Meteosat 7 Service Termination
The 14 June 2006 marked a historic landmark in the calendar for the first generation of Meteosat satellites, Meteosat-7 direct dissemination services from 0° was terminated. After nearly a quarter of a century, the first generation Meteosat satellites stopped transmitting 0° image data and products for direct reception.
The following Meteosat-7 direct dissemination services from 0° have ceased:
WEFAX (all C, D and E formats)
High Resolution Image HRI 0° (all A, B and L formats)
Meteorological Data Dissemination
Data Collection Platform Retransmissions
All the above services, except for WEFAX, will continue to be disseminated via EUMETCast.
The generation and distribution of the Meteosat-7 (0°) Meteorological Products has ended. The Meteorological Products generated from the other first generation satellites, those derived from Meteosat-6 (10°E) and Meteosat-5 (63°E) data, continue to be distributed via the GTS/RMDCN. The Meteosat Second Generation meteorological product service available via EUMETCast and the GTS/RMDCN also continues unaffected.
All first generation Meteosat data and products from 0° continue to be made available upon request from the Online Archive Service.
The Meteosat-6 Rapid Scanning Service. It is the intention to terminate this service at the end of 2006. These image data will continue to be made available on EUMETCast and via FTP over the Internet until the scheduled termination date.
The Future for Meteosat-7
Meteosat-7 began a slow drift from 0° to 57.5°E on July 11th 2006 at around
0.5° per day. Having arrived at 57.5°E it will take over the Indian Ocean Data
Coverage service undertaken for many years by the ageing and now highly
inclined Meteosat-5 at 63°E. There will be a short parallel data transmission
period (via EUMETCast only) until Meteosat-5 is jettisoned into a graveyard
orbit in early 2007.
Continuing with Meteosat Second Generation
The new services provided by the Meteosat Second Generation satellites (from
Meteosat-8 onwards). EUMETCast provide
access to all Meteosat-8 SEVIRI Image and Meteorological Product services as
well as a set of additional services supplied by external data providers.