Meteosat - Europe's geostationary weather satellite
Abstract
Meteosat, Europe's contribution to a worldwide system of five weather satellites, is positioned in geosynchronous orbit above the equator at 0 deg longitude. Its field of view includes all of Africa, eastern South America, and Europe and the Middle East below 55 deg N. Design and operating characteristics of Meteosat are described, with attention to the data collection platforms (DCP), which carry out measurements of a local environment and relay them to a central station. Mission objectives are reviewed, including determinations of cloud cover and motion, sea surface temperature, wind velocity, atmospheric water vapor content, and radiation distribution. Sensing is accomplished in the visible and IR spectra, and transmitted digitally. Also mentioned are the telemetry and telecommunications systems which use the S-band on station and VHF in standby mode.
- Publication:
-
Spaceflight
- Pub Date:
- April 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978SpFl...20..127.
- Keywords:
-
- Meteosat Satellite;
- Satellite Design;
- Satellite Observation;
- Synchronous Satellites;
- Data Acquisition;
- Europe;
- Global Atmospheric Research Program;
- Ground Stations;
- Image Processing;
- Satellite Networks;
- Satellite-Borne Instruments;
- Telemetry;
- Launch Vehicles and Space Vehicles