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Within the next couple of years, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) will start the deployment of its next-generation geostationary meteorological satellites. The Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) is composed of four imaging (MTG-I) and two sounding (MTG-S) platforms. The satellites are three-axis stabilized, unlike the two previous generations of Meteosat that were spin stabilized, and carry two sets of remote sensing instruments each. Hence, in addition to providing continuity, the new system will provide an unprecedented capability from geostationary orbit. The payload on the MTG-I satellites are the 16-channel Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and the Lightning Imager (LI). The payloads on the MTG-S satellites are the hyperspectral Infrared Sounder (IRS) and a high-resolution Ultraviolet–Visible–Near-Infrared (UVN) sounder Sentinel-4/UVN, provided by the European Commission. Today, hyperspectral sounding from geostationary orbit is provided by the Chinese Fengyun-4A (FY-4A) satellite Geostationary Interferometric Infrared Sounder (GIIRS) instrument, and lightning mappers are available on FY-4A and on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) GOES-16 and GOES-17 satellites. Consequently, the development of science and applications for these types of instruments have a solid foundation. However, the IRS, LI, and Sentinel-4/UVN are a challenging first for Europe in a geostationary orbit. The four MTG-I and two MTG-S satellites are designed to provide 20 and 15.5 years of operational service, respectively. The launch of the first MTG-I is expected at the end of 2022 and the first MTG-S roughly a year later. This article describes the four instruments, outlines products and services, and addresses the evolution of the further applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. The aim of this study was to investigate nursing students' perception of and satisfaction with clinical group supervision based on a special model, used in nursing training. Background. Long-standing efforts have been made to create supervision models in nursing training that promote personal and professional development and prepare nursing students to cope with the complex and demanding situations they will face as registered nurses. Methods. Data were collected from nursing students ( n = 43) during their clinical training by means of two questionnaires. Most questions were concerned with the importance of factors involved in the contract and the students' experiences of how these factors were covered during the clinical group supervision. Findings. The findings showed that, before starting the supervision programme, most all the students expressed positive attitudes towards group supervision, but 25% had negative expectations as well. At the end of the programme all students thought that group supervision had been an important support to them during their training and almost everyone wanted to participate in group supervision in the future as registered nurses. The findings showed that both the structure and the climate were important for the success of the group supervision. Relevance to clinical practice. The findings will strengthen the model and confirm its usefulness in clinical training for nursing students. Using this supervision model, which includes reflection about feelings, thoughts and actions, the students will be well prepared for demanded situations in their future role as a registered nurse. A replication of this study addressed to trained nurses would be valuable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atmospheric Motion Vectors (AMVs) constitute an integral part of the global observing system. The heights of these vectors are determined by the target temperature, which, in the case of semi-transparent or broken clouds, is corrected for the upwelling radiance from scenes below the target. Despite the success of these methods, the attributed heights are still the largest single source of error of the AMVs. In order to improve the existing methodologies to determine the height of the AMVs alternative methods have to be employed. The potential of geometric cloud height estimates, where two satellites view the same cloud, has already been demonstrated with geosynchronous satellite data only as well as together with data from polar orbiting satellites. In these studies the cloud targets have been selected manually and the analysis has generally been based on imagery data from the visible channels. In this paper we take the methods further by applying them to geostationary infrared imagery data, using a fully automated procedure. The reason for exploiting infrared data is the capability of continuous observations also during night-time. The results presented demonstrate the stereo method as a verification and analysis tool for satellite cloud top temperature height retrievals and that it can be applied to 5-km resolution infrared imagery data from the geostationary satellites Meteosat 5 and Meteosat 7. A further analysis combining Meteosat data with imagery data from a polar orbiting satellite shows that the automated geometric technique can be extended beyond the range of overlapping geosynchronous observations, using an asynchronous stereo technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summarizes the proceedings and highlights of the Fifth International Winds Workshop held in Australia from February 28 to March 3, 2000. Interaction with the Co-ordination Group for Meteorological Satellites on issues related to the derivation and utilization of wind information based on the imagery from geostationary satellites; Plenary sessions and working group discussions.