Arctic Weather Satellite platform

The Arctic Weather Satellite is conceived as a constellation of small polar-orbiting satellites, each carrying a single instrument: a microwave radiometer. As a first step, ESA is developing a prototype satellite. The satellite platform is based on OHB’s Innosat platform, but includes some upgrades such as an electric propulsion, a power system for higher instrument power consumption and an L-band data downlink. The prototype satellite will be designed taking into account requirements for the future constellation. Therefore, no design changes are foreseen between the prototype and the constellation.