AEMET drive the Spanish CDTI and participation in new … – Aerospace News

  Madrid .- The State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) and the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) have presented the characteristics of the European Programme Polar Satellite Second Generation (EPS-SG) on a day that has aimed to encourage the participation of the Spanish space industry in European space weather program .

 

 Both President AEMET, Miguel Angel Lopez, the president of the CDTI, Maria Luisa Poncela, have highlighted the importance of this program, and will represent a technological advance in the monitoring and observation of the atmosphere, which in turn result in improved numerical prediction models.

 

 This will increase the quality of service delivery to citizens and losusuarios, and simultaneously provide benefits from an industrial point of view.

 

 At this conference also attended by Alain Ratier, director general of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), representatives of the European Space Agency (ESA) and more than a hundred people from different agencies and companies related to the Spanish space sector.

 

 During the meeting, and CDTI AEMET have signed a collaboration agreement consolidates the relationship that both agencies hold since 1998 and renews its commitment to promote technological and industrial development in various areas, especially in the field of satellite programs.

 

 Since launching the first artificial satellite in 1957, satellites and observation instruments on board have provided an excellent platform for monitoring the atmosphere. Unlike geostationary satellites, which apparently still appear on the same area of ​​the Earth, polar orbiting at an altitude of about 850 km, observed the entire Earth every 12 hours, providing a comprehensive and detailed coverage. The first European polar satellite (EPS, European Polar System) was launched into orbit in 2006, with probing capabilities and very useful images for operational meteorology and climate studies.

 

 To continue the program, EUMETSAT with ESA have designed and defined the polar second generation program (EPS-SG), which consists of six satellites, in two series of three satellites with different instruments each (sounders radiometers and other instruments Novel that will exceed the first polar program) benefits. Is expected to orbit the first satellite by 2021 and extend operations for a minimum of 21 years until 2042.