| |
CX2SA > WXSAT 22.12.05 17:24l 102 Lines 4722 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 10767_CX2SA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Perfect day for weather sat.
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0SON<DB0SIF<DB0EA<DB0ACC<DB0GOS<DB0RES<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<
EA5AKC<CX2SA
Sent: 051222/1443Z @:CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA #:10767 [Minas] FBB7.00e $:10767_CX2SA
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA
To : WXSAT@WW
Perfect day for weather satellite
=================================
Europe has launched the latest spacecraft in its next-generation series of
meteorological satellites.
The two-tonne, cylinder-shaped MSG-2 will observe the changing weather over
Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The spacecraft represents a step-change in performance over the early Meteosat
platforms first designed in the 1970s.
MSG-2 was blasted into space as part of a double payload with an Indian
telecoms satellite, riding atop an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.
The launch from the Kourou spaceport took place at 1933 local time (2233GMT) on
Wednesday.
Data flow
---------
The MSG-2 (Meteosat Second Generation 2) satellite is, as the name suggests,
the second in the new series to be placed in orbit; MSG-1 was launched back in
2002.
The new spacecraft was sent to a geostationary orbit at an altitude of 35,800km
above the Gulf of Guinea off the west coast of equatorial Africa.
The new satellite would bring huge benefits, said Dr Lars Prahm, director
general of Eumetsat, the company that operates MSG-2.
"Five hundred million Europeans will be using this satellite every day," he
commented just after the successful launch.
MSG-2 will occupy a position which until now has been taken by Meteosat-7, an
older platform that is coming to the end of its service life.
MSG-2 will beam back detailed images to Europe's national weather services
- one every 15 minutes. Many of these will be infrared (heat) images that tell
the forecasters about the temperatures of clouds, land and sea surfaces.
Using channels that absorb ozone, water vapour and carbon dioxide, the imager
will also allow meteorologists to analyse the characteristics of air masses,
making it possible to reconstruct a three-dimensional view of the atmosphere.
MSG-2 sends back 20 times the amount of data at twice the speed of the old
Meteosats. Because of this, it should give much better shorter-term forecasts
of hazardous weather such as snow, fog, and thunderstorms.
"MSG has a much higher resolution and the updates come through to us very
frequently," UK Met Office spokesman John Hammond said.
"This means we are able to monitor rapidly changing situations more closely
than has previously been possible."
Climate test
------------
MSG-2 also carries a Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (Gerb) instrument,
which was designed and built by a UK consortium.
It measures with high accuracy the total solar energy absorbed by the Earth and
the total energy emitted by the planet.
It has two channels - one sensitive to outgoing long-wave radiation from the
surface, the clouds and gases in the atmosphere; and one that measures short
-wave radiation reflected from clouds, snow and the surface in general, as well
as radiation scattered by gases in the atmosphere.
The Gerb instrument's data will be vital to test theories about global warming.
"If we're changing the atmosphere's properties such that it is absorbing more
solar energy and reflecting less then clearly that's going to cause the Earth
to get hotter," explained Nigel Morris, the Gerb project manager at the UK's
CCLRC-Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
"The MSG series gives us continuity of data and allows us to see long-term
trends rather than just short-term variations," he told the BBC News website.
Included in MSG-2's payload is a communications package which relays signals
from aircraft and ships in distress.
Once in orbit, MSG-2 will be renamed Meteosat-9. It will become Europe's main
weather eye, with MSG-1 (now known as Meteosat-8) offset by a few degrees and
ready to take over if there is an instrument or other payload failure.
The Insat-4A satellite that flew with MSG-2 is remarkable for being three
tonnes at launch, making it the biggest telecoms satellite so far to be built
by the Indian Space Research Organization in Bangalore.
***********************************************************************
* CX2SA:BBS CX2SA-6:CLUSTER CX2SA-7:WX CX2SA-8:APRS/DIGI/IGATE *
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
* RF: 7.040 KHz TCP/IP: cx2sa.dyndns.org Port 23 CLUSTER: Port 9000 *
*---------------------------------------------------------------------*
* SysOp: Jose Maria Gonzalez Devitta * E-mail: cx2sa@adinet.com.uy *
* Minas * Lavalleja * URUGUAY * South America * [GF25JP] *
***********************************************************************
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
