The joint polar system: Towards the second generation eumetsat polar system

This paper present the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) polar orbiting satellite programmes. EUMETSAT operates today two polar orbiting satellites of the EUMETSAT Polar System in the so-called morning orbit with an equatorial descending crossing-time of 09:30 UTC. They constitute the European contribution to the Joint Polar System (JPS). The two satellites, denoted Metop-A and -B are part of the three satellite EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). The third satellite of this first generation polar satellite series will be launched towards the end of 2018. In parallel EUMETSAT is preparing for its EPS Second Generation (SG) constellation. This is a twin-satellite system with three satellites each. The Metop-SG A-satellites form the imaging platform with the optical imaging, infrared and microwave sounding, aerosol imaging and radio occultation missions. It also hosts the Copernicus Sentinel-5 mission. The Metop-SG B-satellites are dedicated to microwave and submillimeter-wave imaging, scatterometry and radio occultation. It also hosts the ARGOS data collection system. This paper gives and overview of these two EUMETSAT programmes.