Meteosat 7 - the last in the series of ESA's highly successful meteorological satellites - was launched in September 1997. The next generation of Meteosat is already being worked on, with the capability to handle 100 times more data than the current satellites.
This video index looks at the last 20 years of Meteosat - from the launch of Meteosat 1 in 1977 to the first Meteosat Second Generation Satellite, MSG1, scheduled for launch in the year 2000.

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10:00:00:00 conditions of use
10:00:08:00 ESA opening sequence
10:00:39:00 [A-Roll] title: Watching The Weather - 20 Years Of Meteosat
10:00:50:00 animation of Meteosat satellite
10:01:05:00 French and English weather forecasts received by TV viewers
10:01:17:00 MET office shots with weather charts
10:01:30:00 weather measuring instruments
10:01:32:00 weather balloon
10:01:43:00 satellite weather images on monitor screen
10:02:13:00 montage of launches, 1977 and 1981
10:02:35:00 EUMETSAT headquarters
10:02:42:00 montage of launches, 1988 and 1993
10:03:19:00 animation of Ariane launcher and Meteosat satellite
10:03:36:00 ground receiving station and EUMETSAT operations centre
10:03:53:00 examples of interpreted information, e.g. visual clouds, infrared images, water vapour images
10:04:11:00 animation of launcher rocket and Meteosat illustrating orbit and geostationary position
10:04:33:00 operations centre general shots
10:05:10:00 3D graphic of world's weather over the year
10:05:55