Thales Alenia Space wins contract for Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) ground segment

Thales Alenia Space has signed a contract with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) for the ground segment of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) program. Thales Alenia Space will lead a consortium of industrial partners to build the Instrument Data Processing Facility (IDPF). Thales Alenia Space is already prime contractor in partnership with OHB of Germany for the MTG space segment. This latest contract thus gives the company the driving role in ensuring that the MTG imager satellite geometric and radiometric product performance is achieved.

The MTG space segment, which is being developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) fulfilling user and system requirements defined by EUMETSAT, will comprise six satellites: four imaging satellites and two sounding satellites. The imaging satellites will provide images every 10 minutes using 16 spectral channels. The sounding satellites will deliver detailed vertical profiles of atmospheric temperature and humidity. These sounding satellites will also carry an ultraviolet visible near-infrared sounder developed as part of the Copernicus (formerly Global Monitoring for Environment and Security, GMES) initiative to analyze atmospheric gases. Thanks to enhanced space image resolution, continuous observation and complementary data from the imaging and sounding satellites as well as the high performance of the data processing by the IDPF, MTG will significantly improve the quality and reliability of weather modeling and forecasts.

“The contract signed today confirms Thales Alenia Space’s unrivalled expertise in Europe in complete meteorological systems, from the satellite to the ground segment to the instruments,” said Hervé Hamy, Vice President, Observation and Science at Thales Alenia Space. “Thales Alenia Space has delivered the ground segments for the MetOp and Envisat satellites and provided 47 Meteosat Second Generation receiving stations as part of the PUMA (Preparation for Use of MSG in Africa) program. This contract once again recognizes the expertise of Thales Alenia Space in the ground segment market for both weather and observation satellites.”



About Thales Alenia Space
The European leader in satellite systems and a major player in orbital infrastructures, Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture between Thales (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%). Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio embody the two groups’ “Space Alliance”. Thales Alenia Space sets the global standard in solutions for space telecommunications, radar and optical Earth observation, defense and security, navigation and science. With consolidated revenues of 2.1 billion euros in 2012, Thales Alenia Space has 7,500 employees in France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Belgium and United States.
www.thalesaleniaspace.com