Two European agencies on Tuesday signed a 791 million euro (dollar) deal to build three weather satellites that will enhance powers to predict storms and monitor the fragile polar ice caps.
The three 4.5-tonne METOP satellites will be launched from 2003 on an orbit that will take them looping over the North and South Poles at a height of 840 kilometers (530 miles), the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement.
The contract was signed between ESA and EUMETSAT, a consortium of European countries that operates weather satellites, and a group of builders that includes the Franco-British firm Matra Marconi Space, Daimler Chrysler Aerospace and Alenia Aerospazio of Italy.
The METOPs will carry a dozen instruments to monitor wind, humidity and the ozone layer, as well as images to help monitor the state of the polar ice caps, which climatologists fear are at threat from global warming.
EUMETSAT's current family of satellites are coming to the end of their operational life. They were launched around 20 years ago and were placed in a distant, geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers (22,500 miles) from Earth.
The new satellites will also provide data for a joint polar observation mission with the United States.
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