CEOS EO HANDBOOK – MISSION SUMMARY - Metop-A -
Full Name Meteorological Operational Polar Satellite - A
aka Metop-2
Status Mission complete
Mission Agencies EUMETSAT, CNES, ESA, NOAA Launch Date 19 Oct 2006
Mission Links mission site | data access portal EOL Date 15 Nov 2021
EO Portal Info NORAD Catalog # 29499 (TLE)
International Designator 2006-044A
Orbit Type Inclined, non-sun-synchronous Orbit Period 101.4 minutes
Orbit Sense Descending Orbit Inclination 98.5 deg
Orbit Altitude 824 km Orbit Longitude
Orbit LST 8:40 (Snapshot) Repeat Cycle 29 days
Objectives and Applications Meteorology, climatology. Metop-A is in a drifting LST orbit since August 2017 and LTAN is drifting from the original 09:30 to expected 07:30 by end-of-life.
Mission Measurements
CategoryParameterInstrument(s)
AtmosphereAerosols AVHRR/3, GOME-2, IASI
Atmospheric Humidity Fields AMSU-A, GOME-2, GRAS, HIRS/4, IASI, MHS
Atmospheric Winds IASI
Cloud type, amount and cloud top temperature AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, GOME-2, HIRS/4, IASI, MHS
Cloud particle properties and profile AMSU-A, MHS
Liquid water and precipitation rate AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, MHS
Ozone GOME-2, HIRS/4, IASI
Radiation budget AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, GOME-2, HIRS/4, IASI
Trace gases (excluding ozone) HIRS/4, IASI
Atmospheric Temperature Fields AMSU-A, GRAS, HIRS/4, IASI
LandAlbedo and reflectance AVHRR/3
Soil moisture AMSU-A, ASCAT
Vegetation AVHRR/3
Surface temperature (land) AMSU-A, AVHRR/3, HIRS/4, IASI
Multi-purpose imagery (land) AVHRR/3
OceanOcean surface winds AMSU-A, ASCAT
Surface temperature (ocean) AVHRR/3, HIRS/4, IASI
Multi-purpose imagery (ocean) AVHRR/3
Snow & IceSnow cover, edge and depth AMSU-A, AVHRR/3
Sea ice cover, edge and thickness AMSU-A, ASCAT, AVHRR/3
Mission Instruments
A-DCS3 - Argos Advanced Data Collection System3
AMSU-A - Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A
ASCAT - Advanced Scatterometer
AVHRR/3 - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer/3
GOME-2 - Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment - 2
GRAS - Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding
HIRS/4 - High Resolution Infra-red Sounder/4
IASI - Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer
MHS - Microwave Humidity Sounder
S&R (NOAA) - Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking
SEM (POES) - Space Environment Monitor
Featured Datasets
More Datasets
NOAA POES and METOP Local Area Coverage Imagery
Jan-2019



This collection is composed of AVHRR Level 1B products (1.1 km) reprocessed from the NOAA POES and Metop AVHRR sensors data acquired at the University of Dundee and University of Bern ground stations and from the ESA and University of Bern data historical archive. The data collection covers Europe and the neighbouring regions in the period of 1 January 1981 to 31 December 2019. Access is provided through the ESA TPM scheme. Read more

OpenSearch Datasets Selected IDN OpenSearch Results (search all 124 )
AAMH CPEX
Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) CPEX V1
ASCAT C-band backscatter-derived sea ice freeboard in the Weddell Sea
AVHRR Level-1B Local Area Coverage Imagery
Backscatter-derived Antarctic sea ice roughness proxy from ASCAT
Black Sea High Resolution SST L4 Analysis 0.0625 deg Resolution
Black Sea High Resolution SST L4 Analysis 0.0625 deg Resolution (GDS version 2)
Black Sea High Resolution SST L4 Analysis 0.0625 deg Resolution for 2019-09-18 (NCEI Accession 02135 ...
Black Sea Ultra High Resolution SST L4 Analysis 0.01 deg Resolution
Black Sea Ultra High Resolution SST L4 Analysis 0.01 deg Resolution (GDS version 2)

Selected FedEO OpenSearch Results (view all 203 results: browser , table )
METOP GOME-2 - Water Vapour (H2O) - Global
METOP GOME-2 - Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) - Global
METOP GOME-2 - Cloud Top Pressure (CTP) - Global
METOP GOME-2 - Tropospheric Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) - Global
METOP GOME-2 - Cloud Fraction (CF) - Global
METOP GOME-2 - Ozone (O3) - Global
ASCAT Winds and Soil Moisture at 25 km Swath Grid - Metop
ASCAT Winds and Soil Moisture at 12.5 km Swath Grid - Metop
ASCAT Winds and Soil Moisture at 25 km Swath Grid - Metop-C
AVHRR Atmospheric Motion Vectors (BUFR) - Metop - Polar

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