page_title: MetOp
section_title: Data acquisition
hierarchical_section_title: MetOp / Data acquisition
caption_attribution_description: English: MetOp-A satellite flare, May 26, 2019. It is in Bootes; Arcturus is to the right. A dim satellite also crossed the field of view. Nikon D600, 50mm manual-focus Nikkor f/1.8, ISO 100, f/4, 32 seconds.
context_page_description: MetOp is a series of three polar-orbiting meteorological satellites developed by the European Space Agency and operated by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. The satellites form the space segment component of the overall EUMETSAT Polar System, which in turn is the European half of the EUMETSAT/NOAA Initial Joint Polar System. The satellites carry a payload comprising 11 scientific instruments and two which support Cospas-Sarsat Search and Rescue services. In order to provide data continuity between MetOp and NOAA Polar Operational Satellites, several instruments are carried on both fleets of satellites.
  MetOp-A, launched on October 19, 2006, is Europe's first polar orbiting satellite used for operational meteorology. With respect to its primary mission of providing data for Numerical Weather Prediction, studies have shown that MetOp-A data are measured as having the largest impact of any individual satellite platform on reducing 24-hour forecasting errors, and accounts for about 25% of the total impact on global forecast error reduction across all data sources.
context_section_description: With the exception of Search and Rescue, which is a purely local mission with its own dedicated transmitter, all data from the MetOp Instruments are formatted and multiplexed by the Payload Module and either stored on a solid-state recorder for later transmission via an X-Band antenna, or directly transmitted to local users via High Rate Picture Transmission (HRPT) L-Band antenna.
  The main Command and Data Acquisition (CDA) head is located at Svalbard Satellite Station in Norway. The high latitude of this station allows the global data stored in the solid state recorder of each satellite to be dumped via X-Band once per orbit. Each MetOp satellite produces approximately 2 GB of raw data per orbit. Additionally, in order to improve timeliness of products, one of the operational satellites dumps the data from the descending part of the orbit over the McMurdo groundstation in Antarctica. Data are then trickle fed from the ground stations to EUMETSAT Headquarters in Darmstadt, Germany, where they are processed, stored and disseminated to various agencies and organisations with a latency of approximately 2 hours without the McMurdo ground station and 1 hour with Svalbard.
  HRPT is used to provide a real-time direct readout local mission via a network of receivers on ground provided by cooperating organisations. Data from these stations is also transmitted to EUMETSAT and redistributed to provide a regional service with approximately 30 minutes latency. Due to radiation sensitivity of the HRPT hardware, the MetOp-A HRPT does not operate over the polar regions or South Atlantic Anomaly.
caption: Satellite flare from MetOp-A, May 2019
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