The Bureau accesses real-time, low resolution Meteosat imagery from the European Organisation for Exploitation of Satellites (Eumetsat) for internal Bureau use only. Also GOES-East and -West imagery is accessed by mutual agreement with the Space Science and Engineering Centre (SSEC) using their propriety software via McIDAS's (Man-computer Interactive Data Access System) Abstract Data Distribution Environment (ADDE). This software enables the Bureau to extract only that part of the GOES imagery required for analysis and prognosis requirements. The data are received electronically every three hours. They are not archived by the Bureau.

China launched Feng Yun-1D (FY-1D) on 15 May 2002. FY-1D is a polar- orbiting satellite, which means that during it's orbit around the earth it (almost) overpasses the North and South poles. On board the satellite is an instrument called a Multichannel Visible and Infrared Scan Radiometer (MVISR), which has 10 channels. Four of these channels are in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, three in the near infrared, one in the short infrared and 2 in the long infrared. The spatial resolution of the instrument is 1.2 km.

The Bureau of Meteorology receives FY-1D data around 6 times per day. This is enough data to provide a complete coverage of Australia once per day.

China launched its latest geostationary meteorological satellite, Feng Yun-2C (FY-2C), on 19 October 2004 via a CZ-3A booster from Xichang Launching Centre, Sichuan Province, China. The satellite differs from the previous experimental designs in that its radiometer has five spectral channels. The satellite was stabilised over ~105 deg E on 25 October 2004. The ground station received the first image from the satellite on 1 January 2005. The satellites monitors the temperature and the clouds above China and neighbouring areas and is able to provide meteorological information for the Asia-Pacific region.