MetOp Second Generation Payload
Loiselet, Marc; Kangas, Ville; Manolis, Ilias; Fois, Franco; D'Addio, Salvatore
ESA-ESTEC, NETHERLANDS

The ESA MetOp Second Generation (MetOp-SG) Programme was approved at the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial level in Naples in November 2012. MetOp-SG is a follow-on to the current, first generation series of MetOp satellites, which is now established as a cornerstone of the global network of meteorological satellites. MetOp-SG is required to ensure the continuity of these essential meteorological observations, improve the accuracy / resolution of the measurements, and also to add new measurements / missions. The MetOp-SG programme is being implemented in collaboration with EUMETSAT. ESA will develop the prototype MetOp-SG satellites (including associated instruments) and procure, on behalf of EUMETSAT, the recurrent satellites (and associated instruments). ESA is responsible for instrument design of six instruments, namely MicroWave Sounder (MWS), Scatterometer (SCA), Radio Occultation (RO), MicroWave Imaging (MWI), Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), and Multi-viewing, Multi-channel, Multi-polarisation imager (3MI). Four other instruments will complete the payload : METImage from DLR, the Infrared Atmospheric Sounder Instrument New Generation (IASI-NG) from CNES, Sentinel-5 from ESA via GMES Programme and Argos-4 from CNES. This paper will present the first six instruments. Five of them have been pre-selected by ESA through Request For Proposals process, the SCA being to be procured together with the satellites.