- Earth-watching satellite
- METOP-A
- NORAD 29499
- 2006-044A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Australia
Orbit ends over the Indian Ocean
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches METOP A go over, but a receiver still asks whether it is above the horizon. Say where you are and this card answers.
Your position is rounded to about a kilometre and sent only to the Orbinauts API, to find the pass.
No brightness has been published for METOP A, so it is not a naked-eye satellite and no city page carries pass times for it. Nothing here estimates one.
Seeing it
There is nothing to go outside for: it is too faint for the naked eye. What it is up there for reaches the ground as pictures and measurements, not as a light in the sky.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched, on the day GCAT records. Source
Summary
Over Brazil LIVE
Where is METOP A?
At 5:35:24 PM UTC METOP A was over Brazil (7.9° S, 68.8° W), 738 km up, moving at 7.44 km/s and in sunlight.
What is METOP A?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Oct 19, 2006.
Can I see METOP A?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for METOP A, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Operator
- European Meteorological Satellite Organization
- State
- European Meteorological Satellite Organization
- Built by
- EADS Bremen
- What it is
- Earth-watching satellite
- Launched
- Mass
- about 4.1 t
- Operating
- Orbit class
- Low Earth orbit
From GCAT, Jonathan McDowell’s general catalogue, licensed CC BY 4.0: the operator, the state, the manufacturer, what it is for, the launch day, the mass, and whether it is operating. The orbit class is read from its current elements.
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 5:35 PM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 7.9° S, 68.8° W
- Altitude
- 738 km
- Speed
- 7.44 km/s (26,770 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 6:09 PM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.3°
- Orbital period
- 97.5 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.76
- This orbit
- 517 to 759 km
- In shadow
- 34 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,010 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 8, 2026, 7:05 AM, 10 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 8, 2026, 7:05 AM, 10 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for METOP A, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to METOP A has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 8, 2026, 1:11 PM, 3 hours old. Only approaches serious enough to be reported publicly are listed: within three days and, for two bodies near the Earth, closer than a kilometre with a chance of a collision above 1 in 10,000, the level at which NASA moves the ISS.
Beside the others
| Satellite | Typical altitude | Orbital period | Mass | In space since |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| METOP A | 517 to 759 km | 97 minutes | about 4.1 t | 2006 |
| ALOS-2 | 630 to 632 km | 97 minutes | about 2.1 t | 2014 |
| SAOCOM 1A | 622 to 624 km | 97 minutes | about 3 t | 2018 |
| WorldView-3 | 612 to 615 km | 97 minutes | about 2.8 t | 2014 |
| SMAP | 681 to 683 km | 98 minutes | 944 kg | 2015 |
| Aqua | 685 to 687 km | 98 minutes | about 2.9 t | 2002 |
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 8, 2026, 7:05 AM, 10 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "METOP-A",
"OBJECT_ID": "2006-044A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-08T07:05:33.080928",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.7635568,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0172118,
"INCLINATION": 98.3439,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 63.6376,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 330.1589,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 55.5258,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 29499,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 4671,
"BSTAR": 0.00018281873,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 0.00001549,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}