The European Space Agency and EUMETSAT today signed the agreement on the Meteosat Third Generation weather satellite system at the ESA Ministerial Council in Naples, Italy.

EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, held its 77th Council meeting in Darmstadt, Germany, on 15 November.

The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on EUMETSAT’s Metop-B has produced its first calibrated infrared spectrum on 24 October at 14:58 UTC

EUMETSAT has begun trial dissemination of data from instruments on board the Metop-B polar-orbiting satellite to partners, including the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), Met Office (UK), Deutscher Wetterdienst and Météo-France

EUMETSAT has started trial dissemination of MSG-3 image data and meteorological products to national meteorological services in the organisation’s Member and Cooperating States and to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

The 10th EUMETSAT User Forum in Africa takes place at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) conference centre in Addis Ababa on 1-5 October 2012.

Four of the instruments on the Metop-B weather satellite (AMSU-A, ASCAT, MHS, GRAS) have been activated this week and are delivering data.

Yesterday, at 18:30 local time EUMETSAT took control of Metop-B operations

At 18:28 CEST (22:28 Baikonur time), Metop-B was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz 2.1a rocket.