EUMETSAT
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EUMETSAT is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by 18 European Member States: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These States fund the EUMETSAT programs and are the principal users of the systems. EUMETSAT also has nine Cooperating States. Those with Hungary, Latvia, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Romania have entered into force whereas the Agreements with Serbia and Montenegro and the Czech Republic are to be ratified in the near future.
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EUMETSAT's primary objective is to establish, maintain and exploit European systems of operational meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT is responsible for the launch and operation of the satellites and for delivering satellite data to end-users as well as contributing to the operational monitoring of climate and the detection of global climate changes.
The activities of EUMETSAT contribute to a global meteorological satellite observing system coordinated with other space-faring nations.
Satellite observations are an essential input to numerical weather prediction systems and also assist the human forecaster in the diagnosis of potentially hazardous weather developments. Of growing importance is the capacity of weather satellites to gather long term measurements from space in support of climate change studies.
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Satellite programmes
Geostationary satellites
Meteosat
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The Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP) is the current EUMETSAT programme responsible for the Meteosat system of geostationary meteorological satellites. It was established to ensure the operational continuity between the end of the successful Meteosat Operational Programme in 1995 and Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), which came into operation at the start of 2004 using improved satellites. The MTP provides an overlap with MSG by continuing the current Meteosat system until at least the end of the year 2005.
The Meteosat system provides continuous and reliable meteorological observations from space to a large user community. In addition to the provision of images of the Earth and its atmosphere every half-hour in three spectral channels (Visible, Infrared and Water Vapour), a range of processed meteorological products is produced. Meteosat also supports the retransmission of data from data collection platforms in remote locations, at sea and on board aircraft, as well as the dissemination of meteorological information in graphical and text formats.
Meteosat Second Generation
With the progression of science, and developments in the accuracy of numerical weather prediction, the need for more frequent and comprehensive data from space has arisen. This has led to the current work on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) system. Meteosat Second Generation is a significantly enhanced follow-on system to the previous generation of Meteosat satellites. It has been designed in response to user requirements and will serve the needs of Nowcasting applications and Numerical Weather Prediction in addition to provision of important data for climate monitoring and research.
The new satellites are spin-stabilised like the previous generation, but with many design improvements. The more frequent and comprehensive data collected by MSG also aids the weather forecaster in the swift recognition and prediction of dangerous weather phenomena such as thunderstorms, fog and explosive development of small but intense depressions which can lead to devastating wind storms.
On 29th January 2004 the first Meteosat Second Generation satellite MSG-1, renamed to Meteosat-8, commmenced routine operations. The launch for MSG-2 is currently planned for 2005.
Polar satellites
EUMETSAT Polar System
While geostationary satellites provide a continuous view of the earth disc from an apparently stationary position in space, the instruments on polar orbiting satellites, flying at a much lower altitude, provide more precise details about atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, although with a less frequent global coverage.
The lack of observational coverage in certain parts of the globe, particularly the Pacific Ocean and continents of the southern hemisphere, has led to the increasingly important role for polar orbiting satellite data in numerical weather prediction and climate monitoring.
From 2006, the continuous view of the Earth provided by Meteosat-8 is expected to be complemented by data from the first operational European meteorological satellite flying in the lower orbit - Metop.
Positioned at approximately 850 km above the Earth, special instruments on board this spacecraft will be able to deliver far more precise details about atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles than a geostationary satellite.
EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) satellites will also insure that the more remote regions of the globe, particularly in Northern Europe as well as the oceans of the Southern hemisphere will be fully covered.
The three Metop satellites form the space segment of EPS, with the launch of the first Metop currently projected for the end of 2005.
External link
- EUMETSAT's Website (http://www.eumetsat.int/).de:EUMETSAT