Metop

Although the last of the current polar orbiting weather satellites (NOAA N-prime) has yet to be launched —currently scheduled for February 2009—their digital replacements are already under development.

The first of these, EUMETSAT's Metop-A, was safely carried into orbit aboard a Soyuz-2 launcher on October 19, 2006. (The second Metop in the series is currently sheduled for launch in June 2010). Metop is the space segment of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS).

Metop will fly at a nominal altitude of 820 kilometres, in a 5-day repeat orbit, making its descending equator crossing at around 09:30 hours local time. The three satellites of the Metop series should span an operational period of at least 14 years, with an expected life time of 5 years each.

Data will be continuously recorded on board Metop, then dumped to acquisition stations once per orbit for further processing. Products will be disseminated to users by EUMETSAT within 2 hours 15 minutes. This will allow a global coverage, which will be completed every 1 to 3 days depending on each particular instrument's swath.

Direct reception of data will also be possible, via high-rate AHRPT (Advanced High Resolution Picture Transmission) at a data rate of 3.5 Mbit/ sec (recommended 2.4 metre tracking antenna).

It had originally been planned to disseminate low-rate LRPT (Low Resolution Picture Transmission) imagery on 137.1 MHz but, due to on-board equipment anomalies, dissemination had to be abandoned. As it has proved unfeasible to rectify these problems for the future Metops B and C, and it has been decided abandon the Metop LRPT operational service completely.

Data Products

You can read here about some of the new products recently added to the EPS system.

Data Access

Access to the AVHRR data from Metop by direct reception, as from the current NOAA satellites, will be free.

EUMETSAT Operations Bulletin No 11 states

"Under nominal operations, these data will be unencrypted
and available to users without licence and without charge."

It is also understood that, for amateur and educational users, the data disseminated via the EUMETCast service will also be available without charge.

EUMETCast Reception

To receive the data from EUMETCast, you will of course have to be within the footprint of either the Hot Bird 6 or the Atlantic Bird satellite. You should be able to use your existing EUMETCast receiver, although, because of the increased data rates, you may have to install a parallel system just for Metop data unless you have a particularly high-specification PC. (And of course, if you don't already have a EUMETCast setup, there will be a low-cost antenna, PC card, and software available for purchase from the GEO Shop).

The World Meteorological Organisation lists data transmission standards for both current and future weather satellites.

You can obtain further general reading about Metop from the following links:

• Metop at a Glance (ESA)

• ESA Metop Pages

• EUMETSAT Polar System