Meteosat Second Generation
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BR-153 November 1999 Meteosat Second Generation The Satellite Development Contact: ESA Publications Division c/o ESTEC, PO Box 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands Tel. (31) 71 565 3400 - Fax (31) 71 565 5433 BR-153 November 1999 Meteosat Second Generation The Satellite Development i ESA BR-153 ISBN 92-9092-634-1 Technical Coordinators: Bernard Weymiens & Rob Oremus MSG Project, ESA/ESTEC Published by: ESA Publications Division ESTEC, P.O. Box 299 2200 AG Noordwijk The Netherlands Editor: Bruce Battrick Layout: Isabel Kenny Cover: Carel Haakman Copyright: © European Space Agency 1999 Price: 50 DFl / 20 Euros i CONTENTS Foreword 1 1 Introduction 3 1.1 Programme Outline 3 1.2 History of the MSG Satellite Concept 4 1.3 Mission Objectives 6 2 Programmatics 11 2.1 Organisation 11 2.2 Overall Schedule 12 3 Satellite Development 13 3.1 Design & Development of the MSG Satellite 13 3.2 AIT Programme 16 3.3 Product Assurance 18 3.4 Image-Quality Ground Support Equipment 20 4 Payload 4.1 The Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager (SEVIRI) 23 4.2 The Mission Communication Package (MCP) 33 4.3 The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (GERB) 38 4.4 The Search and Rescue (S&R) Mission 40 5 Satellite Subsystems 43 5.1 The Structure 43 5.2 The Unified Propulsion System 45 5.3 The Attitude and Orbit Control System 47 5.4 The Electrical Power System 50 5.5 Data Handling and Onboard Software 52 iii The authors wish to thank those companies and institutes that have provided illustrations and photographs for this Brochure, but for which a specific acknowledgement has not been possible. Contributors (in alphabetical order) : D. Aminou H.L. Möller J. Azcarate J-M. Nonnet C. Bassoua R. Oremus H. Bran A. Ottenbacher R. Brandt L. Ouwerkerk A. Camacho J-L. Parquet F. Cavé A. Ramusovic G. Dieterle J. Schmid G. Dupré C. Schöser S. Fiorilli W. Schumann G. Ibler H. Stark K. van ‘t Klooster I. Stojkovic N. Koppelmann S. Strijk D. Levins W. Supper H.J. Luhmann W. Veith N. McCrow P. Vogel K. McMullan B. Weymiens iv Foreword Now, in November 1999, MSG-1, the • last but not least, subsystem tests Meteosat Second Generation development performed on Flight Model hardware and flight model, is about one year away from its software that prove that the performance scheduled launch. Its flight-readiness review margins identified on earlier models are is planned to take place in August 2000, also available on the Flight Model. with launch on an Ariane vehicle scheduled for the end of October 2000, from Kourou, At this point, integration of the second of French Guiana. the three-spacecraft series has also begun, in time for its scheduled launch in 2002. We in the Project look forward to these events with confidence, secure in the This Brochure provides a comprehensive knowledge that the flight-model spacecraft overview of the history of the MSG will deliver excellent performance, based on programme, the mission objectives, which a development plan that includes: are tailored to meet the ever evolving and ever more demanding needs of operational • the mechanical and thermal tests already meteorology and climatology, and the successfully performed on a Structural design and development of the MSG and Thermal Model spacecraft spacecraft, the systems and subsystems of • the electrical performance tests, some of which incorporate many technical advances, which are still ongoing, on an Electrical and of their state-of-the-art payloads. Model spacecraft, and G. Dieterle MSG Project Manager 1 2 1 Introduction 1.1 Programme Outline – extra services such as a Search and Rescue Mission and an experimental The primary objective of MSG is to ensure Radiation Budget measurement continuity of atmospheric observation from instrument, along with much improved the geostationary orbit at 0.0 degrees longi- communications services. tude and inclination, as part of a worldwide, operational meteorological satellite system The MSG development programme is now consisting of four polar-orbiting and five about 1 year away from the first scheduled geostationary satellites (the World Weather satellite launch. A satellite thermal and mech- Watch programme of the World Meteoro- anical model was successfully tested already logical Organisation). in 1998, an engineering model is currently undergoing final testing to demonstrate the The Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) electro-optical performance and, in parallel, satellites benefit from several major the first flight unit (MSG-1) is being improvements with respect to the first integrated and tested for an Ariane launch generation in terms of performance: from Europe’s Guiana Space Centre in – 12 imaging channels instead of 3 October 2000. Two more spacecraft, MSG-2 – an image every 15 minutes instead of and MSG-3, which are identical to MSG-1, every 30 minutes are also being manufactured to be ready in – improved spatial resolution, and 2002 for launch and 2003 for storage. MSG Facts and Figures Purpose – To make an image of the Earth and its atmosphere every 15 minutes in 12 spectral bands (2 visible, 1 high-resolution visible, 7 infrared, 2 water vapour) – Dissemination of the image data and other meteorological information to data user stations Technical Features – Spin-stabilised spacecraft – Mass (at launch) about 2 ton – Diameter 3.2 m – Height 3.7 m – Lifetime 7 yr – Orbit geostationary – Orbit location in the equatorial plane and above 0˚ longitude – Launch vehicle compatible with Ariane-4 and Ariane-5 – Launch date October 2000 (MSG-1) – Payload • Spinning Enhanced & Visible InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI) • Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) Instrument • Search & Rescue (S & R) Transponder • Mission Communication Package (MCP) 3 The MSG programme is a co-operative 1.2 History of the MSG venture with Eumetsat, the European Satellite Concept Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, based in The concept of the Meteosat Second Darmstadt, Germany. For the first MSG Generation (MSG) satellites has been satellite, Eumetsat is contributing about developed through a series of workshops 30% of the development cost of the ESA organised by ESA with the European programme and is financing 100% of the meteorological community, which started in two additional flight units, MSG-2 and Avignon, France, in June 1984. MSG-3. In addition to having overall system responsibility with respect to end-user This first MSG workshop identified the major requirements (i.e. operational meteorology future requirements for space meteorology from geostationary orbit), Eumetsat is also in Europe as follows: developing the ground segment and • geostationary satellites providing high- procuring the three launchers, and will frequency observations operate the system nominally from 2001 • an imaging mission with higher until 2012. resolution and more frequent observations than the first-generation The MSG programme is based on the Meteosats heritage of the first-generation Meteosats, • an all-weather atmospheric-sounding which have now been operated for about mission. 22 years with 7 consecutive satellites in orbit. This allows the technological risk to be Based on the Avignon workshop, three kept to a minimum. Moreover, costs are also expert reports on imagery, infra-red and being kept to a minimum thanks to the low- millimetre-wave sounding and on data cost spinning-satellite design principle used circulation were commissioned by ESA. and due to the economy of scale of a three-satellite procurement in combination The reports on imagery and sounding were with contracting rules with industry such as presented to a second workshop with the firm fixed pricing and incentives based on European meteorological community in meeting schedule and on in-orbit Ravenna, Italy, in November 1986. That performance. workshop confirmed the basic requirements of the Avignon workshop and provided MSG is an ESA Optional Programme, which some updates and refinements. was started in 1994 and is funded by thirteen of the Agency’s Member States: The data circulation report was reviewed at Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, a workshop in Santiago de Compostela, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, in May 1987. This workshop Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United recommended two important changes Kingdom. concerning the Data Circulation Mission (DCM) of the first-generation Meteosat 4 satellites: the processed image data must be instrument requires a very stable rotation of available within 5 minutes of acquisition, as the drum, and these two requirements required for nowcasting applications, and cannot be satisfied simultaneously. the current analogue WEFAX service to Accordingly, the only viable configurations secondary user stations must be replaced by for the multi-instrument satellites were a digital format. three-axis-stabilised configurations. In 1986, a new European intergovern- These results were presented at a workshop mental organisation called Eumetsat was set with Eumetsat and the meteorological up in Europe to ‘establish, maintain, and community in Bath (UK) in May 1988. As a operate a European system of operational, conclusion of this workshop, the overall meteorological satellites’. Since then, ESA mission philosophy was again endorsed, has been collaborating with Eumetsat on while some mass-driving requirements were the definition of the MSG satellites. reconsidered and eventually revised. In 1987, ESA initiated several instrument However, a few months later further doubts concept studies, covering: were raised about the usefulness of the • a visible and infra-red imager (VIRI) sounding mission, as proposed in Bath, and • an infra-red sounder (IRS) about the relationship between the • a microwave sounder (MWS) sounding mission of MSG in a geostationary • the data-circulation mission (DCM) orbit and sounding missions from polar- • the proposed scientific instruments. orbiting satellites. As a consequence, the mission requirements were again Parallel studies of an 8-channel VIRI and of reconsidered, and further mission studies the infra-red sounder were performed by were called for.