MetOp-B LaunchCredit: EUMETSATMetOp-B launched 17 September, from Baikonur in Kazakhstan carries a suite of sophisticated instruments. MetOp-B will ensure the continuity of the weather and atmospheric monitoring service provided by its predecessor MetOp-A, which has been circling the globe from pole to pole, 14 times a day, since 2006.
[SatNews] Tuesday the launch… and now comes the commissioning with better weather predictions…”
EUMETSAT operations team awaits ready to take over control of Metop-B satellite and start commissioning. Following Tuesday’s successful launch of the Metop-B polar-orbiting satellite from Baikonur, EUMETSAT’s operations team is ready to take over control of the satellite from the ESA European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) on 20 September, three days after the launch. They will start the satellite in-orbit and check out activities validating all products extracted from its observations. Upon completion of these activities, in about six months, the Metop-B satellite will be declared operational.
Metop-B’s role is to ensure continuity of observations from polar orbit which are vital to Numerical Weather Prediction– the basis of modern weather forecasting as well as climate and environmental monitoring. This service is currently provided by the first satellite in the series, Metop-A (launched 19 October 2006), which has exceeded its nominal lifetime.
The activities will be coordinated by the EUMETSAT Control Centre located at EUMETSAT’s headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, using the comprehensive EUMETSAT Polar System ground segment. This ground segment includes a dedicated station at Svalbard, inside the Arctic Circle, which receives telemetry and sends commands to Metop-B, and all facilities required to control the spacecraft, process its data, extract meteorological products from its observations, and deliver these products to users in real time. The activities will be conducted in parallel with continuing operations of Metop-A.
All ground systems were prepared and validated for Metop-B before launch. The EUMETSAT operations team has now started to acquire and process Metop-B telemetry in parallel with ESOC, and to compare orbit calculations and telecommand checks to prepare for the smooth handover on 20 September. Mike Williams, Head of EUMETSAT’s Control Centre Division, said, “All systems and teams are ready and so far all the operational checks have gone well with ESOC. Further tests are planned for 19-20 September which should allow us to take over spacecraft control safely on the evening of 20 September. Then we embark on the commissioning activities, which will involve our full operations team and all functions of our ground segment for a challenging six months.”
Alain Ratier, EUMETSAT’s Director-General, said, “Metop data significantly improve weather forecasts up to 10 days ahead. Through these forecasts, they help protect life and property, and also benefit the weather-sensitive sectors of our economy, especially energy, transportation, construction, agriculture and tourism”.
The value of Metop data for weather forecasting is illustrated by recent studies of the impact of various data sources (in situ, airborne and space-based) on the performance of 24-hour forecasts, in which Metop-A accounts for the highest level of contribution at 25 percent. Focusing on the contribution of data from individual satellites, Metop-A’s contribution is nearly 40 percent, which is more than double the contribution of a polar orbiting satellite of the previous generation.
The polar orbiting Metop satellites together with the geostationary Meteosats form the two pillars of Europe’s system of operational meteorological satellites.
The EUMETSAT Director-General congratulated the launch service provider, Starsem, and the Roscosmos teams at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the excellent launch service. He also thanked all the teams who prepared the satellite and ground systems for launch, from EUMETSAT, ESA, CNES, NOAA and the European industrial consortium led by EADS Astrium.
Once EUMETSAT has taken control of the satellite on 20 September, work on the in-orbit verification of the satellite begins immediately, lasting six weeks. During this period, the direct broadcast transmission service commences, already allowing local users to receive data from certain instruments as it becomes available. The calibration and validation of products delivered by each instrument processing chain starts in parallel, with the final Level-1 product expected to be available 28 weeks after the launch. Following the operational availability of all Level-1 products, Metop-B will become the prime operational satellite for supporting near-real-time services and the Antarctic Data Acquisition shall be swapped from Metop-A to Metop-B. Routine operations are expected to begin around nine months after launch.
Once Metop-B is operational, it will be the second European satellite in the Initial Joint Polar System (IJPS) signed in 1998 and shared by Europe and the USA. This cooperation between EUMETSAT and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) comprises two polar-orbiting satellite systems and their respective ground segments delivering continuous global observations for meteorological applications and climate monitoring.
