The Meteor craft are weather observation satellites launched by the USSR. The Meteor satellites were designed to monitor atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures, humidity, radiation, sea ice conditions, snow-cover, and clouds. Temperature is the physical property of a system which underlies the common notions of hot and cold; the material with the higher temperature is said to be hotter. ... Humidity is the quantity of moisture in the air. ... Radiation generally means the transmission of waves, objects or information from a source into a surrounding medium or destination. ... An icebreaker navigates through young (1 year) sea ice Sea ice is formed from ocean water that freezes. ... This article is about clouds in meteorology. ...

Meteor 2-21

Meteor 2-21/Fizeau is the twenty-first and last in the Meteor-2 series of Russian meteorological satellites launched in 1993. A weather satellite is a type of artificial satellite that is primarily used to monitor the weather and/or climate of the Earth. ... 1993 is a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003) Events Media:January January 1 - Czechoslovakia divides. ...

ILRS Mission Support Status: SLR tracking support of this satellite was discontinued in October 1998. What makes Meteor 2-21 distinctive from the other meteorological satellites is its unique retroreflector array. Fizeau is named after a French physicist, Armand Fizeau, who in 1851 conducted an experiment which tested for the aether convection coefficient. SLR tracking of this satellite was used for precise orbit determination and the Experiment of Fizeau. The Experiment of Fizeau tests the theory of special relativity-that distance events that are simultaneous for one observer will not be simultaneous for an observer in motion relative to the first. October is the tenth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau Physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (September 23, 1819-1896), French physicist, was born in Paris. ... The aether (also spelled ether) is a substance concept, historically used in science and philosophy. ... A simple introduction to this subject is provided in Special relativity for beginners Special relativity (SR) or the special theory of relativity is the physical theory published in 1905 by Albert Einstein. ...

RetroReflector Array (RRA) Characteristics: The retro-reflector array consists of three corner cubes in a linear array with the two outer corner cubes pointing at 45 degree angles relative to the central cube. The central cube is made of fused silica and has a two-lobe Far Field Diffraction Pattern (FFDP) providing nearly equal intensities for compensated and uncompensated velocity aberration. Both outer reflectors have aluminum coating on the reflecting surfaces and near-diffraction-limited FFDPs. One of the end reflectors is made of fused silica with an index of refraction of 1.46 and should provide partial compensation of the velocity aberration. The other end reflector is made of fused glass with an index of refraction of 1.62 and should provide a perfect compensation of the velocity aberration.

SLR full-rate data from MOBLAS 4, MOBLAS 7, and Maidanak seem to confirm the presence of the compensating influence of the Fizeau effect. Resur-1, another Russian satellite launched in 1994, has 2 corner cubes reflectors with near diffraction-limited FFDPs, which were specifically designed for the continuation of this experiment. WESTPAC, a future SLR satellite, will verify indisputably the existence or otherwise of the Fizeau effect. 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Instrumentation: Meteor-2-21/Fizeau had the following instrumentation onboard:

1. Scanning telephotometer
2. Scanning infrared radiometers
3. Radiation measurement complex
4. Retroreflector array

Meteor 3

Launch of Meteor-3

In the last days of the Cold War, Meteor-3 carried the second Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) aloft as the first and the last American-built instrument to fly on a Soviet spacecraft. Launched from the Plesetsk, Russia, facility near the White Sea, on August 15, 1991, Meteor-3 TOMS had a unique orbit that presents special problems for processing data. Meteor-3 TOMS began returning data in August 1991 and stopped in December 1994. The Cold War (1947-1991) was the open yet restricted rivalry that developed after World War II between groups of nations practicing different ideologies and political systems. ... Categories: Stub ... Plesetsk is a Russian village, about 800km north of Moscow. ... Barents Sea, the Kola Peninsula and the White Sea. ... August 15 is the 227th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (228th in leap years), with 138 days remaining. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Note: as an adjective (stressed on the second syllable instead of the first), august means honorable. ... 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... December is the twelfth and last month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ...

Meteor 3-5

Meteor 3-5, launched in 1991, is in a slightly higher orbit than Meteor 2-21. It transmits on 137.300 MHz. Mechanically, it is similar to Meteor 2-21. Which satellite is in operation depends on the sun angles and consequently the seasons. Meteor 3-5 is usually the (Northern Hemisphere) "summer" satellite while 2-21 is in operation for approximately the half-year centered on winter. 1991 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Northern Hemisphere is the half of a planets surface (or celestial sphere) that is north of the equator. ...

Meteor 3-6/PRARE

The METEOR 3-6/PRARE satellite is the sixth in the Russian METEOR-3 series of meteorological satellites launched in 1994. These satellites provide weather information including data on clouds, ice and snow cover, atmospheric radiation and humidity. The Meteor-3 class of satellites orbit in a higher altitude than the Meteor-2 class of satellites thus providing more complete coverage of the earth's surface. The Meteor-3 has the same payload as the Meteor-2 but also includes an advanced scanning radiometer with better spectral and spatial resolution and a spectrometer for determining total ozone content. Meteorological data is transmitted to four primary sites in the former Soviet Union in conjunction with about 80 other smaller sites. 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... This article is about clouds in meteorology. ... Radiation generally means the transmission of waves, objects or information from a source into a surrounding medium or destination. ... Humidity is the quantity of moisture in the air. ... The Crookes radiometer was invented by the chemist Sir William Crookes as the by-product of some chemical research. ... For Acoustic uses in spectrographs of sound waves, see below. ... Ozone (O3) is an allotrope of oxygen, the molecule consisting of three oxygen atoms instead of the more stable diatomic O2. ...

ILRS Mission Support Status: Satellite laser ranging and PRARE data was used for precision orbit determination and intercomparison of the two techniques. ILRS tracking support of this satellite was discontinued on November 11, 1995. November 11 is the 315th day of the year (316th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 50 days remaining. ... 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Instrumentation: METEOR-3-6 has the following instrumentation onboard:

1) Scanning TV-sensor 2) Visible light and infrared radiometers 3) Scanning infrared radiometer 4) Ozone Mapper 5) Precise Range and Range-Rate Equipment (PRARE) 6) Retroreflector array

RetroReflector Array (RRA) Characteristics: The retro-reflector array is a box wing annulus with a diameter of 28 cm and has 24 corner cube reflectors.

Meteor-3M

Meteor-3M satellite

The Meteor-3M series of satellites is to be an advanced series of polar orbiters with one 1.4 km resolution visible channel and a ten-channel radiometer with 3 km resolution.

The first of these, Meteor 3M-N1, was launched on December 10, 2001 at 17:18:57 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit with an ascending node time of about 9 AM. An APT transmission was planned to only have a reduced resolution (2 km) visible channel data. The status of any APT capability on this satellite is unclear, but it is thought not to have an APT transmitter. No APT transmissions have been received from this satellite. SLR mission support began on May 1, 2002. December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2001 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Baikonur Cosmodrome (Russian: Космодром Байконур, Kosmodrom Baykonur), also called Tyuratam, is the worlds oldest and largest working space launch facility. ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ... 2002 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

METEOR-3M includes the SAGE III (Strategic Aerosol and Gas Experiment) payload and other instruments designed to measure temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, surface properties, and high energy particles in the upper atmosphere. SAGE III is a gyrating spectrometer that measures ultraviolet/visible energy that will be used to enhance our understanding of natural and human-derived atmospheric processes by providing accurate long-term measurements of the vertical structure of aerosols, ozone, water vapor, and other important trace gases in the upper troposphere and stratosphere.

Secondary mission objective is the flight testing of the novel-type spherical retroreflector for precise laser ranging.

ILRS Mission Support Status: SLR will be used for precise orbit determination and retroreflector research.

Instrumentation: 1. SAGE III 2. Spherical retroreflector 3. Other weather monitoring instruments

RetroReflector Array (RRA) Characteristics: The retroreflector is a glass ball 60 mm in diameter, fastened in a holder providing observation from Earth at elevations more than 30° (the retroreflector field of view is centered in the Nadir direction). The spherical retroreflector with it holder is fixed to the METEOR-3M spacecraft. The expected return signal strength level is between LAGEOS and ETALON.

External links

• Sputnik server (http://sputnik.infospace.ru/)
• NOAA description of Meteor (http://noaasis.noaa.gov/NOAASIS/ml/meteor.html)
• SAGE III Meteor 3M (http://www-sage3.larc.nasa.gov/meteor-3m/)
• SAGE III Meteor 3M platform (http://eosdatainfo.gsfc.nasa.gov/eosdata/sageIII/platform.html)
• NASA - Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio (http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/search/InstrumentsDatasets/Meteor-Meteor-3.html)
• NASA International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) (http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/meteor3.html)
  • NASA ILRS Meteor 3-6 (http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/meteor3.html)
  • NASA ILRS Meteor 2-21/Fizeau (http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/fizeau/index.html)
  • NASA ILRS Meteor 3M (http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/meteor3m/index.html)