The Spanish space industry will participate in Europe’s Eumetsat Polar System–Second Generation (EPS-SG) program, which will represent a technological step forward in the surveillance and observation of the Earth’s atmosphere and at the same time improve our ability to forecast the weather.

Many economic sectors such as agriculture depend on weather predictions. Given this fact, the Spanish State Meteorological Agency or AEMET ( Agencia Estatal de Meteorología) together with Spain’s Center for Industrial Technological Development, or CDTl (Centro para el Desarrollo tecnológico Industrial), have reached an agreement whereby the country’s space industry will participate in Europe’s Eumetsat Polar System–Second Generation (EPS-SG).

European weather satellite operator Eumetsat and the European Space Agency ESA have designed and planned the second generation of the European Polar System, which has proven to be highly useful for operational meteorology and climate studies. EPS-SG will consist of six satellites, each with a unique set of instrumentation, in two series of three. They will be equipped with radiometers and sounding equipment as well as other innovative instruments that will provide users with improved data compared to the first polar program.

This second generation will improve numerical prediction models and provide marine meteorological indices, as well as oceanography and operational hydrology data. In addition, it will be able to monitor air quality thanks to its connection with Copernicus, the European Earth Observation Program, to which Spain also contributes.

Since the first satellite was launched in 1957, these devices and the observation instruments they carry have represented a privileged platform from which to observe the atmosphere. In contrast to geostationary satellites, which appear stationary above the same point over the Earth and which provide more immediate predictions, polar satellites orbit at an altitude of 850 kilometers and observe the entire Earth every 12 hours. As a result they are able to provide reliable 15-day global forecasts.