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 and a B-type satellite (shown here) that carry a different, but complementary, suite of remarkable instruments.  

The B-type satellites carry a scatterometer, a radio occultation instrument, a microwave imager, and ice cloud imager and an advanced data collection system.