Europe’s Meteosat Third Generation Imager‑2 satellite will launch on August 27 aboard an Ariane 62 rocket from Kourou, French Guiana. The mission will replenish Europe’s geostationary weather observation system and maintain continuity of data for forecasters and climatologists.

The Meteosat program, operated by Eumetsat and the European Space Agency, has provided full‑disk images of Europe, North Africa and the adjacent oceans since 1977. The first generation, launched between 1977 and 1997, delivered images every two hours. The second generation, launched from 2002 to 2015, increased imaging frequency to every 15 minutes for the full disk and every five minutes for Europe, and added a radiation‑budget instrument.

The third generation, planned since 2000, will consist of six satellites launched between 2022 and 2036. Each batch contains two Imager satellites and one Sounder satellite, with the first batch scheduled for launch between 2022 and 2026 and the second between 2032 and 2036.

The Imager satellite carries a Flexible Combined Imager that can produce a full‑disk image every 10 minutes or a focused Europe view every 2.5 minutes, with 16 spectral bands. The Lightning Imager captures lightning activity at 1,000 frames per second over most of the visible disc. Both instruments provide data at a 10‑kilometre resolution.

Project Manager James Champion said the launch marks the culmination of more than 15 years of development and that the satellite will continue the long‑term record of European weather observations.

The launch will be streamed on the European Space Agency YouTube channel. Liftoff is set for 4:10 p.m. Eastern Time (1:10 p.m. Pacific Time) on August 27.