| European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites |
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Member states
Cooperating states
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| Formation | 1986 |
| Headquarters | Darmstadt, Germany |
| Membership | 26 member states |
| Website | |
EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 26 European Member States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. These States fund the EUMETSAT programs and are the principal users of the systems. EUMETSAT also has 5 Cooperating States. Cooperation agreements with Iceland, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Estonia and Serbia have entered into force. The convention establishing EUMETSAT was opened for signature in 1983 and entered into force in 19 June 1986.
EUMETSAT's primary objective is to establish, maintain and exploit European systems of operational meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT is responsible for the launch and operation of the satellites and for delivering satellite data to end-users as well as contributing to the operational monitoring of climate and the detection of global climate changes.
The activities of EUMETSAT contribute to a global meteorological satellite observing system coordinated with other space-faring nations.
Satellite observations are an essential input to numerical weather prediction systems and also assist the human forecaster in the diagnosis of potentially hazardous weather developments. Of growing importance is the capacity of weather satellites to gather long term measurements from space in support of climate change studies.
EUMETSAT is not part of the European Union.
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The national mandatory contributions of member states are proportional to their gross national income. However, the cooperating countries contribute only half of the fee they would pay for full membership. The contribution level are those published at end of 2006, for the mandatory programs.
Additionally, some member states may be approved to extend their level of contributions, to compensate for operational deficits. When such contributions are approved by the EUMETSAT council, or if the member states participate to the optional Jason-2 Altimetry program, they get additional voting coefficient rights (most members participate to the optional Jason-2 program, with the current exception of Austria and Poland).
Full member states of the organization have free full access to the images, data and other information produced by EUMETSAT. Cooperating states benefit from reduced fees for accessing the same data, but may get free full access in case of emergency or threats of meteorological disasters. Exceptionally, some non-member states, participating to the WMO, may get access to some data for the same reason.
Many poor non-member states around the world also get free access to Meteosat data, when their yearly gross national income does not exceed 3500 USD per capita, based on World bank statistics reports.[1]
| State | Status | Since (signing of convention) | Funding contribution |
Representative organization from national meteorological services (official national names, links point to names for official use in English) |
Official web site |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Member | March 1986 | 19.20% | Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) | www.dwd.de |
| United Kingdom | Member | May 1985 | 15.62% | Met Office | www.metoffice.gov.uk |
| France | Member | February 1985 | 14.70% | Météo-France | www.meteo.fr |
| Italy | Member | June 1986 | 12.04% | Ufficio Generale Spazio Aereo e Meteorologia (USAM) - Reparto Meteorologia | www.meteoam.it/ |
| Spain | Member | February 1985 | 7.56% | Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET), Ministerio de Medio ambiente | www.inm.es |
| Netherlands | Member | March 1984 | 4.38% | Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut (KNMI) | www.knmi.nl |
| Switzerland | Member | July 1985 | 2.75% | MeteoSchweiz / MétéoSuisse / MeteoSvizzera | www.meteoschweiz.ch |
| Belgium | Member | October 1985 | 2.57% | Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique (IRM) / Koninklijk Meteorologisch Instituut van België (KMI) | www.kmi.be |
| Sweden | Member | January 1984 | 2.53% | Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut (SMHI) | www.smhi.se |
| Turkey | Member | August 1984 | 2.27% | Remote Sensing Division, Devlet Meteoroloji İşleri Genel Müdürlüğü (DMİGM) | www.meteor.gov.tr |
| Austria | Member | December 1993 | 2.05% | Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG) | www.zamg.ac.at |
| Norway | Member | April 1985 | 2.03% | Meteorologisk institutt (met.no) | www.met.no |
| Poland | Member | June 2009 | 1.95% | Instytut Meteorologii i Gospodarki Wodnej (IMGW) | www.imgw.pl |
| Denmark | Member | January 1984 | 1.78% | Danmarks Meteorologiske Institut (DMI) | www.dmi.dk |
| Greece | Member | June 1988 | 1.65% | Εθνική Μετεωρολογική Υπηρεσία (HNMS) | www.hnms.gr |
| Finland | Member | December 1984 | 1.35% | Ilmatieteen laitos / Meteorologiska institutet (FMI) | www.fmi.fi |
| Portugal | Member | May 1989 | 1.23% | Instituto de Meteorologia (IM) | www.meteo.pt |
| Ireland | Member | June 1985 | 1.17% | Met Éireann | www.met.ie |
| Czech Republic | Member | 12 May 2010 | 0.80% | Český hydrometeorologický ústav (CHMI), Družicové Oddělení | www.chmi.cz |
| Hungary | Member | October 2008 | 0.69% | Országos Meteorológiai Szolgálat (OMSZ) | www.met.hu |
| Romania | Member | November 2010 | 0.57% | National Meteorological Administration of Romania | meteoromania.ro |
| Slovakia | Member | January 2006 | 0.32% | Slovenský hydrometeorologický ústav (SHMU) | www.shmu.sk |
| Croatia | Member | December 2006 | 0.25% | Državni hidrometeorološki zavod (DHMZ) | www.dhmz.htnet.hr |
| Slovenia | Member | February 2008 | 0.23% | Agencija Republike Slovenije za Okolje (ARSO) | www.arso.gov.si |
| Luxembourg | Member | July 2002 | 0.21% | Administration de la navigation aérienne | www.aeroport.public.lu |
| Latvia | Member | May 2009 | 0.10% | Latvijas Vides, ģeoloģijas un meteoroloģijas aģentūra (LVGMA) | www.meteo.lv |
| Bulgaria | Cooperating | May 2005 | 0.18% | Национален институт по метеорология и хидрология (INMH) | www.meteo.bg |
| Lithuania | Cooperating | November 2005 | 0.16% | Lietuvos hidrometeorologijos tarnyba (LHS), prie Aplinkos ministerijos | www.meteo.lt |
| Iceland | Cooperating | April 2006 | 0.10% | Veðurstofa Íslands | www.vedur.is |
| Estonia | Cooperating | December 2006 | 0.09% | Eesti Meteoroloogia ja Hüdroloogia Instituut (EMHI) | www.emhi.ee |
| Serbia | Cooperating | November 2009 | 0.18% | Republic Hydrometeorological Service of Serbia | www.hidmet.gov.rs |
| Last update published 2010 | |||||
While geostationary satellites provide a continuous view of the earth disc from an apparently stationary position in space, the instruments on polar orbiting satellites, flying at a much lower altitude, provide more precise details about atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, although with a less frequent global coverage.
The lack of observational coverage in certain parts of the globe, particularly the Pacific Ocean and continents of the southern hemisphere, has led to the increasingly important role for polar orbiting satellite data in numerical weather prediction and climate monitoring.
From 2006, the continuous view of the Earth provided by Meteosat-8 is expected to be complemented by data from the first operational European meteorological satellite flying in the lower orbit — MetOp.
Positioned at approximately 850 km above the Earth, special instruments on board this spacecraft will be able to deliver far more precise details about atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles than a geostationary satellite.
EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) satellites will also ensure that the more remote regions of the globe, particularly in Northern Europe as well as the oceans of the Southern hemisphere, will be fully covered.
The three MetOp satellites form the space segment of EPS. The first satellite, MetOp A, was successfully launched by a Russian Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Baikonur on October 19, 2006, at 22:28 Baikonur time (16:28 UTC).
The EPS program is also the European half of a joint program with NOAA, called the International Joint Polar System. NOAA has operated a continuous series of low earth orbiting meteorological satellite since April 1960. Many of the instruments on Metop are also operated on NOAA/POES satellites, providing similar data types across the IJPS.
The Metop satellite was initially controlled by ESOC for the LEOP phase immediately following launch, with control handed over to Eumetsat around 72 hours after liftoff. Eumetsat's first commands to the satellite were sent at 14:04 UTC on October 22, 2006.
Construction on the second satellite, Metop B, has been completed. Launch is scheduled for April 2012, with Metop C launching sometime in 2017.
The Jason mission is in a planning stage and will eventually measure the altimetry of the global ocean surface.
Jason-2 is planned to fly at an altitude of around 1300 km. The main instruments on board are a radar altimeter, a microwave radiometer, and orbit determination systems. The aim is to measure the global sea surface height to an accuracy of a few cm every 10 days, for determining ocean circulation, climate change and sea level rise.
This program is funded separately and is not, for now, part of the mandatory programs for member and cooperating countries. Almost all members have joined this program and get additional voting rights.
Jason-2 was launched successfully from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Delta-II rocket on 20 June 2008, 7:46 UTC. [1]
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