MetOp Satellites
D5. Coastal processes, sea-level, cryosphere and ocean observation scienceDefinition
EUMETSAT polar-orbiting satellites carrying ASCAT and others.
MetOp is EUMETSAT’s series of polar-orbiting meteorological satellites, MetOp-A in 2006, MetOp-B in 2012, and MetOp-C in 2018, flying the mid-morning sun-synchronous orbit. For ocean work the key payload is ASCAT, the Advanced Scatterometer, a C-band fan-beam instrument at 5.255 GHz that retrieves the surface wind vector over two 550 km swaths at 12.5 to 25 km resolution. MetOp also carries the IASI infrared sounder, AVHRR, and GRAS radio-occultation. ASCAT winds feed marine forecasting and the Copernicus Marine Service. The MetOp Second Generation series, starting MetOp-SG-A1, continues the line.
Source: EUMETSAT MetOp / ASCAT mission documentation