Europe launches the MTG-S1 satellite in its revolution in weather forecasting

MIAMI - The MTG-S1 satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites ( Eumetsat ) took off this Tuesday at 21:04 GMT from the Cape Canaveral Space Center in Florida, with the aim of continuing the revolution in meteorological prediction brought by this third-generation equipment.

Thanks to the Falcon 9 rocket of the American company SpaceX, the satellite, weighing an estimated 1.8 tons, successfully ascended into space to contribute to scientific advancement, especially through meteorological observation.

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The MTG-S1 is the second of six third-generation satellites that Europe plans to launch into space, following the launch of the MTG-I1 at the end of December 2022. The work will be supported by the equipment carried inside the European space team launched from the United States.

The European satellite also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, which, thanks to a new instrument, will detect polluting gases and particles in the atmosphere, particularly emissions of pollutants such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and suspended particles, including volcanic ash.

Equipped with an ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared imaging spectrometer, Sentinel-4 will be in a geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above Earth, 50 times higher than missions in low-Earth orbit, continuously monitoring Europe's air quality with hourly sweeps.

This is a significant improvement, as current Copernicus missions relevant to air quality can only produce a single image of Europe per day, according to the Earth observation component of the European Union's space program.

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According to Eumetsat, third-generation satellites represent a revolution in terms of the quality improvements they bring to the Meteosat program, which began providing data for weather forecasting in 1977.

GREATER CAPACITY TO COLLECT DATA

The MTG-S1 will reach an altitude of 36,000 kilometers to remain geostationary and observe Europe and Africa in particular like never before.

" Now we'll be able to see the situation even before anything happens, before there's even a single cloud in the sky and it's blue ," Jochen Grandell, a member of the Eumetsat scientific team and one of those responsible for the new Meteosat satellites, told EFE.

The new satellite's space observations promise to "improve the tracking of weather systems," according to Eumesat. It will specifically observe the atmosphere with hyperspectral resolution thanks to the infrared probe it carries, which will help it perceive the Earth in greater detail.

A SECURITY MISSION

This instrument is capable of providing temperature and humidity profiles that complement the data from MTG-I1, allowing us to "assess whether there is local instability" that could pose a threat due to severe weather, according to Grandell.

According to Grandell, the observation work carried out by these satellites is largely a "security mission."

For meteorologists, who are responsible for liaising with authorities and issuing weather alerts when appropriate, the MTG-S1 and MTG-I1 instruments will provide data on “ hazardous events, such as thunderstorms, that can pose a risk if they occur during large public events, such as a football match ,” according to Grandell.

AT THE SERVICE OF METEROLOGISTS

" We're talking a lot about artificial intelligence these days, but the decision to issue weather warnings is a human decision ," the scientist added, referring to the importance of the information that satellites will provide to meteorologists.

Simonetta Cheli, Director of ESA's Earth Observation Programmes, noted before the launch that the "instruments will open up exciting new ways to forecast and understand our atmosphere," as well as contribute to "preparing for severe weather events" and "mitigating the risks of air pollution."

The MTG-S1 is the result of collaboration between Eumetsat and ESA, and nearly a dozen Spanish companies have participated in its development and that of the instruments it houses, including Airbus Spain and Airbus Crisa, subsidiaries of the European firm Airbus Defence and Space.

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