[SatNews] Russia will fully rebuild its network of weather forecasting and monitoring satellites by 2030 under a state program for the development of meteorology, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.

At present, Russia has only one weather satellite, the Meteor-M type, in orbit and mostly uses meteorological data from U.S. and European weather agencies. According to Russian experts, at least six Meteor-type satellites will be necessary to provide sufficient data for independent weather forecasting. In addition, Russia is planning to launch a separate satellite network to monitor climatic changes and survey energy resources in the Arctic region. The Arktika (Arctic) satellite grouping, which is worth around 70 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), will be comprised of at least two sun-synchronous orbit satellites and two high-elliptic orbit satellites. (Source: RIA Novosti).