VOSTOCHNY COSMODROME (Amur region), February 29. Russia will completely abandon information from Western weather satellites by the end of 2024, head of Roshydromet Igor Shumakov told reporters.
«Until a certain time, we had close cooperation with Western colleagues — with the Eumetsat system, which supplied us with a fairly large amount of operational information that is required in our normal forecasting activities,» he said after the launch of the Soyuz-2.1b rocket «with the Meteor-M satellite No. 2-4.
Since recently, according to Shumakov, the information flow from Western satellites has practically dried up, but “thanks to colleagues from Roscosmos” the lack of information has been practically eliminated
«Looking ahead a little, I think that by the middle or end of this year, taking into account plans to launch hydrometeorological devices, we will be able to abandon Eumetsat completely,» he added.
Shumakov emphasized that Meteor-M No. 2-4 is equipped with unique equipment that allows it to see through clouds, monitor the waters of the seas and oceans, in particular the Northern Sea Route, and participate in forecasting ice conditions, as well as perform environmental tasks .