EUMETSAT Annual Report 2022

EUMETSAT ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Satellite
operations
The uninterrupted provision of data from EUMETSAT’s satellites,
24 hours a day, every day, is essential for member states’
meteorological and hydrological services to provide timely,
accurate weather forecasting. Central to this objective is the
efficient and expert operation of the organisation’s satellite fleets.
Geostationary satellites
36,000km altitude
EUMETSAT was able to meet that objective with
a very high level of data availability in 2022, a
transformative year for the fleet.
Three collision avoidance manoeuvres were
carried out in 2022. Two involved Sentinel-3A,
on 10 January and 16 March, and one involved
Metop-C, on 22 November.
Meteosat
Throughout 2022, operations preparation activities
continued to ensure important milestones were
met before the launch of Meteosat Third Generation
– Imager 1. The last system verification test was
successfully conducted in July, and the operational
scenario validation concluded in September ahead
of the launch and operational readiness review. In
October and November, training and rehearsals
were conducted to ensure the team and systems at
EUMETSAT were ready to operate the new satellite.
The satellite was successfully launched on an Ariane
5 launcher from Kourou on 13 December. The launch
and early operations phase, performed by Telespazio,
prepared the satellite for its handover to EUMETSAT,
and was successfully completed on 28 December.
The satellite is now undergoing commissioning.
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