A storm cloud at sea. Credit: Zsolt Biczó

Scientific algorithms

The core of any EUMETSAT operational product is its scientific algorithm

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It is important to calibrate and validate satellite instruments to ensure their optimal performance.

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Instrument studies are important for assessing and improving weather, climate, and environmental data and products.

Behind every EUMETSAT product is a scientific algorithm, which is continuously refined, developed, and validated with the state of the art science.

Last Updated

18 October 2024

Published on

19 August 2024

To ensure that the end-user needs are met, EUMETSAT maintains the quality of its operational products through the continuous assessment and evolution of its scientific algorithm baselines.

As an example, the Polar Multi-sensor Aerosol product (PMAp) provides daily satellite-derived measurements of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the land and oceans. Aerosols are solid or liquid particles in the atmosphere (e.g. smoke or dust) and AOD is the used to identify the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere.

PMAp was developed at EUMETSAT and is based on a retrieval algorithm that that combines measurements from three Metop instruments: Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2), Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI).

Find out more about the algorithms behind PMAp and other products below.