ESA MSG-3: 200th RAL Space instrument launched to help improve weather warnings

ESA's Meteosat Second Generation 3 (MSG 3) which has on board, the 200th Rutherford Appleton Lab (RAL) Space instrument to be launched, was successfully sent on its way (22:36:07 BST, 5 July 2012) from Korou in French Guiana.

The MSG 3 will help weather forecasters predict thunderstorms and fog - providing data for use by meteorologists and climate scientists worldwide.

A video of the launch can be found here.

The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument which has been developed and manufactured by an international consortium led by STFC’s RAL Space, is one of a pair of instruments onboard the MSG 3 satellite.

“The GERB project has had two instruments operating successfully for the last ten years, and this third instrument will allow observation to continue for another 5 years. GERB has allowed scientists to study the Earth Radiation Budget in much more detail than any other instrument, and I am very proud of the technical leadership provided by RAL Space”, said RAL Space Director, Professor Richard Holdaway.

GERB measures how the Earth heats and cools by making high accuracy measurements of the solar radiation absorbed, and the infrared energy emitted.

It can make global measurements every 15 minutes allowing scientist to study events and features such as convective cloud, frontal systems and aerosol variability from dust storms or volcanoes.

It is the first instrument providing dedicated measurements of the Earth radiation budget from geostationary orbit.

Read more about Space Science and Technology from Prof Richard Holdaway