Russia plans to restore its weather satellite network by 2030

At least six Meteor-type satellites will be necessary to provide sufficient data for independent weather forecasting.

00:40 15/09/2010

© Photo Alexander Samuylov

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Russia will fully rebuild its network of weather forecasting and monitoring satellites by 2030 under a state program for the development of meteorology, the government said in a statement on Tuesday.
At present, Russia has only one weather satellite, the Meteor-M type, in orbit and mostly uses meteorological data from U.S. and European weather agencies.
"The work on rebuilding the national space-based weather monitoring network is a priority task because Russia is lagging behind the developed countries in this area, which makes it difficult to ensure a fair exchange of meteorological data [between Russia and foreign countries]," the statement said.
According to Russian experts, at least six Meteor-type satellites will be necessary to provide sufficient data for independent weather forecasting.
In addition, Russia is planning to launch a separate satellite network to monitor climatic changes and survey energy resources in the Arctic region.
The Arktika (Arctic) satellite grouping, which is worth around 70 billion rubles ($2.5 billion), will comprise at least two sun-synchronous orbit satellites and two high-elliptic orbit satellites.
"The future decisions on the development of the national space-based weather monitoring network will be made in line with the prospects and achievements in the technology of monitoring devices, in satellite engineering and in communications," the government said.


RIA NOVOSTI
MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti)