MSG is designed to support nowcasting, short-range forecasting, numerical weather forecasting and climate applications over Europe and Africa, with the following mission objectives:

•Multi-spectral imaging of the cloud systems, the Earth surface and radiance emitted by the atmosphere, with improved radiometric, spectral, spatial and temporal resolution when compared to the first generation Meteosat

•Extraction of meteorological and geophysical fields from the satellite image data for the support of general meteorological, climatological and environmental activities

•Collection of meteorological and environmental data from Data Collection Platforms (DCPs), and its distribution to appropriate users

•Support to secondary payloads of scientific nature (GERB) and Search and Rescue (called GEOSAR). These payloads do not interfere with the primary objectives as laid out above.

Imaging Service

The image service is the main mission of MSG and provides operational image data from the satellite's field of view. It provides particular support to now-casting applications through the following particular characteristics of the imaging mission:

•Observation of air mass properties, thermodynamic and cloud physical parameters through dedicated spectral channels inherited from GOES and HIRS sounder instruments

•Dedicated high resolution imagery to monitor convective cloud evolution

•High repeat rate of image data to observe rapid changes of clouds
 
•Near real-time processing of SEVIRI raw imagery to geometrically and radiometrically corrected data (Level 1.5)

Climate monitoring and research is supported through spectral channels providing observations of the earth's surface, observation of cloudiness, an experimental total ozone channel, and special efforts to provide high absolute radiometric accuracy of the data.

For Amateur Use

We have access to 1KM data every 15 minutes for amazing animation click here for more details