Europe's newest weather satellite launched on Solstice Night
22 December 2005
The Meteosat Second Generation satellite MSG-2 was successfully launched on 21 December 2005 at 10.30pm GMT from French Guiana.
It carried with it the Second Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB), a climate research instrument, designed and engineered at the CCLRC/ Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, which will monitor the Earth's radiation balance.
The first GERB instrument (which was part-funded by NERC) has been working successfully on MSG-1 for the past 2½ years, making precise measurements of the Earth's energy balance, and already discovering new facts about how this balance varies.
Further information
NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411727 or 411561
Mob: 07917 086369 or 557215
Press release: 61/05
External links
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