ESA’s Arctic Weather Satellite undergoing its final tests in the cleanroom at OHB’s facilities in Stockholm, Sweden, before it is packed up and shipped to the Vandenberg launch site in California in the US.
As its name suggests, the Arctic Weather Satellite mission is expected to improve weather forecasts in the Arctic – a region that currently lacks data for accurate short-term forecasts. Embracing the concept of New Space, the satellite was developed and built on a very tight schedule of just 36 months and on a tight budget. It is the forerunner of a potential constellation of satellites, called EPS-Sterna, that ESA would build for Eumetsat if the prototype Arctic Weather Satellite works well.