Eumetsat, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, is making meteorological data available to users beyond its core user group of Europe’s weather services.

More than 1,000 users worldwide can now receive data from Europe’s latest geostationary Earth observation satellite, Meteosat-8, via the EUMETCast distribution system. Data from the new satellites, called Meteosat Second Generation satellites, are provided on 12 channels or “eyes” and include 20 times the information of the old generation satellites.

EUMETCast works via Digital Video Broadcast technology. Data is available for a coverage area that includes Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the east coast of the American continent.