We continue coverage of geostationary satellite imagery by showing examples of images acquired at different times and subglobal locations by non-U.S. satellite systems including Eurmetsat's Meteosat, Russia's GOMS, India’s Bhaskara, centered on the Indian Ocean, Japan’s Himawari series, and China's Feng Yun series..
The European Space Agency (ESA) began a geosynchronous satellite program (EurMetSat) in 1977 with Meteosat-1. All told, they have placed six Meteosats in orbit. These satellites sense in three spectral bands: 0.4 - 1.1 µm, 5.7 - 7.1 µm, and 10.5 - 12.5 µm. A recent Meteosat image, showing all of Africa and most of Europe, across the South Atlantic to Brazil, was taken during the day of June 26, 2000:
This is a Meteosat-6 visible band image, a subset from the full scene, looking over western Europe, made on April 28, 1997:
Recently, second generation Meteosats have been locked in orbit. Here is a scene centered on the Atlantic:
14-19: From an airplane, should you be able to see across the Strait of Gibralter on that February day? ANSWER Russia started a new geosynchronous weather satellite program (GOMS; also known as Elektra) in 1995. Here is a GOMS-1 thermal band image over the Indian Ocean, made on February 28, 1995. India and Japan have been active in designing, building, and launching Metsats since the late 1970s. India's efforts began with the launch of Bhaskara 1 on June 7, 1979. There has since been two series (four each) of Insats (Insat-1A on April 10, 1988; Insat-2D in 1995), each with a visible and a thermal IR band. These are multi-purpose satellites also dedicated to communications and broadcasting. We show a representative Insat image (thermal IR; night) covering eastern Africa and southern Asia in the top image.
Japan commenced its Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS) program (Himawari series) on July 14, 1977, sponsored by its National Space Development Agency (NASDA). Their two goals were to create an operational system and to contribute to the worldwide Global Atmospheric Research Program (GARP) effort. This is a typical GMS color image of the western Pacific:
Positioned at 140° E, the current unit, GMS-5, with a VISSR in the visible, thermal IR, and water vapor (6 µm) bands, produces black and white, individual, full-Earth views and color composites, such as that shown on below over the western Pacific. 14-20: Two large land areas, both of which we think of as commonly with minimal cloud cover are in the upper image above heavily overcast. What areas? ANSWER China has initiated its own geostationary satellite program. There have been several Feng Yun-2 satellites in this series. This is a view of the first.
This is a typical image from Feng Yung-2:
By combining images from GOES, Meteosat, and GMS, we can construct almost real-time distributed cloud coverage of most of the Earth's surface (exclusive of the poles), as reproduced here in the Visible for April 28, 1997:
14-21: For global synoptic coverage, what is the distinct advantage that the geostationary image composite has over a comparable effort using polar orbiting Metsats? ANSWER
Same day (near real time) coverage from all the above satellites is available at the Web Site Dundee University (UK)
Primary Author: Nicholas M. Short, Sr.