Weather Satellites
Geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites that watch the Earth's weather.
- TIROS-1Retired
The first successful weather satellite, which returned the first television images of Earth's cloud cover in 1960 and founded operational meteorology from space.
OperatorNASAOrbitLEOLaunched1960 EUMETSAT's geostationary weather satellites imaging Europe, Africa, and the Atlantic to support European weather forecasting.
OperatorEUMETSATOrbitGEOLaunched2002- Himawari-8Active
A Japanese geostationary weather satellite operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency, providing high-frequency full-disk imaging of East Asia and the western Pacific.
OperatorJapan Meteorological Agency (JMA)OrbitGEOLaunched2014 - GOES-16Active
The first of NOAA's advanced GOES-R geostationary weather satellites, imaging the Western Hemisphere every few minutes for forecasting and storm tracking.
OperatorNOAAOrbitGEOLaunched2016 - NOAA-20Active
The first satellite of NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System, providing global polar-orbiting weather and environmental observations.
OperatorNOAAOrbitSun-synchronousLaunched2017