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The 'Meteosat' series of satellites are geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT under the Meteosat Transition Programme (MTP).
The program 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.
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Contents

First generation

Second Generation

Space Debris Impact

References

External links

First generation

The first generation of Meteosat satellites, Meteosat-1 to Meteosat-7, provide 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), via the Meteosat Visible and Infrared Imager (MVIRI) instrument, 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.
The satellites were manufactured by a consortium COSMOS, with Aerospatiale as Prime, includind Matra, MBB, Selenia Spazio, Marconi Company.

Second Generation

The contract for the second generation was awarded to Aerospatiale (now Thales Alenia Space) with main subcontractors as Matra, Messerschmitt, Alenia.
Meteosat Second Generation was designed in response to user requirements to serve the needs of Nowcasting applications and Numerical Weather Prediction. In addition the GERB instrument provides 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 January 29 2004 the first Meteosat Second Generation satellite MSG-1, renamed to Meteosat-8, commmenced routine operations. In addition to GERB, Meteosat-8 also carries the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) instrument.
The launch of Meteosat-9 took place on December 21, 2005.

At the end of June 2007 Meteosat-6, -7, -8 and -9 were all operational. Meteosat-6 and -7 were stationed over the Indian Ocean. Meteosat-8, and -9 were all located over Africa with various differences in operational configuration; Meteosat-6 provided a DCP service and was a backup to Meteosat-7, Meteosat-7 provides the primary imagery coverage over the Indian Ocean, Meteosat-8 was a backup to Meteosat-9 (and Metoesat-8 is also conducting trials of a potential future European 'rapid scan' mode service for the second quarter of 2008 (with images of Europe every 5 minutes)) and Meteosat-9 provides the main imagery service over Europe and Africa.

Space Debris Impact

On Tuesday 22 May 2007 Meteosat-8 experienced a sudden orbit change of about 180 metres which was not the result of a commanded manouevre. Extensive investigations by EUMETSAT concluded that this occurred as a result of a collision with either an uncatalogued piece of space-debris or a micro-meteorite. Although there seems to have been some structural damage the imaging system of the satellite appears not to have been affected by the incident and it continues to downlink data as normal.

References

★ EUMETSAT

★ Perfect day for weather satellite

★ Update on Meteosat-8 Debris impact
Krige, John. "Crossing the Interface from R&D to Operational Use: The Case of the European Meteorological Satellite,” Technology and Culture, Volume 41, Number 1, January 2000, pp. 27-50.

External links

★ Compare Meteosat images with other meteorological satellites