Meteosat Second Generation

MSG

Mission Profile

Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) is a series of ESA and EUMETSAT geostationary meteorological satellites launched beginning 28 August 2002 aboard Ariane 5 ECA rockets, providing high-resolution weather imagery of Europe, Africa, and the adjacent ocean basins. Each MSG satellite carries the SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager) instrument, producing 12-band multispectral images every 15 minutes at 3 km resolution to support operational weather forecasting. Four MSG satellites (MSG-1 through MSG-4) have been launched between 2002 and 2015, ensuring continuous meteorological data continuity for European weather services. The MSG program represents a major advance in European meteorological satellite capability compared to the first-generation Meteosat series.