The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
Go to topicMetOp carries five European state-of-the-art instruments and a set of well-proven instruments that have been providing valuable data from US satellites. The payload includes the following instruments:
A-DCS (Advanced Data Collection System)
AMSU-A1 & -A2 (Advanced Microwave Sounding Units)
ASCAT (Advanced Scatterometer)
AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer)
GOME-2 (Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2)
GRAS (Global Navigation Satellite System Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding)
HIRS/4 (High Resolution Infrared Sounder)
IASI (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer)
MHS (Microwave Humidity Sounder)
SARP-3 (Search And Rescue Processor)
SARR (Search And Rescue Repeater)
SEM-2 (Space Environment Monitor)