MSG-4 satellite ready for operations and stored in orbit as Meteosat-11
EUMETSAT has successfully completed the commissioning of its MSG-4 satellite, and renamed it Meteosat-11.
05 November 2024
16 December 2015
After a comprehensive commissioning campaign started on 26 July, involving testing of the MSG-4 satellite and evaluation of image and meteorological products, a series of formal reviews confirmed the full readiness of the MSG-4 satellite for routine operations, with all products in line with the quality requirements of operational service.
The satellite was handed over to the EUMETSAT Operations Department as Meteosat-11 and placed into in-orbit storage nominally for about two and a half years, until 2018, but is ready for activation for operations within one week, if needed.
Meteosat-11, as the last of the successful MSG series of geostationary satellites, will provide continuity of service until MTG-I1, the first of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) imaging satellites, is commissioned - in 2020 - and will continue to be exploited in tandem with the new MTG-I satellites until 2025.
Meteosat services from geostationary orbit cover the European and African continents and parts of the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The Meteosat satellites also provide a unique observational input to Numerical Weather Prediction models, complementing the primary inputs delivered by the polar-orbiting Metop satellites. The satellites have already accumulated climate data records for more than 35 years.
