Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) is EUMETSAT’s next generation of geostationary satellites, following on from earlier successful missions. This next generation, following on from Meteosat Second Generation, will provide an evolution of the imaging service, including a new Lightning Imager, on MTG-I, and a state-of-the-art atmospheric sounding service providing measurements in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. The sounding satellites, MTG-S, will also carry the Sentinel-4 instrument.

Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) is EUMETSAT’s next generation of geostationary satellites, following on from earlier successful missions. This next generation, following on from Meteosat Second Generation, will provide an evolution of the imaging service, including a new Lightning Imager, on MTG-I, and a state-of-the-art atmospheric sounding service providing measurements in the infrared and ultraviolet spectrum. The sounding satellites, MTG-S, will also carry the Sentinel-4 instrument.

MTG will see the launch of six new geostationary (imaging and sounding) satellites from 2022 onwards.

Diagram of Sentinel-5 (polar orbit)

Improved spatial resolution of Sentinel-5p

An important feature of the SENTINEL-5P mission is the synergistic exploitation of simultaneous measurements of imager data from the Visible/Infra-red Imager and Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), embarked on the Suomi-NPP (National Polar-orbting Partnership) satellite of NASA/NOAA (NPP mission started in 28 October 2011). The SENTINEL-5P orbit is selected such that it trails behind Suomi-NPP by 3.5 minutes in Local Time Ascending Node (LTAN), allowing the SENTINEL-5P observation swath to remain within the scene observed by Suomi-NPP.

Image of sentinel-5p in orbit

Artist illustration of Metop-A in orbit.

https://www.nasa.gov