[SatNews] The 80th meeting of the EUMETSAT Council occurred on July 1st in Helsinki, Finland, upon invitation of the outgoing Chairman, Prof Petteri Taalas of Finland.

Photo of the EUMETSAT Council.

The Council approved two contracts for the stations of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) ground segment. The MTG system is currently under development to ensure continuity of observations from the geostationary orbit in the 2019-2040 timeframe. The Mission Data Acquisition Facility (MDAF) will acquire the mission data from all MTG satellites, while the Telemetry, Tracking and Commanding (TT&C) facility will be used to monitor and safely control the satellites in orbit.

Artistic rendition of EUMETSAT's Meteosat Third Generation.

The Council also finalized the Program Proposal for the EUMETSAT Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG), thereby initiating the approval process of the program by Member States with the expectation that it can be completed by end of 2014. The Council also approved cooperation agreements with ESA, CNES, DLR and NOAA, as required to implement the program. EPS-SG is the mandatory program required to deliver, between 2021-2042, polar orbit observations that are vital to operational weather forecasting up to 10 days ahead and for environment and climate monitoring.

Finally, the Council thanked Prof Petteri Taalas, the outgoing Chairman, for his leadership, and elected its Vice-Chairman, Prof. Anton Eliassen, President of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, as its new Chairman, and Mr. Ivan ÄŒaÄ