Metop - Second Generation

Continuing high quality observations from polar orbit

Metop - Second Generation (Metop-SG) is EUMETSAT's next generation of polar-orbiting satellites, following on from earlier successful missions.

Last Updated

29 November 2022

Published on

20 May 2020

This next generation, following on from EUMETSAT Polar System programme, will secure the continuation of meteorological observations from the polar orbit. It will bring observations to a new standard, through the suite of innovative European instruments flown on the Metop-SG spacecraft.

The mission (known the EUMETSAT Polar System-Second Generation or EPS-SG) is composed of two series of spacecraft, Metop-SG A and B, flying on the same mid-morning orbit, like the current Metop satellites. The orbit height is in the range 823-848 (dependent on latitudes). There will be three satellites each of Metop-SG A and Metop-SG B.

Key features of the new mission:

1. Continuation of provision of information to improve numerical weather prediction (NWP) in Europe and worldwide.
2. Nowcasting applications, especially at high latitudes where geostationary measurements are not available.
3. Operational oceanography through the delivery of ocean surface wind vectors, sea surface temperature, sea ice cover, and other marine products.
4. High spectral and spatial resolution soundings and imagery in the spectrum ranging from ultraviolet to the thermal infrared to serve atmospheric chemistry applications.
5. Precipitation, soil moisture and snow measurements to serve operational hydrology and water management.
6. Large scale land surface analysis in support of land-atmosphere interactions and biosphere applications through optical imaging mission.
7. Support of climate monitoring, based on the production of relevant Climate Data Records, also involving heritage observations from the EPS programme.

EPS-SG's planned launch dates

EPS-SG is a partnership programme, which involves ESA, DLR and CNES.
It is Europe’s contribution to the Joint Polar System to be shared with the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
EPS-SG has three new instruments (3MI, MWI and ICI), two of which have never been flown before on an operational satellite (3MI and ICI), will provide observations of precipitation, aerosols and ice clouds.
Numerical weather prediction at regional and global scales will benefit from the EPS-SG enhanced infrared, microwave, and radio-occultation soundings of temperature and humidity, polar atmospheric motion vectors extracted from optical imagery, novel precipitation and cloud measurements of imagers in the optical, sub-millimetre and microwave spectra, and high-resolution ocean surface wind-vector and soil moisture measurements extracted from scatterometer observations.
Metop-SG A also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer for measurements of trace gases which, in combinations with those of IASI-NG, 3MI and METimage, will improve air quality forecasts produced by the Copernicus Atmosphere monitoring service.
The other key component of the EPS-SG system is a comprehensive ground segment including all facilities required to control the satellites, acquire and process the data and deliver the extracted products to users worldwide.
The Metop-SG satellites are developed under ESA contract by a European industrial consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space, which also develops the IASI-NG, METimage and Sentinel-5 instruments under CNES, DLR and ESA contracts.
EUMETSAT procures all launch services, develops the full ground infrastructure and integrates and validates the full system.
All EPS-SG observations will be reprocessed for the production of climate records of a large number of essential climate variables.

EPS-SG instruments and ground segment

IASI-NG

Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer - New Generation (IASI-NG) is a passive infrared sounder.

Microwave Sounder

The Microwave Sounder (MWS) is a total power radiometer.

METimage

METimage is a multi-spectral (visible and IR) imaging passive radiometer.

3MI

The EPS-SG Multi-Viewing Multi-Channel Multi-Polarisation Imaging (3MI) instrument is a passive optical radiometer.

Sentinel-5

Copernicus Sentinel-5 will be the polar-orbiting atmospheric monitoring mission.

Ice Cloud Imager

The Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) instrument is a conically scanning millimetre/sub-millimetre wave radiometer.

Microwave Imager

The Microwave Imager (MWI) is a conically scanning radiometer.

Scatterometer

The Scatterometer (SCA) is a real aperture, side-looking radar, emitting microwave radiation towards the Earth's surface.

Radio occultation

The radio occultation (RO) instrument is a passive instrument measuring the time variation of the excess path length of GNSS signals.

EPS-SG ground segment

The EPS-SG ground segment will support the ground functions required to meet the EPS-SG missions objectives.

EPS-SG services

EPS-SG data access service

The existing multi-mission dissemination and delivery mechanisms are being evolved to deliver the future EPS-SG data to users.

EPS-SG user test data

Format familiarisation test data packages for users.

EPS-SG products

EPS-SG global and regional Level 1 and L2 products generated at EUMETSAT headquarters.

EPS-SG science studies

ComboCloud: MW & IR sounding of cloud properties

Observations from space offer a powerful tool for the study of the interaction between clouds and radiation and for the retrieval of cloud properties.