Japan's newest weather satellite, the Himawari 6, was out of service for six hours Saturday morning due to glitches in the onboard communications system, the Meteorological Agency said.
Engineers switched to the backup communications system and the satellite resumed weather observations shortly after noon, the agency said.
While the satellite was out of service, the agency used images from a U.S. satellite to monitor the movement of Typhoon Saola, which was approaching eastern Japan.
The trouble occurred in the system that transfers data between the satellite and the attached camera, the agency said.
The Himawari 6, launched in February, began weather observations in June.