VAWS: Introduction to the Metop-SG constellation and METImage

Speaker: Curtis Seaman, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere

The first satellite of the next-generation polar-orbiting satellite program developed by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) is currently scheduled to launch in August 2025. This upcoming constellation of satellites is known as Metop-Second Generation (Metop-SG), and the first satellite to be launched is Metop-SG-A1. Thanks to an international partnership known as the Initial Joint Polar-orbiting System (IJPS), NOAA is planning to acquire and distribute this data to the user community in a manner similar to the data provided by NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). One of the new instruments to be flown in this constellation is METImage, an optical imager with many similarities to VIIRS and MODIS. This talk will provide an overview of the Metop-SG constellation, and will preview the capabilities of its new imager, METImage, with a focus on similarities and differences with VIIRS as well as some new capabilities that will be available on NOAA’s future generation geostationary satellite program, GeoXO.