Metop-SG-A1

Metop-SG-A1 (Metop Second Generation A1) is the first satellite of the Metop Second Generation series, operated by EUMETSAT in partnership with ESA, and launched on 13 August 2025 into a sun-synchronous orbit at 835 km altitude with a 09:30 descending equator crossing time. The mission carries six atmospheric sounding and imaging instruments: IASI-NG (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer Next Generation), METImage (visible/near-infrared multispectral imager), MWS (Microwave Sounder), 3MI (Multi-Viewing Multi-Channel Multi-Polarisation Imager), Sentinel-5 UVNS (ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared trace-gas sounder hosted for Copernicus), and an RO instrument for GNSS radio occultation. As of late 2025, WMO OSCAR lists the mission as in commissioning, with the RO instrument having reached operational status in May 2026. The payload stack enables atmospheric temperature and humidity profiling, microwave atmospheric sounding, sea surface temperature retrieval, broadband radiation budget measurement, multi-angle polarimetric aerosol characterisation, tropospheric trace-gas column retrieval (NO2, SO2), GNSS radio occultation profiling, and atmospheric motion vector derivation. Metop-SG-A1 is designed to operate until at least 2034. ^[1][2][3][4]