MSG-4 is the fourth and final satellite in the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite series, a collaboration by the ESA and EUMETSAT (European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites). Its life as a full-duty weather satellite won’t be begin for another few months, after the completion of its six-month commissioning phase.
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The European Space Agency (ESA) has unveiled some captivating new views of both the Earth and Mars in never-before-seen detail. Further, the satellite’s infrared and visible light imagers will be keeping tabs on cloud development far more accurately than previous weather satellites – and thus “predict” weather far more accurately.
The goal of the MSG satellites is to provide important information and imagery relating to high-impact weather forecasting.
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After its launch into orbit on 15 July, the MSG-4 weather satellite has captured its first image of our planet, taken with its Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) instrument. It will then be sent into hibernation until it is needed as backup for one of the other Meteosat constellation satellites. It has been said that Europe has launched duplicates of these kinds of spacecraft so that there won’t be a disruption in service in case one of them fails.
