Meteorology, Meteorological, History

An IGO
monit-
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weather and
climate
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HISTORY OF EUMETSAT, p84.

HISTORY OF EUMETSAT, p82.

p83.

preliminary preparations for both types of orbit (by now proposed by the Secretariat as a two-stage project) on 1 January 1989. With respect to the EPS itself, the Director was to submit a proposal to the ninth Council, and to prepare a detailed proposal for later in 1989. The proposal was to cover instruments, facilities and associated ground systems for extracting meteorological information from raw satellite data. The EUMETSAT Council agreed that some of the savings from the 1987 MOP budget should be spent on this work.

In general terms, the Secretariat (taking account of EUMETSAT's advisory groups) was suggesting that the EPS should: provide a humidity sounder for both the morning (supplied by ESA) and afternoon (USA) platform; supply a meteorological communication package for the European satellite allowing direct broadcast of data to regional users as well as transmitting a global data set to a central location; contribute to ESA launch costs after the first launch; be fully involved in ground support and data processing.

The EUMETSAT contribution outlined was only part of a total package of agreed core instruments. Others would be provided for both platforms by NOAA. The meteorological package was to be the same on satellites for both the morning and afternoon orbits irrespective of EUMETSAT's eventual choice of spacecraft. After the eighth meeting the EUMETSAT Council Chairman wrote to the Chairman of the ESA Council telling him of EUMETSAT's decisions.

During the second half of 1988, the Secretariat looked in more detail at how the EPS could be implemented. At the same time relationships with ESA became troubling. The Agency was finalising its 15-year plan (fifteen - inserted by the site editor on 31st August, 2012) and EUMETSAT's delegates felt excluded. In his report to the ninth Council, the Chairman of the PAC wrote: "Members expressed concern about the role EUMETSAT is playing in the preparation of the ESA polar platform. The cooperation seems to work satisfactorily at the lower levels, whereas the role to be played by EUMETSAT is reflected rather vaguely in ESA's Council documents and the proposed 15-year [ESA] strategy plan."

Given the investment that EUMETSAT would be making in instruments and the ground segment, the PAC wanted EUMETSAT to play a more influential part in ESA's deliberations. In his report, the Chairman of the STG also emphasised the need for EUMETSAT to play an active role in order to "influence the long-term plan for polar systems which ESA will define and approve in the coming weeks".

ESA presented those plans to potential users at a meeting in Paris in November 1988. The Agency had returned to the idea of two series of unserviced polar platforms, but there appeared to be a firm commitment to launch only one satellite. The development and launch of satellites later in the series was envisaged, but, apparently, not guaranteed.

Dismayed by the lack of provision for data continuity, delegates agreed at the ninth Council meeting in November 1988 that EUMETSAT should consider alternative scenarios to working with ESA, including the joint procurement of satellites with NOAA. The delegates agreed, too, that the EUMETSAT contribution defined during the eighth Council meeting in the summer should form the basis for discussions with possible partners. In reality, cooperation with

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

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