Weather forecasts should be more accurate – thanks to the data from the European “Metop”satellites. The third and last of the series is now successfully launched into space.
“We got a Signal,” said Ruth Evans, from the European weather satellite organization, Eumetsat, approximately 60 minutes after the Start of the “Metop-C”. The satellite was launched from Kourou in French Guiana into space – at the top of a Russian Soyuz rocket and controlled from the space flight control centre ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany.
In 101 minutes around the earth
“Metop-C” to measure in a polar orbit of about 800 kilometers above the earth, numerous data and collect, improve weather forecasts and climate monitoring. His two predecessors – “Metop-A and Metop-B” – are also still in All, a lot longer than originally planned. Eumetsat expects that the satellite will be about three years old to third in the All, what is considered to be lucky for climate series and weather models: Because the more data there is, the more accurate the forecasts are.
In Toulouse, Metop has been prepared, “-C” to the Start
Each of the three satellites will circle the earth 14 Times per day and each point of the planet twice a day. The cost for the “Metop-A/B/C”program were estimated at approximately 3.2 billion Euro.
wa/gri (dpa, eumetsat.int)