The first MetOp Second Generation satellite (MetOp-SG-A1), which also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission, is scheduled to launch on August 12 on board an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana.
MetOp Second Generation mission
The MetOp-SG mission will take over from the first-generation MetOp satellites to improve the accuracy of European weather forecasts for periods ranging from 12 hours to 10 days. According to the ESA, it will not only ensure the continuity of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis, but it will do it even better.
Unlike the original MetOp series of three successive single satellites, the all-new MetOp-SG mission comprises three successive pairs of satellites. Each MetOp-SG pair is made up of an A-type and a B-type satellite that carry a different, but complementary, suite of instruments. The package totals 10 different instruments across both satellites, some of which are based on the sound heritage of the first MetOp series, and some of which are completely new.
The A-type satellites carry six instruments, including a next-generation infrared atmospheric sounder; a microwave sounder; a multispectral imaging radiometer; a novel multiviewing, multichannel, multiploidization imager; a radio occultation sounder (which is also on the MetOp-B satellites); and the Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer. The type-B satellites carry five instruments – a scatterometer, the other radio occultation sounder, a novel microwave imager, a novel ice-cloud imager and an Argos-4 data collection system.
ESA is responsible for designing and building the satellites and Eumetsat procures the launch service, develops the ground segment, operates the satellites and provides the data to the worldwide meteorological user community.
Copernicus Sentinel-5
The new Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission introduces an advanced imaging spectrometer. This instrument is integrated into the MetOp Second Generation A-type weather satellites, working with other onboard instruments.
Sentinel-5 delivers daily global data on key air pollutants, essential climate variables and stratospheric ozone that protects Earth from ultraviolet radiation. The mission’s high-resolution imaging spectrometer operates across seven spectral bands, spanning the ultraviolet, visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared ranges to measure a host of trace gases, including ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, formaldehyde, glyoxal, carbon monoxide and methane, as well as aerosols and UV index. The instrument will also probe the vertical distribution on some of these components.
In related news, EUMETSAT recently assumed control of the Meteosat Third Generation Sounder 1 (MTG-S1) spacecraft, the latest addition to its fleet of geostationary meteorological satellites. Read the full story here