Abstract

SAGE III was successfully launched onboard a Meteor-3M spacecraft on December 10, 2001 at 17:18:57 UTC from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit with an ascending node time of about 9 AM. Routine measurement operations began in March 2002. The Meteor-3M spacecraft is an advanced model of the Meteor spacecraft that was developed over 30 years ago. The payload includes SAGE III and other instruments designed to measure temperature and humidity profiles, clouds, surface properties, and high energy particles in the upper atmosphere.