metop

MetOp A, B, & C are the first European polar orbiting satellites dedicated to operational meteorology. Designed and developed by Astrium for the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), these satellites provide meteorological data for the morning service, to complement the data collected by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites, which cover the afternoon orbit. From their polar orbit, at a much lower altitude than the other European geostationary meteorological satellites, the MetOp satellites are ideally located to gather high resolution Earth Observation information, as well as accurate atmospheric data.
metop A ready for installation on the launcher

The MetOp A satellite was launched in October 2006, and declared operational on 15th May 2007. Launch of MetOp B will take place in 2012 and MetOp C in 2017, at five year intervals, so as to ensure the continuity of operational service over a period of about 15 years.

All the space you need

Customer Mission Dimensions Launch Mass Power Design Lifetime Orbit Payload Characteristics Number of Instruments Instrument Mass Instrument Power Instrument Data Rate

European Space Agency and EUMETSAT Meteorological 6.6 x 6.3 x 5.0 metres (deployed configuration without solar array) 4100 kg (at launch) 3800W (End of Life) 5 years Near-polar sun-synchronous, Mean altitude 830km Local solar time 09.30, descending node, 29-day repeat cycle 12 900 kg 950 W 2600 Kbps
Wildfires in California 2007 eumetsAt

Spacecraft Characteristics

Instruments
Advanced Very high Resolution Radiometer (AVhRR) high-resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder (hIRS) Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSU-A1&A2) Microwave humidity Sounder (MhS) Advanced Data Collection System (A-DCS) Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME) GNSS Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS) Search and Rescue Monitor (S&R) Space Environment Monitor (SEM) Imaging Radiometer, 6 channels (0.6-12m) Sounder, 19 infrared channels (3.8-15) 1 visible channel Microwave sounder, 15 channels (23-90Ghz) Microwave sounder, 5 channels (89-183Ghz) UhF receiver and signal processor Infrared Michelson interferometer (3.6-15) Pulsed radar in C-band Nadir-viewing UV and visible spectrometer Radio occultation receiver VhF/UhF transponder and signal processor Multi-channel charged particles spectrometer
storms over the uAe & saudi Arabia 2008 eumetsAt

The Mission
MetOp A, B & C will provide global coverage of the Earth with detailed observations which will be used for both meteorology and climatology applications. The MetOp mission includes several enhancements over the existing NOAA meteorological polar satellites, such as the introduction of advanced sounding and surface wind measurement capabilities, advanced global ozone monitoring, direct data broadcast services, and the capability to obtain full resolution data from the complete orbit. In addition, the choice of the orbit parameters has been optimised for the European weather prediction models. Each satellite will carry a set of 12 complementary instruments. These comprise sounding (microwave and infrared), imagery (high resolution radiometer images), data collection from buoys and other platforms, ozone monitoring, wind scatterometry (wind speed and direction over the ocean), space environment monitoring (charged particle fluxes), as well as a humanitarian service (search and rescue). Some of these instruments are common to both the MetOp and the US satellites; for example the Microwave humidity Sounder (MhS) a 5-channel self-calibrating microwave scanning radiometer which was developed by Astrium.
A super typhoon over Japan 2009 eumetsAt

9171tl Astrium 3-Nov-2011

For more information please contact: Jean-Paul Gardelle MetOp Project Manager Earth Observation, Navigation & Science Division

Astrium sAtellites Toulouse France PhONE: +33 (0) 5 62 19 69 93 EMAIL: jean-paul.gardelle@astrium.eads.net www.astrium.eads.net

tropical cyclone Yasi 2011 eumetsAt