This computation involved: DETAILS NEEDED - COMPUTATION CREATED FOR SATELLITE COMPOSITE. deployed on Metop-A. Metop-A, launched on 19 October 2006, represents the first in a series of three satellites forming the space segment of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS). Metop-A is Europe's first polar-orbiting meteorological satellite

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<div class="introduction">Introduction</div>
<p>EPS Metop is a series of polar orbiting meteorological satellites operated by Eumetsat. The satellites are all part of the Eumetsat Polar System. The first of the series, Metop-A, was launched on October 19, 2006. </p><p>Metop-A has been designed to work in conjunction with the NOAA satellite system whereby the two satellites fly in complementary orbits. Metop-A’s polar orbit is Sun synchronous, so that the satellite track along the Earth is always at the same local time, in this case in the mid-morning. NOAA will continue to operate its mid-afternoon orbit satellite service as part of the Polar Orbit Enviromental Satellites (POES) system. <br />With an array of sophisticated instrumentation, Metop-A provides data of unprecedented accuracy and resolution on a host of different variables such as temperature and humidity, ocean surface wind speed and direction and concentrations of ozone and other trace gases – thus marking a major advance in global weather forecasting and climate monitoring capabilities.</p>

<p>Instruments on board Metop-A are as follows:
</p><ul>
<li>IASI</li>
<li>GOME-2</li>
<li>ASCAT</li>
<li>GRAS</li>
<li>AVHRR/3</li>
<li>MHS</li>
<li>AMSU-A</li>
<li>HIRS/4</li>
</ul>
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