Russia to launch weather satellite, revive forecasting capability
MOSCOW. September 14. KAZINFORM. Russia will launch a new meteorological satellite on Tuesday, starting the process of restoring the country's weather forecasting capabilities, the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said on Monday; Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.
At present, Russia does not have any weather satellites in orbit and uses meteorological data from U.S. and European weather agencies.
The new-generation Meteor-M weather satellite and five smaller satellites will be launched on board the Soyuz 2.1b carrier rocket from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.
The satellite is designed to gather data for weather forecasts, to monitor the Earth's ozone layer and radiation conditions in the upper atmosphere, and to provide information on ice floe for maritime shipping in the polar regions; Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. See www.en.rian.ru for full version.