22/01/2026
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Already recognised for its excellence and even adopted for operational climate forecasting, the European Area Company’s Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc has now fulfilled its most necessary function. This small prototype mission has succeeded in paving the best way for a brand new constellation of comparable satellites, often called EPS-Sterna.
Launched in August 2024, the Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc was conceived and deployed in simply three years, and inside a tightly constrained funds – demonstrating how a New Area method can be utilized to understand small satellites for Earth remark.
Crucially, the mission was primarily designed to point out how a constellation of comparable polar-orbiting satellites may ship frequent observations to help very short-term climate forecasts and nowcasts within the Arctic, and around the globe. This want is changing into more and more pressing.
As local weather change continues to accentuate climate variability within the Arctic, the demand for extra – and extra frequent – knowledge is rising, notably measurements of atmospheric water vapour.
Concentrations of water vapour can change quickly on this area and have a big impression on forecast accuracy. The protection wanted can’t be achieved by a single satellite tv for pc alone, however solely by a devoted constellation.
Outfitted with a cross-track scanning microwave radiometer, the Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc delivers detailed measurements of atmospheric humidity together with temperature.
Although it’s a prototype mission, the European Centre for Medium-Vary Climate Forecasts (ECMWF) deemed its knowledge so good as to assimilate them into climate forecasts.
The information, together with quite a few different observations, are merged with a short-range forecast that’s guided by earlier measurements to supply probably the most correct attainable snapshot of the Earth’s present state. This evaluation then serves as the place to begin for producing climate forecasts.
Info from the Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc’s microwave radiometer enhances knowledge from related sensors on a lot bigger satellites offered by organisations such because the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), the US Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).
This reality alone stands as a powerful endorsement of the mission’s excellence and has helped to open the door for a constellation of comparable satellites – and as such Eumetsat has confirmed that the Eumetsat Polar System – Stena (EPS-Sterna) will go ahead, with the goal of launching the primary satellites of the constellation in 2029.
ESA’s Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc Venture Supervisor, Ville Kangas, stated, “We’re extraordinarily pleased with the Arctic Climate Satellite tv for pc mission and my thanks go to the various who’ve been concerned. We developed this modern satellite tv for pc below very tight time and budgetary constraints, proving that this method could be adopted for a constellation of such satellites.
“And, in orbit, the satellite tv for pc has not solely carried out properly, however exceeded expectations by truly getting used operationally for climate forecasts, which wasn’t on its listing of necessities – solely to point out that it may.
“The information that Eumetsat will now go ahead with EPS-Sterna is certainly nice information, and we’re trying ahead to creating and constructing the constellation in cooperation with Eumetsat.”
The constellation will comprise of six satellites – and the satellites will likely be replenished twice through the lifetime of the mission to make sure the continued supply of information till at the least 2042. As well as, there will likely be two satellites as spares, resulting in a complete of twenty satellite tv for pc to be constructed.
ESA will handle the procurement of the Sterna satellites – a cooperation mannequin just like Europe’s different meteorological missions, specifically the geostationary Meteosat and the polar-orbiting MetOp missions.
The formal settlement between ESA and Eumetsat is to be signed shortly.
EPS-Sterna will ship world observations, with most knowledge obtainable inside round an hour and revisit occasions of lower than three hours for a similar location on Earth. This will likely be a significant step ahead in contrast with present polar-orbiting satellite tv for pc methods, which generally observe the identical space solely twice a day.
The elevated remark frequency will considerably improve the monitoring of quickly evolving climate, enhancing forecasts of extreme occasions in susceptible areas such because the Mediterranean, whereas additionally closing vital knowledge gaps over the Arctic – the fastest-warming area on Earth and a key supply of climate methods that have an effect on and infrequently intensify over Europe.
Enjoyable reality: Sterna is the Latin genus for the Arctic Tern, a chook recognized for its in depth migrations, reflecting the satellites’ polar orbits.
