A review of the global operational geostationary meteorological satellites

Abstract

Geostationary meteorological satellite data and products are proven to be indispensable in operational weather monitoring and forecasting for various sectorial applications and disaster risk reduction due to their large spatial coverage and spatio-temporally consistent availability. The meteorological instruments such as imager or radiometer and atmospheric sounder onboard these satellites have gone through incremental advancement in terms of accuracy, stability, and resolutions. In addition, new meteorological instruments such as lightning detection and ocean monitoring payloads have been developed in the recent decades. This paper reviews brief history of the global operational geostationary meteorological satellites and onboard meteorological instruments. The capability of currently available operational geostationary meteorological satellites is also highlighted. In order to prepare a global climate data record of geostationary satellite observations, well-calibrated data are essentially required from each operational satellite. The calibration exercises taken up by several satellite agencies under the Global Space-based Inter-Calibration System, and development of global and regional long-term inter-calibrated geostationary climate data records are briefly discussed. Moreover, expected meteorological instruments onboard the proposed next-generation geostationary satellites from different satellite agencies across the globe are summarized.