EUMETSAT — From Science to Operations

In the last 2 years EUMETSAT has undergone a major organisational change to prepare for the challenge of supporting many new satellite programmes: Copernicus Sentinel-3, Meteosat Third Generation (MTG), EPS Second Generation (EPS-SG) alongside the existing operational satellite systems – Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) and EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). The process for introducing new products to the user community has also evolved significantly.

This paper will describe the processes and teams involved in turning cutting edge science into new and enhanced products for the Meteorological community. It will look at how the Remote Sensing and Product Division has been reorganised into thematic area teams, such as Atmospheric and Imagery Applications, Atmospheric Composition, Atmospheric Profiling, Marine Applications, INR and Calibration. This has enabled these teams to use all the sensor data from the LEO and GEO satellites more effectively to produce enhanced products. It will include the engineering and operations team involvement in the development process and importantly how the user community get involved.

The process starts with the yearly publication of the Product Development and Implementation Plan (PDIP) for the upcoming 4 years. This plan takes inputs from the User community and also internal science experts for new and enhanced products, and is approved by the EUMETSAT delegates. Alongside the PDIP, the Mid-Term Evolution Plan (MTEP) contains the engineering changes required to implement the new and enhanced products in the EUMETSAT Ground Segment for the following years. This is then translated into engineering changes on the system or the development of new systems. A robust and comprehensive process has been developed involving the RSP teams, the System Engineering Team and the Operations Teams that ensure that the resulting product is a fully verified and engineering validated before being disseminated to the users. This process also uses the scientific and operational NWP community for the scientific validation of new and enhanced products.

The challenge of maximising the scientific return for the multiple sensors on the different platforms is also addressed.