On 9 April 2013, Eumetsat's Meteosat-9 satellite took over the rapid scanning imagery service (RSS) from Meteosat-8.
After being replaced in January by Meteosat-10 as the prime operational satellite supplying full disk images of Europe and Africa, Meteosat-9 now provides the RSS, delivering more frequent images every five minutes over Europe only. The two-satellite system continues the services previously delivered by Meteosat-8 and -9 in support of weather forecasters in one of their most challenging tasks, nowcasting, which involves detecting and monitoring rapidly developing high impact weather like thunderstorms or fog and issuing related warnings up to 12 hours ahead.
The Meteosat satellites are operated by Eumetsat, an intergovernmental organisation based in Darmstadt, Germany, currently with 26 European Member States. It operates Meteosat-8, -9 and -10 over Europe and Africa, and Meteosat-7 over the Indian Ocean.
