The Solar Eclipse of 11 August 1999

During the total eclipse of the Sun on 11 August 1999 EUMETSAT used its in-orbit stand-by satellite Meteosat-6 to observe the shadow of the Moon on the Earth's or cloud surfaces using a special scanning mode. Instead of covering the full Earth disk in half-hourly intervals, a large part of the northern hemisphere was scanned in 10-minute intervals. This allowed for a more rapid observation sequence of the movement of the Moon's shadow along the Earth's surface. In the figure below the path of the shadow across Europe is indicated.

Quick Links

Eclipse Imagery

Summary of EUMETSAT's Activities during the Solar Eclipse

Total Eclipse of the Sun Observed by Meteosat-6 in 2001

Total Eclipse of the Sun Observed by Meteosat-7 in 1998

The eclipse path through Europe on 11 August 1999 (Figure courtesy of NASA)

Summary of EUMETSAT's Activities during the Solar Eclipse

Meteosat images were made available to observe the shadow of the Moon during the solar eclipse of 11 August 1999.
The in-orbit stand-by spacecraft, Meteosat-6, positioned at around 9°W, was used to provide the limited scans of the Eclipse region.
Meteosat-7 (providing the operational service) performed its usual 30-minute scanning schedule to provide normal operational data from its orbital position at 0° Longitude.
Meteosat-6 performed 3 scans per half-hour slot (i.e. 1 scan every 10 minutes).
All images scanned were rectified to the nominal sub-satellite point of 0° Longitude.
All images taken by Meteosat-6 have been stored in EUMETSAT's archive and are available via this Web server.
On the day of the eclipse four additional WEFAX formats were introduced into the nominal Meteosat-7 dissemination schedule S9904M01 on channel A1.

The Shadow of the Moon as seen by Meteosat

The images of the eclipse from 11 August 1999 may be observed by selecting the appropriate time from the box below the sample image displayed on this page. An animated GIF sequence of the images may also be selected.

Eclipse Images

11 August 1999 10:30 UTC
(higher resolution available below)

Other Images*:
(Note: Times are specified in UTC)

Animation from 11 August (3417 KB)

* Images open in new window and are 1015 by 622 pixels and approximately 70 KB in size.

All Meteosat images shown on our Web server are subject to EUMETSAT copyright. If you wish to re-use these Meteosat images, EUMETSAT's copyright credit should be shown by displaying the words "copyright © 2001 EUMETSAT" along with the images shown.