New ESA satellite to provide advanced weather forecasting, track climate change and air pollution for over 20 years

The MetOp-SG-A1 satellite, set to launch on 13 August at 12:37 AM UTC, arrived at Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, in mid-June. Since then, it has undergone checks, fuelling, and has been joined to the launch adapter. An end has come to the hands-on work for the MetOp-SG-A1 team as the satellite has now been sealed within the Ariane 6 rocket fairing.

The satellite is part of the MetOp Second Generation (MetOp-SG) mission that includes three successive pairs of satellites. The MetOp-SG-A1 will be the first to hit the skies. It will be followed by its twin satellite — the MetOp-SG-B1 — next year.

This mission is an advancement of the original MetOp mission, which also launched three satellites. It will improve accuracy and collect sharper and more precise data to support weather forecasting and climate analysis for more than 20 years. While some instruments on each MetOp-SG satellite are improved versions of the ones on the first MetOp series, others are entirely new.

The MetOp-SG-A1 satellite carries a next-generation infrared atmospheric sounder, a microwave sounder, a multispectral imaging radiometer, a novel multiviewing, multichannel, multipolarisation imager, a radio occultation sounder, and the European Commission’s Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer (Sentinel-5A) — a total of six instruments.

The Sentinel-5A is one of the MetOp-SG-A1's key instruments. It is an advanced imaging spectrometer designed to provide daily global data on major air pollutants, key climate indicators, and the stratospheric ozone layer that protects the Earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation.