MetOp-A
Launched: 19 October 2006
Site: Baikonur
Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Launcher: Soyuz-2 / Fregat
Orbit: LEO, apogee: 837
km, perigee: 837 km: inclination: 98.7°: sun-synchronous (9:30 local time
descending node)
International Number: 2006-044A
Name: MetOp-A
Owner:
Eumetsat
Contractor: EADS Astrium
MetOp-A is a meteorological
satellite, owned and operated by Eumetsat.
The MetOp satellite series is
a joint programme by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European
Meteorological Satellite Organisation (Eumetsat), with the latter to operate
the spacecraft once in orbit. These new satellites will form the space segment
of the Eumetsat Polar System (EPS) and probe the atmosphere with high accuracy
from a sun-synchronous orbit. They will circle the globe from pole to pole at
an altitude of about 817 km, collecting high- resolution data to complement the
hemispheric survey of the atmosphere conducted from geostationary orbit by the
Meteosat system.
These new European satellites will be operated in
partnership with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
polar weather satellite system, providing data that will be used to monitor the
planet's climate and improve weather forecasting. NOAA satellites will operate
the 'afternoon shift' (i.e. cross the equator in the afternoon, local time),
with Europe's MetOp taking over the 'morning orbit' service.
The MetOp
spacecraft have been developed and built by an industrial team led by EADS
Astrium in Toulouse, France. Three flight models have been ordered and
essentially completed, and will be launched sequentially in order to ensure
continuous data delivery up to the 2020 timeframe. Each satellite is 6.5-m high
and weighs about 4 tonnes at launch. MetOp-A, the first spacecraft in the
series, is carrying 11 instruments, many of which are highly
complementary.
This payload includes a new generation of European
instruments - provided by ESA, Eumetsat, and the French Space Agency (CNES) -
to deliver improved remote-sensing capabilities to both meteorologists and
climatologists. The IASI spectrometer will provide highly accurate temperature
and humidity profile measurements, the Gome-2 spectrometer will probe the
atmosphere for ozone and trace gas concentrations, the Ascat scatterometer will
measure wind speed and direction on the ocean surface, and the Gras payload
will provide atmospheric profiles using the occultation of radio signals from
GPS satellites. The MHS instrument, replacing the AMSU-B instrument carried on
previous US satellites, will give microwave measurements of humidity.
In
addition, the satellite incorporates a set of 'heritage' instruments provided
by the USA: the AVHRR radiometer for global imagery, the AMSU-A microwave
sounder, the HIRS infrared sounder, an advanced Argos data collection system, a
Search & Rescue package and the SEM-2 spectrometer to monitor charged
particle flux in space, or so-called 'space weather'.
MetOp carries five
European state-of-the-art instruments and a set of well-proven instruments that
have been providing valuable data from US satellites. The payload includes the
following instruments:
(source: ESA)