
MetOp-B Payload Module lifted out of ESTEC’s Large Space Simulator on 28 July 2010, after more than a month of tests. Credits: ESA/Sander Koenen

Payload Module moved after being lifted from ESTEC’s Large Space Simulator on 28 July 2010. MetOp-B’s Payload Module is the segment of the satellite that hosts its meteorological instruments. Credits: ESA/ Sander Koenen

MetOp-A is Europe’s first polar orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology, and with its contribution to the American Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellite (POES) Programme it marks a new era in global weather prediction and climate monitoring. From its polar orbit 800 kilometres above the surface of the Earth, MetOp’s range of European and American instruments will provide a wealth of accurate and detailed information to meteorologists and scientists around the world. MetOp-A was launched on 19 October 2006 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, on a Soyuz ST rocket with a Fregat upper stage. Credits: ESA – AEOS Medialab
MetOp-B is the second in a series of three European meteorological operational satellites procured by ESA to serve as the space segment of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites‘ EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). The first in the series, MetOp-A, was launched into polar orbit in 2006. MetOp-C is scheduled for launch in 2016.


