Himawari-9

Himawari-9 officially became the primary operational satellite of the Japan Meteorological Agency on December 13, 2022, taking over from Himawari-8 after serving as its on-orbit backup since 2016. The two satellites operate as a pair from the same orbital position at approximately 140° East longitude, with Himawari-8 transitioning to standby status. The handover was performed seamlessly, ensuring no interruption to the continuous weather monitoring service that covers the Asia-Pacific region.

Himawari-8 and Himawari-9 are essentially identical satellites built by Mitsubishi Electric using the DS-2000 bus platform, designed as a pair to provide redundancy and continuous coverage. Both carry the same Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) with 16 observation bands, providing full-disk imagery of Earth every 10 minutes at resolutions up to 500 meters. Their identical design allows them to swap primary and backup roles seamlessly without any change in data quality or capability.

Himawari-9, positioned at approximately 140° East longitude, provides continuous weather monitoring for the Asia-Pacific region, covering Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. Its imagery is used not only by the Japan Meteorological Agency but also shared with numerous countries and international organizations across the region for weather forecasting, typhoon tracking, and disaster monitoring. The satellite's coverage is particularly important for monitoring tropical cyclones in the western Pacific, which affect nations from the Philippines to Japan.

Himawari-9 is equipped with the Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI), a 16-channel imager that provides observations in visible, near-infrared, and infrared spectral bands. The AHI can capture full-disk images every 10 minutes, with targeted scans of Japan every 2.5 minutes and specific weather phenomena every 30 seconds. The visible channel provides 500-meter resolution imagery, making it comparable to the Advanced Baseline Imager used on NOAA's GOES-R series satellites.