Teams from EUMETSAT, ESA, the European commission, and partner organisations and industries involved in the development and funding of the satellite will gather at EUMETSAT headquarters in Darmstadt to watch the launch live as the satellite is fired into its orbit from Cape Canaveral.
The event will highlight the Europe-wide engagement over the 15 years between the validation of the programme and today’s launch. More details will be posted here as the programme is developed.
MTG-S1 will sample the atmosphere at hyperspectral resolution. Its core instrument, the Infrared Sounder, collects temperature profiles, humidity profiles that complement the data gathered by imaging satellites such as MTG-I.
The satellite also hosts the European Union’s Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission. It will be the second satellite launched under the MTG programme, the next generation of Europe’s long-running Meteosat series. The combination of improved observations and brand-new ones play a key role in improving nowcasting and numerical weather prediction as they will enhance forecasters’ ability to track rapidly evolving weather patterns and improve prediction accuracy.
The full MTG constellation will consist of three operational satellites – two imaging (MTG-I) and one sounding (MTG-S) – with each being replaced over the programme’s lifetime, bringing the total to six satellites.
Participation is via invitation only.
