STATUS OF JAPANESE METEOROLOGICAL SATELLITES AND RECENT ACTIVITIES OF MSC

MTSAT-1R is the current operational Japanese geostationary meteorological satellite located at 140E longitude. The status of MTSAT-1R has been stable since it became operational on 28 June 2005. MTSAT-2, successfully launched on 18 February 2006, is the follow-on satellite to MTSAT-1R. MTSAT-2 will be on standby in orbit in the summer of 2006 and it will take over as the primary operational satellite from MTSAT-1R in about the middle of 2010. JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) has a tentative plan to launch the follow-on satellite to MTSAT-2 in 2013 hopefully, or by 2015 at the latest. The Meteorological Satellite Center (MSC) of JMA is responsible for the operation of the MTSAT satellites. MSC activities also include the development of MTSAT products including hourly Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) and Clear Sky Radiance (CSR) for use in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP). MSC also receives and processes HRPT data of the polar-orbiting NOAA satellites. MSC has been providing ATOVS data within the AP-RARS (Asia-Pacific Regional ATOVS Retransmission Service) framework since 7 Jun 2006.