What Is a Weather Satellite?

Meteorological satellite: An artificial earth satellite that makes meteorological observations of the Earth and its atmosphere from space. The space component of a satellite meteorological observation system. Various meteorological remote sensors carried by satellites receive and measure the visible light, infrared and microwave radiation of the earth and its atmosphere, and the electromagnetic waves reflected by satellite navigation systems ^[1-2] . It converts them into electrical signals and transmits them to the ground station. The ground station recovers the electrical signals from the satellites and plots them into various clouds, wind speeds and directions ^[1-2] . Surface and sea pictures are further processed and calculated to obtain various meteorological data. Meteorological satellites have a wide range of observations, many observations, fast observation timeliness, high quality of observation data, and are not restricted by natural and regional conditions. The meteorological information it provides has been widely used in daily meteorological operations, environmental monitoring, disaster prevention and mitigation, and Studies in science, oceanography and hydrology. Meteorological satellites are also one of the most widely used satellites in the world.

1 track (low and high track).

2 Repeated observations in short cycles.

3 Large imaging area is conducive to obtaining macroscopic synchronization information and reducing data processing capacity.

4 The data source has strong continuous real-time performance and low cost.

Orbit : Meteorological satellites use solar synchronous orbits or geostationary satellite orbits. In order to ensure the quality of the cloud image, the solar synchronous orbit of the meteorological satellite is circular, the eccentricity is required to be less than one thousandth, the inclination angle is greater than 90 °, and the altitude is generally 800 to 1500 kilometers, so that the images obtained when flying through various regions of the earth have the same Lighting conditions. Geostationary orbit meteorological satellite

The main observations of meteorological satellites include:

The shooting of satellite clouds.

1958

The development of meteorological satellites has gone through two stages of experiment and application. In addition to the United States and the Soviet Union, Japan and the European Space Agency also launched meteorological satellites in 1977. These countries and organizations have participated in the first global experiment of the Global Atmospheric Research Program arranged by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The main series of meteorological satellites are:

"Meteor" weather satellite series: See "Meteor" satellite.

"Tyros" meteorological satellite series: the world's first experimental meteorological satellite series launched in the United States, 10 from 1960 to 1965, except for the last two are solar synchronous orbits, the remaining orbit inclination angles are 48 ° and 58 °.

"Isa" satellite: the first generation of solar synchronous orbit meteorological service application satellite in the United States. Nine were launched between 1966 and 1969, with an orbital inclination of about 102 °, an orbital height of about 1,400 kilometers, and a sub-satellite point resolution of the cloud image of 4 kilometers.

"Tyros N / Noah" satellite series: See "Tyros N / Noah" satellite.

"Geostationary Meteorological Satellite" (GMS): Japan's geostationary orbit meteorological service application satellites, a total of two, launched in 1977 and 1981, respectively, the sub-satellite point resolution of visible light and infrared cloud image is 1.25 km and 5 km .

"Meteosat" (Meteosat): two geostationary orbit meteorological operational satellites of the European Space Agency, launched in 1977 and 1981, respectively, and the sub-satellite point resolution of visible light, infrared cloud image and water vapor map is 2.5 km , 5 kilometers, and 5 kilometers.

"Geostationary service satellite": See "Geostationary service satellite".

"Insat" (INSAT): India's multipurpose satellite for communications, broadcasting, and meteorology. Its visible light and infrared cloud images have sub-star point resolutions of 2.7 km and 11 km, respectively.