Ariane 6, the pride of the European aerospace, is about to regain service. On Wednesday August 13 at 02:37 am metropolitan time, she will leave for a new commercial mission, the second in her career.
The objective of this flight will be to deploy Metop-SG-A1a second generation meteorological satellite. This concentrate of technology built by Airbus Defense and Space, the spatial and military division of the French giant, will be positioned on a Héliosynchrone polar orbit at an altitude of an altitude. Since this perch, he will collect precious data on the atmosphere and the oceans for about 7 years.
To do this, he can count on a set of six advanced instruments:
-
L’Iasi-ng (Atmospheric interferometer with new generation infrared probe), a hybrid infrared interferometer which measures the temperature, humidity and the composition of the atmosphere.
-
The MWS (Micro-Wave Soundnder), a microwave sensor that will collect temperature and humidity data through the clouds to complete the infrared data.
-
The METimagea radiometer that will capture visible and infrared images in high resolution to monitor the cloud cover, oceans and banquards.
-
The 3MI (Multi-viewing, multi-channel, multi-polarization Imager), a complex imaging that will monitor aerosol concentrations, clouds and properties of the earthly surface.
-
And Radio concealment sounderwhich exploits variations in the trajectory of the GPS signal through the atmosphere to obtain very precise measurements of temperature, pressure and humidity.
-
The Sentinel-5 spectrometerspecialized in the study of atmospheric composition, in particular the search for pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.
Thanks to this very sophisticated scientific arsenal, Metop-SG-A1 will provide extremely precise data, especially in high latitudes that geostationary satellites have trouble observing. This information will significantly improve weather forecasts and monitoring climate change, especially in the medium and long term.
Twitter-tweet” data-width=”500″ data-dnt=”true”>
🎩 Styling finished for Metop-SGA1!
The weather satellite and its Iasi-Ng instrument are now warm under the Ariane 6 headdress.
Take off on August 12 🚀#Metopsga1 #IASING #Ariane6 #Cnes pic.twitter.com/s7LDJ5q7V8— CNES (@CNES) August 6, 2025
An important deadline for spatial Europe
Metop-SG-A1 will be the first representative of a family of three satellites who will follow one another for just over 20 years. Consequently, this program will also make it possible to respond to an important strategic issue: ensuring The autonomy and independence of Europe in the field of weather and climatic observations.
In parallel, it is also an important deadline for Ariane 6 herself. After a first commercial mission successful five months earlier-the deployment of the French military satellite CSO-3-it will have to prove its capacity to chain the missions with great reliability, as its illustrious elder Ariane 5 did it brilliantly for 27 years.
This will only be the start of a year -round end of the year for Arianespace and the CNES, with five to six other launches scheduled for 2025. The precise dates and objectives of these missions have not yet been revealed, but we know that Ariane 6 will contribute in particular to the deployment of two constellations of satellites: Galileo, the European equivalent of the American GPS service, and Kuiper, a web service designed to Amazon, intended to compete with the Starlink of SpaceX.
We therefore make an appointment to the bravest of you on the night of August 12 to 13 to attend this strategically very important shot, hoping that it takes place without incident.
🟣 To not miss any news on the Geek newspaper, subscribe to Google News and on our WhatsApp. And if you love us, .
