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Concept
European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites
Summary
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is an intergovernmental organisation created through an international convention agreed by a current total of 30 European Member States.
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 states.
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 an institution or agency of the European Union, although the majority of its members are EU member states. The organisation became a signatory to the International Charter on Space and Major Disasters in 2012, thus providing for the global charitable use of its space assets.
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 convention establishing EUMETSAT was opened for signature in 1983 and entered into force on 19 June 1986.
There are two types of programme:
Geostationary satellites, providing a continuous view of the earth disc from a stationary position in space.
And Polar-orbiting satellites, flying at a much lower altitude, sending back more precise details about atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles, although with less frequent global coverage.
Official source
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