Following on from the first-generation MetOp series of satellites, the MetOp-Second Generation mission, or MetOp-SG for short, not only ensures the continuity of global observations from polar orbit for weather forecasting and climate analysis, but to do it even better.

Unlike the original MetOp series of three successive single satellites, the all-new MetOp-SG mission comprises three successive pairs of satellites. Each MetOp-SG pair is made up of an A-type (imaged here) and a B-type satellite that carry a different, but complementary, suite of remarkable instruments. The package totals ten different instruments across both satellites, some of which are based on the sound heritage of the first MetOp series, and some of which are completely new.

The A-type satellites carry six instruments: a next-generation infrared atmospheric sounder, a microwave sounder, a multispectral imaging radiometer, a novel multiviewing, multichannel, multipolarisation imager, a radio occultation sounder (which is also embarked on the MetOp-B satellites), and the Copernicus Sentinel-5 spectrometer.