Collecting the data

Meteosat Second Generation

The data from Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites are downlinked to antennas at Fucino, Italy, and Cheia, Romania. Each antenna is 13m in diameter. The data are transmitted to the EUMETSAT control centre for geostationary missions, in Darmstadt, Germany, via a 50mb communications link.

Meteosat Third Generation

Data from the Meteosat Third Generation satellites’ instruments are downlinked at two sites, in Lario, Italy, and Leuk, Switzerland. The data are decrypted and routed to EUMETSAT headquarters for processing and dissemination. The automatic antennas at these sites are monitored from the EUMETSAT control centre.

EUMETSAT Polar System

Data from EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites are downlinked each orbit at the Svalbard ground station.

From Svalbard, the data from the Metop satellites’ instruments are transmitted to EUMETSAT headquarters for processing, dissemination and archiving via a fibre optic link.

McMurdo Ground Station in Antarctica acquires also acquires Metop satellite downlinked data. The data are transferred to Darmstadt via the Antarctic data acquisition network service, which has greatly improved the average timeliness of products sent to the data users.

Copernicus Sentinel-3

Each orbit, approximately every 100 minutes, the Copernicus Sentinel-3 science data are downlinked at the x-band ground station located at Svalbard operated under an ESA contract. These raw data are then transferred to EUMETSAT and processed into level 1 and 2 ocean and atmospheric products.

Copernicus Sentinel-6 

Each orbit, approximately every 112 minutes, the Copernicus Sentinel-6 science data are downlinked at the x-band ground stations at Kiruna and Fairbanks. These raw data are transferred to EUMETSAT and processed into level 1 and 2 products before further dissemination and archiving. A subset of the instrument data is also provided to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for processing of the secondary radio occultation mission.

Jason-3

Science data from Jason-3 are downlinked each orbit at either the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) ground stations (Fairbanks, Barrow, Wallops) or the EUMETSAT ground station (Usingen). Each time the satellite is visible at Usingen, the data are transferred directly to EUMETSAT headquarters, where the Jason-3 ground segment processes the level 2 products. For each visibility over the US ground stations, NOAA performs the data processing. EUMETSAT is then responsible for the dissemination and archiving of all the generated products.