Meteosat

A European geostationary meteorological satellite program developed by EUMETSAT (the European organization responsible for operating meteorological satellites) and operated by that organization, in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA), which is responsible for their launches. The first satellite in the series was Meteosat-1, which was launched on November 23, 1977. It took its first images on December 9 of that year, and since then, both it and the rest of the Meteosat satellites that have been put into orbit have continued to supply meteorological data on Europe and Africa - through the images they capture - from the privileged position they occupy, at about 36,000 kilometers of altitude, above the Gulf of Guinea, where the equator line crosses the prime meridian. A first series of seven satellites (from Meteosat-1 to 7), which have already reached the end of their useful life, was followed by a second generation of them (MSG), of four satellites, with greater capabilities, designed to meet the needs of nowcasting (immediate forecasting) and numerical weather prediction. The first of those satellites (Meteosat-8 or MSG-1) began operating on January 29, 2004, and was followed by the other three that complete the series (MSG-4 was put into orbit in July 2015). The continuity of the services supplied by the MSG is assured for the coming decades thanks to the third generation of Meteosat satellites (MTG), the first unit of which was launched into space in 2022.