Study demonstrates benefits of partnership between EUMETSAT and NOAA
The European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) has released a study demonstrating clear and measurable benefits resulting from the long-standing partnership between EUMETSAT and the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - for both organisations, their user communities and the stakeholders that provide the funding.
13 October 2022
18 September 2013
Analysing the development of the EUMETSAT – NOAA cooperation and the supporting policy framework, the independent study reveals that EUMETSAT and NOAA have been able to get a double win out of their partnership as they could establish state-of-the-art observing systems at a lower cost. This in turn has enabled the respective user communities to benefit from more data, increased accuracy and a better timeliness and robustness of the observing systems. At the same time, the economic benefits derived from meteorological data in comparison to the investment costs required to establish operational polar orbiting and ocean altimetry programmes have more than doubled compared to a scenario where the partners would have established full systems by themselves.
The key drivers for the benefits are rooted in existing experience and fields of expertise on both sides of the Atlantic: Having exchanged data from their respective geostationary spacecraft for decades and established back-up arrangements, EUMETSAT and NOAA now operate an Initial Joint Polar System consisting of the European Metop-A and Metop-B satellites and the US NOAA-19, -18 and Suomi NPP satellites with divided orbital responsibilities and shared use of ground stations. In the ocean surface topography mission implemented by the Jason series, the US-Europe partnership provided complementary technologies which proved critical for mission success. In addition, both organisations have closely worked together to optimise the use of data through scientific cooperation projects and coordinated support to user communities including training.
Ultimately, these benefits have translated into an increased ability to protect human life, property and infrastructure and to deliver added value to the American and European economies.
EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently signed a high-level cooperation agreement, ensuring the long-term continuation and growth of their successful partnership in space-based operational monitoring of weather, ocean and climate.
The ESPI study can be found here [PDF download]: http://bit.ly/ESPIreport46
ABOUT EUMETSAT
The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites is an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 27 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom) and four Cooperating States (Bulgaria, Iceland, Lithuania and Serbia).
EUMETSAT operates the geostationary satellites Meteosat-8, -9 and -10 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.
EUMETSAT also operates two Metop polar-orbiting satellites as part of the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The Metop-B polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, launched on 17 September 2012, became prime operational satellite on 24 April 2013. It replaced Metop-A, the first European polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, which was launched in October 2006. Metop-A will continue operations as long as its available capacities bring benefits to users.
The Jason-2 ocean altimetry satellite, launched on 20 June 2008 and exploited jointly with NOAA, NASA and CNES, added monitoring of sea state, ocean currents and sea level change to the EUMETSAT product portfolio.
The data and products from EUMETSAT’s satellites are vital to weather forecasting and make a significant contribution to the monitoring of environment and the global climate.
Media Relations EUMETSAT
Tel: +49 6151 807 7320
Fax: +49 6151 807 7321
Email: @email
