Met Office Space Programme
The Met Office Space Programme team liaises with the British space industry and provides advice on long-term strategy to ensure that our policies on space-related activities are well founded. We represent the Met Office as a delegate at EUMETSAT, ESA and BNSC meetings, and represent the Met Office at national and international meetings.
The team depends on links with all areas of the Met Office for scientific advice regarding use of satellite data, ocean observations, instruments and missions, international relations and data policy.
British National Space Centre (BNSC)
The Met Office is a member of the BNSC partnership, with other
government departments and agencies, including the Department for
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Department of Trade
and Industry (DTI), Department for Transport (DfT), QinetiQ, Ministry
of Defence (MoD), Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Office
of Science and Technology (OST), Particle Physics and Astronomy Research
Council (PPARC), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) and the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
EUMETSAT
The Met Office represents the UK in EUMETSAT (the European organisation for the
exploitation of meteorological satellites) - a partnership of 18 European governments,
represented in most cases by their national meteorological services. There
are also 12 co-operating states, which pay half of the full membership fee
and have the opportunity to become full members.
EUMETSAT's current programmes are: Meteosat Transition Programme; operation of first generation Meteosat satellites in geostationary orbit: Meteosat 5, 6 and 7; Meteosat Second Generation (MSG): Meteosat 8 and 9; and preparation for future operation of MSG 3 and 4, and the EUMETSAT Polar System METOP 1.
European Space Agency (ESA)
BNSC, of which the Met Office is a member, represents the UK in ESA. ESA is a partnership of 17 European Member Governments. Canada, Hungary and the Czech Republic also participate in some projects under cooperation agreements.
History
Specialist information
For more specialist information on observations and how we use them, please visit our password-protected area.
