04.03 Space Research Center Puts Up-to-Date Weather Maps Online

MOSCOW, March 3 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian space research center has launched a website providing online users with up-to-date satellite imagery of Earth’s weather, the Roscosmos space agency said Monday.

The images are provided by the nearly two-ton Electro-L satellite, which was launched in 2011.

The satellite hovers in a fixed spot above Earth’s equator in a geostationary orbit, enabling it to capture consecutive images of nearly the entire eastern hemisphere.

Photos assembled into a time-lapse video of the past 24 hours are continually updated on the Research Center for Earth Operative Monitoring’s website.

The spacecraft, with a planned lifetime 10 years, is the first of three Russian geostationary meteorological satellites for weather forecasting and scientific research slated for orbit by 2015.