The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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The second new weather satellite in the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), is equipped with an extremely sophisticated imaging radiometer that can separate the incoming radiation into 12 (3 with the current Meteosat) different spectral bands. Each section, four of them in the visible and eight in the thermal infrared, delivers different information. They vary from visible images of weather systems during the day to cloud temperature at night; from surface temperature and water vapour to trace gas concentrations and dust particles in the atmosphere. MSG will deliver about twenty times as much information as its predecessor Meteosat, resulting in much more accurate short and medium-range forecasts. It also carries the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) sensor, measuring the planetary energy balance.