Happening Now: NOAA Operations in Real Time

  • +Artist Rendition of Meteorological Operational (Metop)-B (Metop-B) Satellite

    Metop-B, Meteorological Operational Satellite
    Metop-B's role is to ensure continuity of observations from polar orbit, which are vital to Numerical Weather Prediction, weather forecasting, and climate/environmental monitoring. This service is currently provided by the first satellite in the series, Metop-A (launched 19 October 2006), which exceeded its nominal lifetime.
    Video: Metop-B Lift-off

  • +Image from April 16, 2013, of Metop-B using the AVHRR sensor

    Mid-morning Orbit-April 16, 2013, from Metop-B using the AVHRR sensor
    The Metop satellites fly approximately 507 miles over the Earth, crossing the equator every 101 minutes in what is known as the mid-morning orbit, due to the fact that it is always mid-morning in the location the satellite flies over every time it crosses the equator. NOAA satellites provide coverage in the afternoon orbit.
    News and information: http://www.eumetsat.int/Home/Main/Satellites/Metop/MissionOverview/index.htm?l=en

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    Advanced Sensors on Metop
    Metop satellites fly the full complement of sensors found on NOAA's POES satellites in addition to other advanced sensors such as Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) and Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI). The ASCAT provides a global picture of wind speed and direction over the ocean that is important for shipping and hurricane forecasting. The hyperspectral capability of IASI, like the Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) on Suomi NPP, is used to measure many components of the atmosphere from moisture to trace gases. This image shows Data from Satellite/Instruments: ASCAT Metop-B- NOAA Wind vector.
    Image: http://manati.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/datasets/ASCATBData.php

  • +GOES-13 satellite shows the overshooting cloud tops

    Improved accuracy and continuity with blended products
    Coordinating the sensors onboard the Metop and POES satellite not only allows NOAA to gather twice the amount of data, but also integrate the data from each sensor into merged products, such as this blended total precipitable water image of atmospheric moisture. Merged products provide more timely, data gap-free analysis of many environmental variables.
    Image:http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/globaldata/MIRSTPW_Mapped.png

Metop-B Ensures Continued Earth Observations

On April 24, NOAA's partners, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), will declare its new Metop-B satellite operational, after a successful launch in September 2012 and subsequent check-out period. Replacing the Metop-A satellite, Metop-B will be the primary satellite for providing environmental satellite information for both EUMETSAT and NOAA in the mid-morning polar orbit. NOAA and EUMETSAT fly satellites with identical or closely-related instruments in different orbits and share the data freely, allowing both organizations to leverage the others’ investment to improve weather forecasts through the use of additional environmental data.