Europe's first polar satellite successfully launched
From the Russian cosmodrome Baikonur on October 19th MetOp-A was successfully launched into space - Europe's first satellite to orbit the earth from pole to pole. MetOp-A is intended to monitor climate developments in both the Arctic and Antarctic and improve the reliability of weather forecasts.
MetOp-A is one of three satellites in this series from the European Space Agency (ESA) that are to be launched at five-year intervals to ensure regular data collection until at least 2020. Each of these artificial satellites weighs around four tons and carries a large number of special instruments for earth observation. The centerpiece is an extremely high-resolution infrared spectrometer (IASI), which can measure temperature and humidity as well as the chemical composition of the earth's atmosphere at different altitudes with unprecedented resolution and accuracy. The device records not only the spatial expansion of the clouds and the air layers, but also the different temperatures prevailing in them. With the help of IASI, the researchers involved want to understand the circulation of climate-relevant gases such as carbon dioxide and their spatial and temporal effects. More than half of the data recorded by MetOp will come from IASI.
But the spectrometer is only part of the high-performance meteorological instruments on board the satellite, which weigh a total of 1,000 kilograms. There are also temperature, humidity, wind or ozone measuring devices. In addition to creating three-dimensional height profiles of the atmosphere, they should observe the weather in the southern hemisphere in order to close any gaps in our understanding. Other focal points are the monitoring of environmental conditions in space, the investigation of charged particles and humanitarian tasks, since distress signals can be recorded and forwarded.
Each MetOp satellite orbits the earth in 110 minutes in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of about 820 kilometers and delivers global data. After every two days, the earth's atmosphere is always completely recorded. MetOp supplements the older Meteosat satellites - they do not record the poles - and the NOAA satellites of the American weather service, since they fly at different times: the NOAA devices take on the "afternoon shift", while MetOp the "morning service" because they cross the equator at 9.30 a.m. local time. The mission is estimated at a total of 2.4 billion euros.
