The Himawari-8 geostationary meteorological satellite managed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) began operation at 02 UTC on 7 July 2015, replacing the previous MTSAT-2 operational satellite. The true-color composite imagery at 02 UTC captured three typhoons in the Pacific.
Himawari-8 was launched using H-IIA Launch Vehicle No. 25 on 7 October 2014 from the Tanegashima Space Center, and JMA subsequently conducted testing and checking of the satellite and related systems. During the commissioning phase, Himawari-8’s capacity for superior earth monitoring with multi-band, high-resolution and high-frequency observation was verified. JMA firmly believes that Himawari-8 will open the door to a new generation of satellite meteorology, and that it will contribute to the prevention and mitigation of weather-related disasters in the East Asia and Western Pacific regions as past satellites have done.
The simplest way to see real-time Himawari-8 imagery is to access the following website where JMA provides Himawari-8 imagery in JPEG format for various regions in various bands including RGB composite products updated every 10 minute.
