Himawari (satellites)
Geostationary meteorological satellite
The Himawari (ひまわり; 'sunflower') geostationary satellites, operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA), support weather forecasting, tropical cyclone tracking, and meteorology research. Most meteorological agencies in East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand use the satellites for their own weather monitoring and forecasting operations.
Originally also named Geostationary Meteorological Satellites (GMS), since the launch of GMS-1 (Himawari 1) in 1977, there have been three generations, including GMS, MTSAT, and Himawari 8/9; Himawari 8/9 satellites are currently available for operational use.
01Status
| Name | Launch date (UTC) |
Retirement | Rocket | Launch site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GMS-1 (Himawari 1) | 14 Jul 1977 | 30 Jun 1989 | Delta 2914 | Cape Canaveral |
| GMS-2 (Himawari 2) | 11 Aug 1981 | 20 Nov 1987 | N-II (N8F) | Tanegashima |
| GMS-3 (Himawari 3) | 3 Aug 1984 | 23 Jun 1995 | N-II (N13F) | Tanegashima |
| GMS-4 (Himawari 4) | 6 Sep 1989 | 24 Feb 2000 | H-I (H20F) | Tanegashima |
| GMS-5 (Himawari 5) | 18 Mar 1995 | 21 Jul 2005 | H-II (F3) | Tanegashima |
| MTSAT-1 (Mirai 1) | 15 Nov 1999 | Launch failure | H-II (F8) | Tanegashima |
| GOES-9 (Pacific GOES) | 23 May 1995 | 14 Jun 2007 | Atlas I (AC-77) | Cape Canaveral |
| MTSAT-1R (Himawari 6) | 26 Feb 2005 | 4 Dec 2015 | H-IIA (F7) | Tanegashima |
| MTSAT-2 (Himawari 7) | 18 Feb 2006 | 10 Mar 2017 | H-IIA (F9) | Tanegashima |
| Himawari 8 | 7 Oct 2014 | Stand-by | H-IIA (F25) | Tanegashima |
| Himawari 9 | 2 Nov 2016 | Operational | H-IIA (F31) | Tanegashima |
| Himawari 10 | FY 2030 | 2045 | H3 | TBD |
02History
In March 2023, Mitsubishi Electric announced that they had won the contract to build Himawari 10. Himawari 10 was originally scheduled to be launched in the fiscal year of 2028 (April 2028-March 2029), but has been delayed to the fiscal year of 2030 (April 2030-March 2031) due to development of a satellite component being slower than expected.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Himawari (satellites)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- GMS Himawari.jpg by masamic, CC BY-SA 3.0
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