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Weather satellite
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==History== {{further|First images of Earth from space}} {{Globalize|section|the Western world|2name=the West|date=July 2024}} [[Image:TIROS-1-Earth.png|right|thumb|The first television image of Earth from space from the TIROS-1 weather satellite in 1960]] [[File:ESSA-9 satellite photo mosaic.PNG|thumb|A mosaic of photographs of the [[United States]] from the [[ESSA-9]] weather satellite, taken on June 26, 1969]] ===1950s=== As early as 1946, the idea of cameras in orbit to observe the weather was being developed. This was due to sparse data observation coverage and the expense of using cloud cameras on rockets. By 1958, the early prototypes for TIROS and Vanguard (developed by the [[United States Army Signal Corps|Army Signal Corps]]) were created.<ref name="first">{{cite book|title=Weather From Above: America's Meteorological Satellites|author=Janice Hill|pages=4β7|year=1991|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|isbn=978-0-87474-394-4}}</ref> The first weather satellite, [[Vanguard 2]], was launched on February 17, 1959.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4202/chap12.html | title = VANGUARD - A HISTORY, CHAPTER 12, SUCCESS - AND AFTER | publisher = NASA|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509055523/https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4202/chap12.html|archive-date=2008-05-09}}</ref> It was designed to measure cloud cover and resistance, but a poor axis of rotation and its elliptical orbit kept it from collecting a notable amount of useful data. The [[Explorer 6]] and [[Explorer 7]] satellites also contained weather-related experiments.<ref name="first"/> ===1960s=== The first weather satellite to be considered a success was [[TIROS-1]], launched by NASA on April 1, 1960.<ref name="apupi">{{cite news |title=U.S. Launches Camera Weather Satellite |work=[[The Fresno Bee]] |publisher=[[Associated Press|AP]] and [[United Press International|UPI]] |pages=1a, 4a |date=April 1, 1960}}</ref> TIROS operated for 78 days and proved to be much more successful than Vanguard 2. Other early weather satellite programs include the 1962 Defense Satellite Applications Program (DSAP)<ref>[https://www.spoc.spaceforce.mil/About-Us/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/2381749 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program] US Space Force</ref> and the 1964 Soviet [[Meteor (satellite)|Meteor series]]. [[Television Infrared Observation Satellite|TIROS]] paved the way for the [[Nimbus program]], whose technology and findings are the heritage of most of the Earth-observing satellites NASA and NOAA have launched since then. Beginning with the [[Nimbus 3]] satellite in 1969, temperature information through the [[troposphere|tropospheric]] column began to be retrieved by satellites from the eastern Atlantic and most of the Pacific Ocean, which led to significant improvements to [[weather forecasting|weather forecasts]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[Mariners Weather Log]]|title=SIRS and the Improved Marine Weather Forecast|author=National Environmental Satellite Center|publisher=Environmental Science Services Administration|pages=12β15|volume=14|number=1|date=January 1970}}</ref> The ESSA and NOAA polar orbiting satellites followed suit from the late 1960s onward. Geostationary satellites followed, beginning with the [[Applications Technology Satellites|ATS]] and [[Synchronous Meteorological Satellite|SMS]] series in the late 1960s and early 1970s, then continuing with the GOES series from the 1970s onward. Polar orbiting satellites such as [[QuikScat]] and [[Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission|TRMM]] began to relay wind information near the ocean's surface starting in the late 1970s, with microwave imagery which resembled radar displays, which significantly improved the diagnoses of [[tropical cyclone]] strength, intensification, and location during the 2000s and 2010s. ===1970s=== In Europe, the first [[Meteosat]] [[geostationary]] operational meteorological satellite, Meteosat-1, was launched in 1977 on a Delta launch vehicle. The satellite was a [[spin stabilisation|spin-stabilised]] cylindrical design, 2.1 m in diameter and 3.2 m tall, rotating at approx. 100 rpm and carrying the [[Meteosat Visible and Infrared Imager]] (MVIRI) instrument. Successive Meteosat first generation satellites were launched, on European Ariane-4 launchers from Kourou in French Guyana, up to and including Meteosat-7 which acquired data from 1997 until 2017, operated initially by the [[European Space Agency]] and later by the [[European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites]] (EUMETSAT). Japan has launched nine [[Himawari (satellites)|Himawari]] satellites beginning in 1977. ===1980s=== Starting in 1988 China has launched twenty-one [[Fengyun]] satellites. ===2000s=== The [[Meteosat Second Generation]] (MSG) satellites - also spin stabilised although physically larger and twice the mass of the first generation - were developed by ESA with European industry and in cooperation with [[EUMETSAT]] who then operate the satellites from their headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany with this same approach followed for all subsequent European meteorological satellites. [[Meteosat-8]], the first MSG satellite, was launched in 2002 on an [[Ariane-5]] launcher, carrying the [[Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager]] (SEVIRI) and [[Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget]] (GERB) instruments, along with payloads to support the [[COSPAS-SARSAT]] Search and Rescue (SAR) and [[Argos (satellite system)|ARGOS]] Data Collection Platform (DCP) missions. SEVIRI provided an increased number of spectral channels over MVIRI and imaged the full-Earth disc at double the rate. Meteosat-9 was launched to complement Meteosat-8 in 2005, with the second pair consisting of Meteosat-10 and Meteosat-11 launched in 2012 and 2015, respectively. In 2006, the first European low-Earth orbit operational meteorological satellite, [[Metop]]-A was launched into a [[Sun-synchronous orbit]] at 817 km altitude by a Soyuz launcher from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. This operational satellite - which forms the space segment of the [[EUMETSAT]] Polar System (EPS) - built on the heritage from ESA's [[European Remote-Sensing Satellite|ERS]] and [[Envisat]] experimental missions, and was followed at six-year intervals by Metop-B and Metop-C - the latter launched from French Guyana in a [[Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre|"Europeanised" Soyuz]]. Each carry thirteen different passive and active instruments ranging in design from imagers and sounders to a scatterometer and a radio-occultation instrument. The satellite service module is based on the [[SPOT-5]] bus, while the payload suite is a combination of new and heritage instruments from both Europe and the US under the Initial Joint Polar System agreement between EUMETSAT and NOAA. ===2010s=== The [[DSCOVR]] satellite, owned by NOAA, was launched in 2015 and became the first deep space satellite that can observe and predict space weather. It can detect potentially dangerous weather such as [[solar wind]] and [[geomagnetic storm]]s. This is what has given humanity the capability to make accurate and preemptive space weather forecasts since the late 2010s.<ref>{{Cite web|title=DSCOVR: Deep Space Climate Observatory {{!}} NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS)|url=https://www.nesdis.noaa.gov/content/dscovr-deep-space-climate-observatory|access-date=2021-08-05|website=www.nesdis.noaa.gov}}</ref> ===2020s=== The [[Meteosat Third Generation]] (MTG) programme launched its first satellite, Meteosat-12, in 2022, and featured a number of changes over its predecessors in support of its mission to gather data for weather forecasting and climate monitoring. The MTG satellites are three-axis stabilised rather than spin stabilised, giving greater flexibility in satellite and instrument design. The MTG system features separate Imager and Sounder satellite models that share the same satellite bus, with a baseline of three satellites - two Imagers and one Sounder - forming the operational configuration. The imager satellites carry the [[Flexible Combined Imager]] (FCI), succeeding MVIRI and SEVIRI to give even greater resolution and spectral coverage, scanning the full Earth disc every ten minutes, as well as a new Lightning Imager (LI) payload. The sounder satellites carry the Infrared Sounder (IRS) and Ultra-violet Visible Near-infrared (UVN) instruments. UVN is part of the [[European Commission]]'s [[Copernicus programme]] and fulfils the [[Sentinel-4]] mission to monitor air quality, trace gases and aerosols over Europe hourly at high spatial resolution. Two MTG satellites - one Imager and one Sounder - will operate in close proximity from the 0-deg geostationary location over western Africa to observe the eastern Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, while a second imager satellite will operate from 9.5-deg East to perform a Rapid Scanning mission over Europe. MTG continues Meteosat support to the ARGOS and Search and Rescue missions. MTG-I1 launched in one of the last Ariane-5 launches, with the subsequent satellites planned to launch in [[Ariane 6|Ariane-6]] when it enters service. A second generation of Metop satellites ([[MetOp-SG]]) is in advanced development with launch of the first satellite foreseen in 2025. As with MTG, Metop-SG will launch on Ariane-6 and comprise two satellite models to be operated in pairs in replacement of the single first generation satellites to continue the EPS mission.
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