MetOp-A, Europe’s first polar-orbiting satellite dedicated to operational meteorology, was launched on 19 October 2006 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. It complements Europe’s Meteosat satellites positioned in geostationary orbit and provides better weather and climate information.
The satellite entered a polar orbit at an altitude of approximately 817 km with an orbital period of 101 minutes and revisits almost each point of the Earth’s surface under similar solar illumination conditions on an approximately daily basis.
Picture above is first from Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) instrument, which detects radiated thermal energy emitted by the air in different levels in the atmosphere. The swath goes from pole to pole and shows Europe and North America.
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