Signing event for Eumetsat Polar System Sterna

Simonetta Cheli, ESA’s Director of Earth Observation Programmes, and Phil Evans, Director General of Eumetsat, are pictured here at a signing event at the European Space Conference in Brussels. The formal agreement marks the next phase of collaboration on the Eumetsat Polar System – Sterna (EPS-Sterna), which will deliver frequent observations to support very short-term weather forecasts and nowcasts in the Arctic, and around the world.

EPS-Sterna builds on technology demonstrated by ESA's Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS), which has been successfully collecting data since August 2024. The mission's excellence has helped to open the door for a constellation of similar satellites, with the aim of launching the first in 2029.

ESA will manage the procurement of the Sterna satellites – a cooperation model similar to Europe’s other meteorological missions, namely the geostationary Meteosat and the polar-orbiting MetOp missions.