Himawari-8 is a next-generation geostationary meteorological satellite developed by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). It has been launched on 7 October 2014 and scheduled to start operate in 2015 as a replacement for MTSAT-2 (also called Himawari-7). The following Himawari-9 will be launched in 2016 as a backup and successor satellite. Both satellites will be located at around 140 degrees east, and will provide multispectral observations in the East Asia and Western Pacific regions for a period of 15 years. The only payload Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) has visible (3 bands with 0.5 km – 1 km resolution), near infrared (1 band with 1km resolution), short wavelength infrared (2 bands with 2 km resolution), mid wavelength infrared (4 bands with 2 km resolution), and thermal infrared (6 bands with 2 km resolution) bands, with a temporal resolution of better than ten minutes.