Metop Second Generation - benefits of the new data
The Metop Second Generation weather satellites will provide a huge data boost for weather forecasting and atmospheric monitoring in Europe and beyond.
Metop Second Generation and Copernicus Sentinel-5
The next generation of European weather satellites providing long-term, global monitoring of weather, climate and atmospheric composition
The Metop Second Generation satellite (Metop-SGA1) will be the first of the next generation of European polar-orbiting weather satellites. The satellite will also host the new Copernicus Sentinel-5 atmospheric monitoring mission.
Last Updated
09 April 2025
Published on
20 February 2025
Scheduled to launch in August 2025, the Metop Second Generation A1 satellite will be a major boost for satellite monitoring of weather, climate and atmospheric composition in Europe, and beyond.
It carries a suite of evolved and entirely new instruments designed to deliver essential data for weather forecasting, storm prediction, climate monitoring, and a wide range of other services and applications.
The EUMETSAT Polar System - Second Generation programme consists of three successive pairs of dual Metop satellites – Metop-SGA and Metop-SGB – working in tandem in a sun-synchronous polar orbit and at an altitude of 823-848km. Together, they will expand the legacy of Metop observations to the mid-2040s. Metop-SGA1 will be the first satellite to be launched in 2025, followed by its “complementary satellite”, Metop-SGB1 a year later.
The vast increase in the quantity and frequency of data provided by the Metop-SG satellites will be crucial to improve the accuracy and resolution of numerical weather prediction models. This boost for weather forecasting will further Metop’s role as the single most important source of meteorological observations for forecasts 12 hours to 10 days ahead.
As well as providing more detailed observations for numerical weather prediction models, the Metop-SG satellites will also provide important data for nowcasting (forecasts up to six hours ahead) particularly in northern latitudes where geostationary satellite data is sparser. In addition, the satellites will provide key data for monitoring atmospheric composition, the oceans, land surfaces and climate.
One satellite: six complementary missions
The Metop-SGA1 satellite will host a total of six atmospheric sounding and imaging instrument missions that will provide optical, infrared, and microwave observations.
The payload includes the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer – New Generation (IASI-NG), METimage (a visual and infrared imager), the Microwave Sounder (MWS), the Radio Occultation Sounder, and the Multi-Viewing, Multi-Channel, Multi-Polarisation Imager (3MI) – the latter being an entirely new instrument designed to enhance the monitoring of aerosols and cloud properties.
The satellite also carries the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission – the Ultraviolet, Visible, Near-Infrared and Short Wave Infrared Sounder – which will deliver detailed measurements of atmospheric composition and trace gases in the atmosphere in synergy with other instruments on board the spacecraft.
The Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission is part of Copernicus, the Earth observation component of the European Space Programme.
Interactive 3D Metop-SGA1 model
European satellites
The Metop Second Generation satellites are a testament to European innovation and cutting edge capabilities in space and Earth observation technologies. They have been developed through partnerships between EUMETSAT and the European Space Agency, the European Union’s Copernicus programme, the French space agency (CNES), the German space agency (DLR), and an industrial consortium led by Airbus Defence and Space. This consortium has involved more than 110 companies in 17 European countries.
Joint Polar System
The Metop-SG satellites are the European contribution to the Joint Polar System, a shared system between EUMETSAT and the United States' National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
