gov for Direct Services information.

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