Metop-B

LIVE

Link to this page

https://orbinauts.com/satellites/metop-b

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 38771
  • 2012-049A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

Where Metop-B is on the world map, with the orbit it is flying
View on live map

Orbit began over Greenland

Orbit ends over Greenland

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

In view from you

Nobody watches Metop-B 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.

Even at its closest, Metop-B is too faint to see with the naked eye from anywhere on Earth, so no city page carries pass times for it.

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.

Altitude

814 km816 km818 km820 km822 km
Metop-B, one reading a day from Sep 16, 2026 to Sep 18, 2026. The band runs from the lowest point of the orbit to the highest; the line is the middle of it.

One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.

Timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched on Soyuz-2.1a from Baikonur. Source

Summary

Over the Pacific Ocean LIVE

Where is Metop-B?

At 8:06:56 PM UTC Metop-B was over the Pacific Ocean (30.2° N, 163° W), 823 km up, moving at 7.45 km/s and in sunlight.

What is Metop-B?

A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Sep 17, 2012.

Can I see Metop-B?

No, not with the naked eye: even at its closest, Metop-B is too faint to see from anywhere on Earth; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.

General

Launched
Watches
The whole Earth: temperature and humidity through the atmosphere, winds over the oceans, and the air’s ozone
Full picture of the Earth
Twice a day, over every point of the Earth
Operator
EUMETSAT, Europe’s meteorological satellite agency
Took over from
Metop-A, as the primary Metop satellite, on Apr 24, 2013
Mass
about 4.1 t
Typical altitude
818 to 823 km
Speed
about 7.44 km/s (26,800 km/h)

Latest orbital data

Position received
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
30.2° N, 163° W
Altitude
823 km
Speed
7.45 km/s (26,802 km/h)
Course
south
Light
In sunlight until 8:49 PM UTC
Inclination
98.6°
Orbital period
101.3 minutes
Orbits per day
14.21
This orbit
815 to 820 km
In shadow
28 minutes of each orbit
In view from
Within 2,150 km of the point below it
Elements epoch
Sep 18, 2026, 7:35 AM, 12 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 7:35 AM, 12 hours old.

No operator publishes an ephemeris for Metop-B, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Metop-B are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
Metop-B is falling less than a metre a day, read from the last 2 days of samples.

See every close approach reported in orbit.

The Metop programme

Orbinauts also tracks:

Data and API

The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Sep 18, 2026, 7:35 AM, 12 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "METOP-B",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2012-049A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T07:35:23.428896",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.21459658,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00034046,
  "INCLINATION": 98.641,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 310.9154,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 83.4939,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 276.6626,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 38771,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 72649,
  "BSTAR": 0.000036126638,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 3.6e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}