MetOp Second Generation B-type satellite

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 (imaged here) 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 type-B satellites carry five instruments: a scatterometer, the other radio occultation sounder, a novel microwave imager, a novel ice-cloud imager, and an Argos-4 data collection system.