JMA began operation of Himawari-8 on 7 July 2015 as a replacement for MTSAT-2 (also known as Himawari-7). Himawari-9 was also launched on 2 November 2016 as a backup and successor satellite. Both satellites will be located in orbit at around 140 degrees east, and will observe the East Asia and Western Pacific regions for a period of 15 years. All imagery derived from Himawari-8/9 is and will be distributed to NMHSs via an Internet cloud service. JMA has further launched its HimawariCast service, by which primary sets of imagery are disseminated to NMHSs via a communication satellite. Click here for details.
11 Nov. 2016 | Himawari-9 enters geostationary orbit *PDF 4 kB |
2 Nov. 2016 | Himawari-9 successfully launched *PDF 5 kB |
30 Oct. 2016 | Launch of Himawari-9 postponed *PDF 4 kB |
Visit the Adobe website to download Adobe Reader Installer free of charge.
Satellite Program Division, Japan Meteorological Agency
E-mail: metsat AT met.kishou.go.jp