METSAT: a unique mission for weather and climate

The recent successful launch of METSAT (meteorological satellite), a dedicated satellite for meteorology, has been unique in many ways. With the heralding of the satellite era in the early 80s with the INSAT series, weather services received impetus in terms of operational meteorological data covering the Indian region. The operational products included cloud cover, sea surface temperature, cloud motion vectors, outgoing longwave radiation, quantitative precipitation estimation, etc. The satellite data also helped in improving the skills in forecasting using weather prediction models. The need for a dedicated satellite for meteorology spurred the Indian Space Research Organization to take up developmental efforts, and the launch of METSAT is the culmination of these efforts. The METSAT payload included water-vapour channel, which is a key parameter for monsoon studies. The future missions with advanced payloads such as atmospheric sounders and radiation budget etc. auger well for the meteorological services in the country.