Meteosat

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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.

At the end of June 2007 Meteosat-6, -7, -8 and -9 were all operational. Meteosat-6 and -7 are stationed over the Indian Ocean. Meteosat-8, and -9 are both located over Africa with various differences in operational configuration. Meteosat-6 provides a DCP service and is a backup to Meteosat-7, where Meteosat-7 provides the primary imagery coverage over the Indian Ocean (with images every 30-minutes). Meteosat-8 is a backup to Meteosat-9 (and Meteosat-8 also provides an operational European 'rapid scan' mode service, which commenced in the second quarter of 2008 (with images of Europe every 5 minutes)). Meteosat-9 provides the main full earth imagery service over Europe and Africa (with images every 15-minutes).

The launch of MSG-3 is tentatively planned for 2011 and MSG-4 tentatively planned for 2013. Like MSG-1 and MSG-2, MSG-3 and MSG-4 are planned for launch by Arianespace.

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