Next-Generation European Weather Satellite Launched

by | Jul 21, 2015

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The MSG program is planned as a two-satellite operational service, like the first-generation Meteosat system, where one satellite is available in orbit as a spare.

Europe successfully launched its next-generation Meteosat weather satellite on July 15, 2015, from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The MSG-4 will rise into geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator, providing up-to-date weather coverage over Europe and Africa every 15 minutes, and rapid scan imagery over Europe every five minutes.

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat) will commission the payload. After commissioning, MSG-4 will become Meteosat-11. The satellite will remain dormant until it replaces one of its predecessors, providing continuity of data.

Although this is a second-generation weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites now are being developed with expectations that they will enter service in 2019 and 2021.

We have learned a lot from the long-term storage of satellites, which we can use for other operational systems such as the Sentinels, noted Volker Liebig, director of ESA's Earth Observation Programmes. The excellent health of the Meteosat satellites in orbit means the launch of MSG-4 comes five years later than expected.

The ESA-developed Sentinel-4 and -5 missions, dedicated to monitoring the composition of the atmosphere for Europe's Copernicus program, will be carried on the MTG and MetOp Second Generation satellites, respectively.

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