16 January 2024
08 May 2023
EUMETSAT operates satellites on two different types of orbits – geostationary and low-Earth orbits. The satellites are controlled from our mission control centres at EUMETSAT headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany.
Geostationary satellites
Our Meteosat satellites fly on geostationary orbits, about 36,000km above the equator. Geostationary satellites complete one orbit every day, the same time it takes the Earth to make one rotation. This means the satellites constantly maintain the same view of the Earth below.
Because they maintain the same view of the Earth, and constantly send data back to the ground, Meteosat satellites provide information that is critical for the detection of rapidly developing weather events, such as storms.
The Meteosat Second Generation satellites send images of the full Earth disc below, of Europe, Africa, parts of the Middle East and South America, back to the ground every 15 minutes. They send images of Europe to back to Earth every five minutes. The Meteosat Third Generation Satellites will send imagery much more frequently – every 10 minutes for the full Earth disc and every 2½ minutes for Europe.
Low-Earth-orbiting satellites
Low-Earth-orbiting satellites fly at much lower altitudes than the Meteosats – EUMETSAT operates fleets at altitudes of just over 800km and just over 1,300km – collecting detailed information about the atmosphere, oceans and land they fly over. They orbit the Earth about 14 times a day and send data back to the ground to ground stations near the poles.
EUMETSAT’s Metop satellites fly on a low-Earth, or polar, orbit, at 817km altitude. They fly on a sun-synchronous orbit, which means they fly over the same spot on the Earth at the same time each day.
The Copernicus Sentinel-3 and -6 satellites also are controlled by EUMETSAT. These satellites fly 814km and 1,336km altitude, respectively. Data from the Jason-3 satellite, on a non-sun-synchronous orbit, at 1,336km altitude, is processed at EUMETSAT.
