Successfully launched on the second commercial flight of Ariane 6 from Kourou, the European satellite MetOp-SG-A1 carries an array of state-of-the-art instruments to observe and monitor the atmosphere. The result of an international collaboration in which the Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) and the Liège-based company AMOS played an active role, the mission is expected to deliver major advances in weather forecasting and climate research.
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he European satellite MetOp-SG-A1 (Meteorological Operational Satellite – Second Generation – Model A) was placed into orbit on Thursday at 02:37 Belgian time. This first Model A—out of a total of three, in addition to three Model B satellites—carries six imaging and atmospheric sounding instruments operating in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral ranges.
Orbiting at approximately 800 km in a sun-synchronous polar orbit, it will provide critical data on temperature, precipitation, winds, pollution, and aerosols, thereby contributing to improved weather prediction and climate studies.
The Centre Spatial de Liège (CSL) played a key role by calibrating the 3MI (Focal 3) and Metimage (Focal 5) instruments, testing subsystems such as the Metimage mirrors and derotator, supplying flight hardware including the Metimage diffuser, and developing optical simulation tools such as SuSi. The company AMOS, a spin-off from the University of Liège, also contributed to the project.
L'édition 2026 de la Nuit des Chercheur·es se tiendra le vendredi 25 septembre 2026. Impliquée dans la Nuit des Chercheur·es depuis sa création, l'ULiège vous invite à participer à cette manifestation de culture scientifique.
SCOPE, dedicated to developing more sustainable IT infrastructure, and ShuttleToBrain, which explores new approaches to improving the delivery of drugs to the brain. Two new IMR projects at ULiège.
Measuring seven metres in diameter and nearly fourteen metres in length, FOCAL 7 will be the CSL’s largest vacuum chamber, and one of the largest in Europe !
