Metop 2
10/19/2006
Metop-C will operate in the same 817-kilometer sun-synchronous orbit with a mid-morning crossing time as Metop-A and Metop-B.
Metop-A was the first satellite subject to an agreement between the United States and Europe that placed NOAA-provided instruments on a European satellite operated by EUMETSAT.
The deep-space scanning maneuver on Metop-A acquired data intended to improve calibration and provide a new baseline for data processing applicable retrospectively to all Metop data.
The SES STA filing identifier SES-STA-20210709-01020 referenced USN earth station de-orbit support for Metop-A at Alaska.
As of July 11, 2021, a USN STA request sought a 180-day authorization to support Metop-A de-orbit and future LEOP ranging qualification testing using Metop-B and Metop-C with downlink frequency 2230.000 MHz and uplink frequency 2053.458 MHz.
An internal ESA study initiated in 2024 assessed options to remove METOP-A, METOP-B and METOP-C from orbit, including an option to first remove METOP-A as an in-orbit demonstration.
As of July 12, 2021, EUMETSAT planned to de-orbit Metop-A starting in November 2021 with the foreseen timeline including IASI services ending on 15 October 2021 and Metop-A de-orbiting starting on 15 November 2021.
As of November 3, 2006, all instruments carried on MetOp-A had been successfully switched on and the MHS instrument had produced its first Level-1b images while the GOME-2 instrument had acquired its first Earthshine spectra.
The MetOp-A satellite was launched in October 2006.
As of October 25, 2006, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) instrument aboard MetOp-A had been switched on and had successfully acquired data.
As of July 12, 2021, the EUMETSAT foreseen timeline listed the Metop-A payload module switch-off on 27 November 2021 and completion of deorbiting on 1 December 2021.