European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites

EUMETSAT^TM (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 20 European Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, 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 10 Cooperating States. Cooperation agreements with the Czech Republic, Iceland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Romania and Estonia have entered into force. EUMETSAT was established in 1983.

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.

EUMETSAT is not part of the European Union.

Member and cooperating states, sorted by mandatory funding contribution level

The national mandatory contributions of member states are proportional to their gross national income. However, the cooperating countries contribute only half of the fee they would pay for full membership. The contribution level are those published at end of 2006, for the mandatory programs.

Additionally, some member states may be approved to extend their level of contributions, to compensate for operational deficits. When such contributions are approved by the EUMETSAT council, or if the member states participate to the optional Jason-2 Altimetry program, they get additional voting coefficient rights (most members participate to the optional Jason-2 program, with the current exception of Austria and Poland).

Full member states of the organization have free full access to the images, data and other information produced by EUMETSAT. Cooperating states benefit from reduced fees for accessing the same data, but may get free full access in case of emergency or threats of meteorological disasters. Exceptionally, some non-member states, participating to the WMO, may get access to some data for the same reason.

Many poor non-member states around the world also get free access to Meteosat data, when their yearly gross national income does not exceed 3500 USD per capita, based on World bank statistics reports. [According to Council Resolution EUM/C/04/Res. V, adopted at the 59th meeting of the EUMETSAT Council on 3-4 July 2006, in Council Resolution EUM/C/59/06/Res. III. See [http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Basic/Legal_Information/SP_LEGAL_COUNCIL_RES Legal information] ]

Satellite programmes

Geostationary satellites

:"See Meteosat."

Polar satellites

EUMETSAT Polar System

:"See the MetOp article for the satellites."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 ensure 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. The first satellite, MetOp A (also called Metop-2, because it was the second satellite to enter production, but not to be completed), was successfully launched by a Russian Soyuz rocket from Baikonur on October 19, 2006, at 22:28 Baikonur time (16:28 UTC).

The satellite was initially controlled by ESOC for the LEOP phase immediately following launch, with control handed over to Eumetsat around 72 hours after liftoff. Eumetsat's first commands to the satellite were sent at 14:04 UTC on October 22nd, 2006.

Construction on the second satellite, MetOp B, has been completed. Launch is scheduled for 2010, with MetOp C launching sometime in 2014.

Instruments on MetOp

* A/DCS (Advanced Data Collection System)
* AMSU-A1 and AMSU-A2
* ASCAT Advanced Scatterometer
* AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer)
* GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment) — instrument to monitor ozone levels
* GRAS (Global navigation satellite systems radio occulation GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding)
* HIRS (High Resolution Infrared Sounder)
* IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer)
* MHS (Microwave Humidity Sounder)
* SARP-3 and SARR (Search And Rescue Processor og Search And Rescue Repeater)
* SEM (Space Environment Monitor)

Jason

The Jason mission is in a planning stage and will eventually measure the altimetry of the global ocean surface.

Jason-2 is planned to fly at an altitude of around 1300 km. The main instruments on board are a radar altimeter, a microwave radiometer, and orbit determination systems. The aim is to measure the global sea surface height to an accuracy of a few cm every 10 days, for determining ocean circulation, climate change and sea level rise.

This program is funded separately and is not, for now, part of the mandatory programs for member and cooperating countries. Almost all members have joined this program and get additional voting rights.

Jason-2 was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta-II rocket on 20 June 2008, 7:46 UTC. [http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/What_We_Do/Highlights/SP_1213708779383?l=en]

* [http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/What_We_Do/Satellites/Jason/index.htm?l=en Jason Satellites]

References

External links

* [http://www.eumetsat.int/ EUMETSAT's Website]
* [http://InternationalWeatherArchive.org/satellite.php Archived and current EUMETSAT image viewer]
* [http://www.eumetsat.int/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&ssDocName=006730&l=en&ssTargetNodeId=114 Press release: "MetOp to be launched in October"]