U.S, European Satellites Work Together for Weather

20 September 2012

The European Metop-B satellite roars off the launch pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

A new satellite launched by a European group has taken its place in a polar orbit around Earth, and scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are readying themselves for the new data the craft will provide for weather forecasting models.

The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) launched the environmental satellite September 17 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite will provide data for NOAA to feed into numerical prediction models used to forecast weather and climate, according to the agency’s top satellite official.

This spacecraft, called the Metop-B, is the second of three polar-orbiting satellites to be launched by EUMETSAT, a NOAA partner in scientific collaboration.

“This launch is another milestone in a partnership that continues our wide-ranging ability to detect the early signs of severe weather, climate shifts and distress signals from emergency beacons in the U.S., Europe and around the world,” said Mary Kizca, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Services.

This partnership between NOAA and EUMETSAT dates to 1998, and it allows them to fly sensors on each other's satellites. These spacecraft circle the globe 14 times a day, in different orbits and on different schedules, providing regular data updates throughout the course of each day. Both the European and the U.S. satellites carry similar arrays of sensors, some gathering data for forecasting and others to assess surface conditions.

Together, EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites and NOAA’s satellites provide the majority of global data for numerical weather forecasts, and provide observations that help predict the full range of environmental conditions and events, including wildfires, volcanic eruptions, snow cover, sea ice, vegetation health, sea surface temperatures and disaster mitigation.