Multifunctional Transport Satellites (MTSAT) were a series of

weather Weather is the state of the atmosphere, describing for example the degree to which it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloud cover, cloudy. On Earth, most weather phenomena occur in the lowest layer of the planet's atmo ...

and aviation control satellites. They were replaced by

Himawari 8 is a Japanese weather satellite, the 8th of the Himawari geostationary weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency. The spacecraft was constructed by Mitsubishi Electric with assistance from Boeing, and is the first of two ...

on 7 July 2015. They were

geostationary A geostationary orbit, also referred to as a geosynchronous equatorial orbit''Geostationary orbit'' and ''Geosynchronous (equatorial) orbit'' are used somewhat interchangeably in sources. (GEO), is a circular geosynchronous orbit in altitud ...

satellites owned and operated by the Japanese

Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism The , abbreviated MLIT, is a ministry of the Japanese government.国土交通省設置法

(MLIT) and the

Japan Meteorological Agency The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA; ''気象庁, Kishō-chō'') is a division of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism dedicated to the Scientific, scientific observation and research of natural phenomena. Headquartered ...

(JMA), and provide coverage for the hemisphere centred on 140.0° East; this includes Japan and Australia who are the principal users of the

satellite imagery Satellite images (also Earth observation imagery, spaceborne photography, or simply satellite photo) are images of Earth collected by imaging satellites operated by governments and businesses around the world. Satellite imaging companies sell im ...

that MTSAT provides. They replace the GMS-5 satellite, also known as ''Himawari 5'' ("himawari" or "ひまわり" meaning "sunflower"). They can provide imagery in five wavelength bands — visible and four

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

, including the

water vapour Water vapor, water vapour, or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of water. It is one state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from the sublimation of ice. Water vapor ...

channel. The visible light camera has a resolution of 1 km; the infrared cameras have 4 km (resolution is lower away from the equator at 140° East). The spacecraft have a planned lifespan of five years. MTSAT-1 and 1R were built by

Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cust ...

. MTSAT-2 was built by

Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group traces its origins to the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company that existed from 1870 to 194 ...

MTSAT-1 and GOES-9

Launch failure

The launch of MTSAT-1, on a Japanese

H-II The H-II (H2) rocket was a Japanese satellite launch system, which flew seven times between 1994 and 1999, with five successes. It was developed by NASDA in order to give Japan a capability to launch larger satellites in the 1990s. It was the fi ...

rocket, failed on 15 November 1999 and the spacecraft was destroyed. GMS-5, the satellite MTSAT-1 was intended to replace, was decommissioned on 1 April 2003 leaving Japan without weather satellite imagery.

NOAA loan

To fill in the void, the United States

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

(NOAA) loaned the GOES-9 satellite to the JMA and repositioned it over 155.0° East on 22 May 2003.

MTSAT-1R

MTSAT-1R (also known as Himawari 6) was successfully launched on a

H-IIA H-IIA (H-2A) is an active expendable launch system operated by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. These liquid fuel rockets have been used to launch satellites into geostationary orbit; lunar orbi ...

on 26 February 2005 and became partially operational on 28 June 2005 — the aviation payload was not functional as two MTSATs are required for air traffic control. GOES-9 was decommissioned when MTSAT-1R came online in June 2005. Its

solar sail Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigati ...

counteracts the torque produced by sunlight pressure on the solar array. The trim tab on the solar array makes small adjustments to the torque balance. MTSAT-1R was decommissioned on 4 December 2015, due to fuel limitations.

MTSAT-2

MTSAT-2 (also known as Himawari 7) successfully launched on 18 February 2006 and is positioned at 145.0° East. The weather functions of MTSAT-2 were put into hibernation until the end of MTSAT-1R's life (5 years from launch). The transportation and communication functions of MTSAT-2 are utilised prior to that time. It was replaced by

on 7 July 2015.

Attitude control malfunction

On 5 November 2007,

(JMA) announced a malfunction in the

attitude control Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, ...

of MTSAT-2. Attitude control was restored 7 November 2007. The presumed cause of the malfunction was improper functioning of an attitude control thruster. A spare thruster was used to return the spacecraft to normal operation.

Ground segment

Ground station A ground station, Earth station, or Earth terminal is a terrestrial radio station designed for extraplanetary telecommunication with spacecraft (constituting part of the ground segment of the spacecraft system), or reception of radio waves fr ...

s for both satellites are located in

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

and

Hitachiōta, Ibaraki file:Seizansou1.JPG, 250px, Seizan-so is a Cities of Japan, city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 48,074 in 19,327 households and a population density of 129.2 persons per km2. . The percentage of th ...

, Japan.

References

External links

JMA Satellite Activities
(accessed October 5, 2015)
MTSAT information from Australian Bureau of Meteorology
(accessed August 13, 2005) * nter's Space Page: *

*

* ttp://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html JMA Website (English)
MTSAT weather satellite viewer
^? Online MTSAT weather satellite viewer with 2 months of archived data. {{Orbital launches in 2006 Japan Meteorological Agency Spacecraft launched in 2005 Spacecraft launched in 2006 Spacecraft launched by H-II rockets Derelict satellites orbiting Earth Himawari satellite series