Only tangentially related: I have nothing but respect for EUMETSAT and their public data store. For past work projects I've had to interface with a pretty broad sample of the world's space and/or meteorological agency's public data stores and APIs and EUMDAC (EUMETSAT's API client) was top tier. Well documented, modern, fast, and generally headache free.
In fact, I have nothing but respect for any agency that makes free and public access to earth observation data a priority, regardless of how janky their API is.
abra0 · 1h ago
> MTG-S1 is the first geostationary meteorological sounder satellite to fly over Europe
I was confused for a minute on how it's both _geostationary_ and _over Europe_ -- you can't be geostationary if your orbit is not over the equator!
Turns out[1] the MTG-S1 satellite is in fact geostationary and parked at exactly 0°00'00"N 0°00'00"E (off the coast of Ghana), 42164 km up from the center of Earth, it's just pointing at Europe at an angle.
I had doubts about the "parked at exactly 0°00'00"N 0°00'00"E", thinking it was over Null Island just because the data wasn't updated yet and it was showing uninitialized values.
NOAA/NASA (USA), EUMETSAT (European organization), JMA (Japan), KMA (Korea), and CMA (China) all have a geostationary satellite (one or more actually). So, northern hemisphere countries, but the coverage is global thanks to the fact that you need to be, as you say, above the equator.
thmsths · 29m ago
I am surprised they would pick 0 for the latitude, it seems that most of Europe, whether it's the land or the people is east of that. Maybe some important weather systems develop over the Atlantic and they want to track that?
perihelions · 6h ago
> "MTG-S1’s Infrared Sounder will scan nearly 2,000 thermal infrared wavelengths every 30 minutes to build vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, and trace gases. These data will be crucial for detecting fast-developing convective weather by revealing sudden shifts in instability, moisture, or wind – even before clouds begin to form."
In other words, it is
> "The Infrared Sounder on MTG-S1 is the first hyperspectral sounding instrument in geostationary orbit."
Is there a more technical article describing this hyperspectral instrument somewhere? It sounds pretty novel.
edit: Also, I'm now confused about the ESA's claim to be "the first", because
> "In 2016, the Chinese Meteorological Agency (CMA) launched the Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS), to be the first hyperspectral sounder in geostationary orbit"
No; I'm quoting the esa.int article verbatim. The eumetsat.int article qualifies "...over Europe", but the esa.int does not. I suspect esa.int is just mistaken.
The IRS seems 4km and sentinel 4 8km if I read it correctly. The cool thing is that it is stationary unlike other sentinel satellites and can actually be used for now casting. No clue how infrared sounding performs with cloud cover.
cyanydeez · 5h ago
Imagine a world where America actually wanted to understand climate change.
AlecSchueler · 3h ago
Considering the emissions of the US and the outright rejection of climate action through the Paris accords, and the covering up of climate related research, it would seem fair to consider climate change as partly caused by outright American hostility. They say the most impacted will be people in developing nations, also, not in the US. Absolutely horrific actions.
ArneVogel · 6h ago
I think this is the first time I have seen the .int tld used.
How long until an executive order is issued to block the .int TLD. Everything on that list goes against current US policies.
complex_pi · 2h ago
In meteorology, you also have ecmwf.int (the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts).
r721 · 5h ago
interpol.int also comes to mind.
readthenotes1 · 5h ago
It would have been better if the requirements also included the domain name had to start with a letter between I and N (inclusive).
But I guess this is what you get when these things get away from technologists.
jfengel · 5h ago
Ah, a Fortran joke. That's not just "technologists". That's old farts.
(In Fortran 66, variables didn't have to be declared. They would be integer if they began with I, J, K, L, M, or N. Otherwise it would be floating point [REAL, in Fortran parlance]. To this day it's why for loops usually use "i". With the bonus joke that God is real unless declared integer.)
aziaziazi · 2h ago
Naive question: what’s the benefit here to scan downward (from the satellite position) over upward, from the ground?
complex_pi · 2h ago
If the question is about satellite vs ground instrument: the geographic coverage from the satellite is much greater. Geostationary instruments over Europe cover the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East.
If that was not the question, can you provide more detail?
mensetmanusman · 50m ago
You can’t drive your sensor bank everywhere on the surface of the earth to point up.
st3fan · 4h ago
Canada should be next.
pbmonster · 8m ago
Do you have more context? Naively, one would assume the geostationary satellites the US already has in orbit can see Canada just fine.
In fact, I have nothing but respect for any agency that makes free and public access to earth observation data a priority, regardless of how janky their API is.
I was confused for a minute on how it's both _geostationary_ and _over Europe_ -- you can't be geostationary if your orbit is not over the equator!
Turns out[1] the MTG-S1 satellite is in fact geostationary and parked at exactly 0°00'00"N 0°00'00"E (off the coast of Ghana), 42164 km up from the center of Earth, it's just pointing at Europe at an angle.
1 - https://space.oscar.wmo.int/satellites/view/mtg_s1
But you are right, [1] confirms "0° longitude".
[1] https://user.eumetsat.int/resources/user-guides/mtg-in-opera...
In other words, it is
> "The Infrared Sounder on MTG-S1 is the first hyperspectral sounding instrument in geostationary orbit."
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/Meteoro...
Is there a more technical article describing this hyperspectral instrument somewhere? It sounds pretty novel.
edit: Also, I'm now confused about the ESA's claim to be "the first", because
> "In 2016, the Chinese Meteorological Agency (CMA) launched the Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS), to be the first hyperspectral sounder in geostationary orbit"
https://www.aos.wisc.edu/aosjournal/Volume38/Loveless_PhD.pd... (PhD thesis of David M. Loveless (2021))
I think you might have misread the title, "Europe’s first [...]"
> Is there a more technical article describing this hyperspectral instrument somewhere?
https://space.oscar.wmo.int/instruments/view/irs has an short overview
Then this document provides an introduction (+ details) about the MTG-IRS program in general: https://user.eumetsat.int/s3/eup-strapi-media/MTG_IRS_L2_ATB...
No; I'm quoting the esa.int article verbatim. The eumetsat.int article qualifies "...over Europe", but the esa.int does not. I suspect esa.int is just mistaken.
The IRS seems 4km and sentinel 4 8km if I read it correctly. The cool thing is that it is stationary unlike other sentinel satellites and can actually be used for now casting. No clue how infrared sounding performs with cloud cover.
I think esa.int is probably one of the more popular .int domains on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=esa.int
• World Health Organization - https://who.int
• NATO - https://nato.int
• Council of Europe - https://coe.int
• Mercosur - https://mercosur.int
• African Union - https://au.int
• EFTA - https://efta.int
But I guess this is what you get when these things get away from technologists.
(In Fortran 66, variables didn't have to be declared. They would be integer if they began with I, J, K, L, M, or N. Otherwise it would be floating point [REAL, in Fortran parlance]. To this day it's why for loops usually use "i". With the bonus joke that God is real unless declared integer.)
If that was not the question, can you provide more detail?