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MSG overview   Artist view of a new series of geostationary Meteosat satellites being developed by ESA in co-operation with EUMETSAT. MSG (Meteosat Second Generation) will offer a wide range of information to the weather forecasters thanks mainly to a sophisticated radiometer (SEVIRI) which will provide multi-spectral imagery of the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere every quarter of an hour. MSG is planned for launch in August 2002 by an Ariane launcher.  A dust storm moving across Africa's western Sahel belt on 3 March 2004, as seen by MSG-1, now renamed Meteosat-8. The dust can be seen blowing offshore, even reaching the Canary Islands. Dust storms are being mapped as part of the ESA-led Epidemio project.  Enhanced composite image taken at 12:00 UT on 10 August 2003, by Europe’s Meteosat Second Generation satellite (MSG-1). A year on from launch, this image illustrates the excellent performance of the innovative radiometer carried by MSG-1. Composite image of visible information: red shows the 1.6 µm near infrared channel, green is the 8 µm visible channel, and blue the 0.6 µm visible channel. The image has been enhanced to appear ‘natural’ to the human eye.
Built by ESA and operated by Eumetsat, MSG-1 was launched by Ariane a year ago, on 28 August at 22:45 UT, from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana.  First colour image of the Earth acquired by the MSG-2 satellite on 25 January 2006.  Based on GERB data, this sped-up animation shows the total sunlight and heat reflected, scattered or emitted back from the Earth during the diurnal cycle of 8 May 2003. The animation was produced by the RMIB. For more information and a more detailed version see http://gerb.oma.be/gerb/Animations/anim.html.  Last update: 1 February 2006 |