Beskrivning : This was the 13th fully operational meteorological satellite in the Soviet Meteor 1 program. The satellite was placed in a near-circular, near-polar orbit to provide global observations of the earth`s weather systems, cloud cover, ice and snow fields, vertical profiles of temperature and moisture, and relected and emitted radiation from the dayside and nightside of the earth-atmosphere system for operational use by the Soviet Hydrometeorological Service. Its 900-km orbit seemed to verify a continued effort by the USSR to place new Meteor satellites in high orbit -- about 240 km higher than the orbits of early spacecraft in the series.