The EUMETSAT Council agreed that the ageing, but still healthy, Metop-A satellite will be exploited on a “drifting” orbit from June 2017 onwards, in order to extend its useful lifetime from 2019 to 2022.

Under the motto ‘New era of altimetry, new challenges’ the 2016 meeting of the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team (OSTST) starts today in La Rochelle, France.

Ten years ago today, EUMETSAT’s first polar-orbiting meteorological satellite, Metop-A, was launched by Soyuz from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

After a series of re-orbiting manoeuvres for Jason-2, a dual Jason capability has been established, increasing the data flow for ocean models through enhanced spatial and temporal sampling of the ocean variables.