The launch date of the Meteor-M 2 satellite is July 8, 2014.

Global observation of the atmosphere and underlying surface of the Earth, allowing systematic hydrometeorological and heliogeophysical information in a planetary scale.

• global observation of the underlying Earth surface;
• monitoring of environmental conditions;
• monitoring of emergency situations characterized by natural and man-made character;
• agricultural and forestry tasks;
• scientific research;
• collection and transmission of data from different types of SAR (ground, ice, drifting)

• Orbit - circular sun-synchronous, Hs=832 km, T=101,3 min, i=98,85º
• Power supply: daily average - up to 1000 W, maximum within 10 minutes - up to 1350 W
• Term of active existence: 7 years
• Mass - 2700 kg
• Mass of the payload - 320 kg

• Spectrozonal optical instruments of visible and infrared ranges (KMSS, MSU-MR)
• Microwave radiometric instrumentation for temperature and humidity range atmospheric sounding (MTVZA-GYA) - Microwave radiometer
• Infrared Fourier spectrometer for temperature and humidity probing (IKFS-2) - for spacecraft No.2 (Meteor-M)
• Heliogeophysical instrument suite (GGAK-M), incorporating five instruments for studies of emissions of a wide energy spectrum in a single platform
• Airborne radar complex (BRLK), enabling users to obtain radar images of the Earth surface regardless of current weather conditions
• Radio-based data collection and transmission system including the ground-based measuring platform data acquisition system (SSPD)
• Main technical characteristics of Meteor-M spacecraft onboard equipment

Spectral ranges of imagery, microns:

•   red (0.5 ÷ 0.7);
•   near infrared (0.7 ÷ 1.1);
•   medium infrared (1.6 ÷ 1.8);
•   medium infrared (3.5 ÷ 4.1);
•   far infrared (10.5 ÷ 11.1);
•   far infrared (11.5 ÷ 12.5)

Capture bandwidth (when capturing from the 835 km orbit) - 2800 Spatial resolution (pixel projection size on the Earth with H=835 km) - < 1.0 km

The number of spectral channels - 3 Spectral ranges of imaging microns:

•   green MSU-50 (0.37 ÷ 0.45), MSU-100 (0.535 ÷ 0.575);
•   red MSU-50 (0.45 ÷ 0.51), MSU-100 (0.63 ÷ 0.68);
•   near infrared MSU-50 (0.58 ÷ 0.69), MSU-100 (0.76 ÷ 0.9)

Coverage with two cameras working simultaneously - 900 km Resolution - 60-120 m

Probing signal carrier frequency - 9500-9700 MHz Bandwidth - at least 600 km Spatial resolution:

Spatial Resolution:

•   low resolution mode - 0.7×1.0 km;
•   medium resolution mode - 0.4×0.5 km.

• Number of channels - 29.
•  Spectral range - 10.6 ÷ 183.31 GHz
•  Field of view - 1500km
•  Spatial resolution - 16-198 km

Letters GYA provided in the abbreviation were added in honor of Gennady Yakovlevich Guskov (1919-2002), the outstanding designer of space instruments, who pioneered development of a new direction in the microwave probing of the Earth.

• Number of simultaneously serviced DCS platforms - up to 5 thousand.
• Number of simultaneously served DCS platforms - up to 150.

The following software is used to acquire images from the Meteor-M 2 satellite:

• SDR# software for radio signal receipt;
• Orbitron for satellite tracking and Doppler effect control;
• Meteor-M 2 LRPT Analyzer for image interpretation.

Launch the SDR# software and select the radio receiver type: RTL-SDR connected via USB.

Set the switch to the WFM mode and set the bandwidth to 34000 in the “Radio” section.

Make sure that the “Filter Audio” point is unchecked.

Further you need to increase signal amplification. To do this, click on the gear icon.

Move the slider so that the noise level increases by about 10 dB.

This is how the signal received from the Meteor-M 2 satellite looks like.

Information about tracked satellites will appear in the field “Tracking DDE Client”, if Orbitron has been connected properly.

Launch Orbitron and update TLE firstly. Click the button with a tools indication.

Click on the lightning button to update TLE.

Select the file containing information about the weather satellites. Click on the “Load TLE” button.

Download the weather.txt list

Only weather satellites will show up in the side list on the right. Select Meteor-M2, NOAA15, NOAA18, NOAA19.

All selected satellites will be shown in the main software window.

Proceed to the “Calculation” tab and click the “Calculation” button.

The satellites' overflight times will be calculated automatically. Go to the “Rotor/Radio” tab and make sure the tracking button is pressed. The box with indication of the reception frequency (Dnlink/MHz) shall be used to set the following correct frequency: Meteor-M 2 - 137.10 MHz

In order to decode the signals received from the satellite Meteor-M 2, there is the special software called Meteor-M 2 LRPT Analyzer which receives an audio signal taken from the satellite using the SDR# software as its input.

The Meteor-M 2 LRPT Analyzer is launched automatically when the signal is received from the satellite.

The signal quality can be determined based on the chart in the upper left corner of the software. Good signal quality - the satellite is at the altitude of 50 degrees above the horizon.

Excellent signal quality - satellite is at the altitude of 85 degrees above the horizon.

Information about the signal level is displayed under the diagram.

Using the SDR# software a user can see that the signal level from the satellite is more than 20 decibels higher than the noise level.

The left part provides information line by line in the visible range and the right one - in the infrared range.

Clicking on the “Generate RGB” button provides the resulting image.

A special window with the obtained image will be opened and a user can save it.

A user can also analyze an obtained image and try to find cities and geographical objects on it on one's own.

Compare the image with the image taken earlier and check in what way the atmospheric situation has changed.