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Johannes Schmetz
,
Paolo Pili
,
Stephen Tjemkes
,
Dieter Just
,
Jochen Kerkmann
,
Sergio Rota
, and
Alain Ratier

This paper introduces the new generation of European geostationary meteorological satellites, Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), scheduled for launch in summer 2002. MSG is spin stabilized, as is the current Meteosat series, however, with greatly enhanced capabilities. The 12-channel imager, called the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), observes the full disk of the earth with an unprecedented repeat cycle of 15 min. SEVIRI has eight channels in the thermal infrared (IR) at 3.9,6.2,7.3, 8.7, 9.7, 10.8, 12.0, and 13.4 ÎĽum; three channels in the solar spectrum at 0.6, 0.8, and 1.6 ÎĽm; and a broadband high-resolution visible channel. The high-resolution visible channel has a spatial resolution of 1.67 km at nadir; pixels are oversampled with a factor of 1.67 corresponding to a sampling distance of 1 km at nadir. The corresponding values for the eight thermal IR and the other three solar channels are 4.8-km spatial resolution at nadir and an oversampling factor of 1.6, which corresponds to a sampling distance of 3 km at nadir.

Radiometric performance of all channels exceeds specifications. Thermal IR channels have an onboard calibration with an accuracy better than 1 K. Solar channels are calibrated with an operational vicarious procedure aiming at an accuracy of 5%. Meteorological products are derived in the so-called Satellite Application Facilities (SAF) and in the central Meteorological Product Extraction Facility (MPEF) at the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) in Darmstadt, Germany. The products support nowcasting, numerical weather prediction (NWP), and climatological applications. The most important product for NWP, the atmospheric motion vectors, are derived from different channels to improve data coverage and quality. Novel products are, among others, indices describing the instability of the clear atmosphere and total column ozone. The paper also discusses the use of MSG for future applications, in particular, observations of the rapid cloud development, cloud microphysics, and land applications are considered as areas of high potential. As an additional scientific payload, MSG carries a Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument observing the broadband thermal infrared and solar radiances exiting the earth-atmosphere system.

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K. Dieter Klaes
,
Marc Cohen
,
Yves Buhler
,
Peter SchlĂĽssel
,
Rosemary Munro
,
Juha-Pekka Luntama
,
Axel von Engeln
,
Eoin Ó Clérigh
,
Hans Bonekamp
,
Jörg Ackermann
, and
Johannes Schmetz

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Polar System is the European contribution to the European–U.S. operational polar meteorological satellite system (Initial Joint Polar System). It serves the midmorning (a.m.) orbit 0930 Local Solar Time (LST) descending node. The EUMETSAT satellites of this new polar system are the Meteorological Operational Satellite (Metop) satellites, jointly developed with ESA. Three Metop satellites are foreseen for at least 14 years of operation from 2006 onward and will support operational meteorology and climate monitoring.

The Metop Programme includes the development of some instruments, such as the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment, Advanced Scatterometer, and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding, which are advanced instruments of recent successful research missions. Core components of the Metop payload, common with the payload on the U.S. satellites, are the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and the Advanced Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Vertical Sounder (ATOVS) package, composed of the High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (HIRS), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit A (AMSU-A), and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS). They provide continuity to the NOAA-K, -L, -M satellite series (in orbit known as NOAA-15, -16 and -17). MHS is a EUMETSAT development and replaces the AMSU-B instrument in the ATOVS suite. The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument, developed by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, provides hyperspectral resolution infrared sounding capabilities and represents new technology in operational satellite remote sensing.

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