Latest Meteosat Stories

Europe's series of Meteosat satellites has been improving the accuracy of weather forecasts for over 30 years. Meteosat-6 has recently broken the record for the operational life of one of these robust missions.The first Meteosat was launched in 1977 and also goes down in history as ESA's first Earth observation mission. There have been a further six of these first-generation weather satellites, with the last launched in 1997.From geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above the equator, the Meteosat...

The decision of who will construct the next generation of weather satellites, or Meteosats, for Europe has been postponed three months. The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) program will cost about $5 billion in all, and should guarantee space-borne weather information until 2040. Thales Alenia Space of France and EADS Astrium of Germany are competing to head the satellites' enlargement. The European Space Agency wants more time to review the qualities of both teams before it comes to a...

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite captured the birth of Tropical Storm Cleo in the southern Indian Ocean on December 7.TRMM is managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, and provides rainfall estimates of tropical systems from its orbit in space. Data from TRMM earlier today revealed that there are some areas around Cleo's circulation where rain is falling at about one inch per hour.At 1200 UTC (7 a.m. ET) today, Cleo had maximum sustained winds near 52 mph...

Aerosols, very small particles suspended in the air, play an important role in the global climate balance and in regulating climate change. They are one of the greatest sources of uncertainty in climate change models. ESA's GlobAerosol project has been making the most of European satellite capabilities to monitor them.Using data from the Along Track Scanning Radiometer-2 on the ERS-2 satellite, the Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer and the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer on...

By Lu, Feng Zhang, Xiaohu; Xu, Jianmin ABSTRACT An automatic image navigation algorithm for Feng Yun 2 (FY2) spin-stabilized geosynchronous meteorological satellites was determined at the National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC) of the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). This paper derives the parameters and coordinate systems used in FY2 image navigation, with an emphasis on attitude and misalignment parameters. The solution to the navigation model does not depend on any...

Today, as throughout history, many aspects of our lives are dominated by the weather "“ our well-being and prosperity relies on it. The economic and social benefits of accurate weather forecasts are immense and include improved efficiencies in agricultural systems, optimised planning of transportation and energy, as well as ensuring our safety.Meteosat launchedSince the launch of the first Meteosat on 23 November 1977, 30 years of imagery combined with increasing computer power have given...

ESA -- The amount of data acquired by satellites is increasing at an exponential rate, and researchers are learning about the value of this data in fighting epidemic outbreaks as a result of the ESA's Epidemio project."I was negative about the role satellites could play in addressing epidemics, but now I am positive," Penelope Vernatsou of the Swiss Tropical Institute in Switzerland said. The ESA-funded Epidemio project was developed in January 2004 to illustrate the benefits of...

ESA -- This week's launch of MSG-2 ensures that satellite images continue to be available to European weather forecasters well into the next decade. It also marks a new chapter in a long-term space experiment measuring the available energy that drives the weather as a whole, and helping to establish how much the Earth is heating up. MSG-2's main instrument is the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-red Imager (SEVIRI) which returns detailed 12-wavelength images of the Earth and its...

ESA -- Medical researchers are using satellites to track massive dust storms blowing across Africa's Sahel belt. The aim is to learn more about lethal meningitis epidemics that often follow in the dust's wake."Meningitis outbreaks take place after a period without rain, low humidity and lots of dust in the air," explained Isabelle Jeanne of the Niger-based Centre de Recherche Médicale et Sanitaire (CERMES), associated with the international network des Instituts Pasteur and a...