Meteorology, Meteorological, History

An IGO
monit-
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weather and
climate
change

HISTORY OF EUMETSAT, p18

HISTORY OF EUMETSAT, p16

p17

and influential issue in the history of satellite meteorology in Europe seems to be the fact that in the early days research and development was separated from the operational community that would utilise the fruits of this labour.

On the face of things, such a separation should not have been a problem. The European governments established ESA to conduct space science and develop space technology, whilst they created EUMETSAT to exploit meteorological satellites. Surely nothing could be simpler than that ESA should develop the meteorological satellites so that EUMETSAT could exploit them. In practice the situation was not so simple. Reading between the lines of Council documents it seems that EUMETSAT was frustrated at ESA's inevitable focus on advanced technology rather than operational requirements. Equally, ESA could not identify with the requirement for operational data 24 hours a day, year in, year out.

A further initial barrier to smooth interfacing was the mismatch in size and organisational maturity between ESA and EUMETSAT. By 1986, ESA's remit was well defined both in principle and practice. The Agency had an extensive organisational infrastructure, an operational capability and an organisational mindset dedicated to its remit, the research and development of cutting edge technologies.

EUMETSAT was a small Organisation, which in 1986 had yet to fully interpret its role within the terms of its Convention. It had no operational capability, few staff and limited experience. Its mindset was oriented to operations, not research and development. In other words, EUMETSAT's constituents were mostly interested in instrument reliability and operational continuity rather than the latest high technology.

Finally, EUMETSAT felt at the time that it had no control over the money it handed to ESA for the Meteosat Operational Programme.

EUMETSAT, therefore, had a lot of work to do to grow into an organisation able to do business as an equal with ESA. It approached the task in phases. First, EUMETSAT had to be clear with itself about its aspirations, so the Secretariat developed a Long-Term Plan. The Council endorsed the plan, established advisory bodies and adopted a number of strategically important Resolutions. The Council also accepted that there was no objection in principle to an operational role for the Organisation.

EUMETSAT's second major task (there was a lot of overlap with the work of setting strategy) was to develop the organisational structures, financial mechanisms and legal framework needed to give it credibility and meet its goals. During this phase, the Organisation adopted funding based on Gross National Product and set in motion amendments to its Convention. Both decisions put EUMETSAT on a surer political and legal footing.

Finally, the Organisation had to prepare for implementation of its goals. During the third phase, EUMETSAT became an operational Organisation and found a balance between centralised and nationally distributed ground processing facilities. The Organisation defined its detailed technical needs from geostationary and polar orbit and set about raising the money from its national paymasters to pay for projects. Crucially, EUMETSAT also adopted a

SEE ALSO| |

1. Meteorologists shed political shackles, a review of Declan Murphy's history of the first 25 years of EUMETSAT (2011), by Helen Gavaghan.

2. An interview in 2010 with Dr Tillman Mohr, a special advisor to the secretary general of the World Meteorological Organisation, in Science, People & Politics.

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Contents

Preface

Foreword

Introduction

Ch.1

Ch.2

Ch.3

Ch.4

Ch.5

Ch.6

Ch.7

Ch.8

The History of EUMETSAT is available in English and French from EUMETSAT©.
First printed 2001. ISBN 92-9110-040-4

Eumetsat meteorology meteorological artificial satellites
European Space Agency weather climate policy politics history