- Earth-watching satellite
- NORAD 43689
- 2018-087A
- Low Earth orbit
Current orbit
View on live mapOrbit began over Mongolia
Orbit ends over the People's Republic of China
Sunlit since
Enters the Earth’s shadow
In view from you
Nobody watches Metop-C 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-C, 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.
Altitude
One reading a day, worked out from the elements Space-Track publishes.
Timeline
- Launch
Launched on Soyuz from Kourou. Source
In the news
Sentinel-3C and FLEX share a Vega-C in a week of twelve launches
· The Orbinauts Post
Summary
Over the Indian Ocean LIVE
Where is Metop-C?
At 3:02:57 AM UTC Metop-C was over the Indian Ocean (38.3° S, 89.5° E), 835 km up, moving at 7.43 km/s and in sunlight.
What is Metop-C?
A satellite that watches the Earth in low Earth orbit, in space since Nov 7, 2018.
Can I see Metop-C?
No, not with the naked eye: no brightness has been published for Metop-C, and nothing here estimates one; what people use is its pictures and measurements of the Earth.
General
- Launched
- Rocket
- Soyuz
- 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
- Role
- The second of Europe’s two operational Metop satellites, backing up Metop-B
- Mass
- about 4.1 t
- Typical altitude
- 820 to 821 km
- Speed
- about 7.44 km/s (26,800 km/h)
Latest orbital data
- Position received
- 3:02 AM UTC
- Station time (UTC)
- 3:02 AM UTC
- Latitude / longitude
- 38.3° S, 89.5° E
- Altitude
- 835 km
- Speed
- 7.43 km/s (26,762 km/h)
- Course
- south
- Light
- In sunlight until 3:30 AM UTC
- Inclination
- 98.7°
- Orbital period
- 101.3 minutes
- Orbits per day
- 14.21
- This orbit
- 817 to 818 km
- In shadow
- 31 minutes of each orbit
- In view from
- Within 2,160 km of the point below it
- Elements epoch
- Nov 2, 2026, 10:49 AM, 15 hours old
- Source
- Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Nov 2, 2026, 10:49 AM, 16 hours old.
No operator publishes an ephemeris for Metop-C, so every position here comes from its orbital elements.
In orbit
- Close approaches
- No close approach to Metop-C has been reported publicly in the past thirty days.
- Losing to drag
- Metop-C is falling less than a metre a day, read from the last 48 days of samples.
From Space-Track’s public conjunction messages; the latest report was issued Nov 2, 2026, 1:53 PM, 12 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.
The Metop programme
Orbinauts also tracks:
Data and API
The current elements from Space-Track as an OMM object, epoch Nov 2, 2026, 10:49 AM, 15 hours old.
{
"OBJECT_NAME": "METOP-C",
"OBJECT_ID": "2018-087A",
"EPOCH": "2026-11-02T10:49:12.487872",
"MEAN_MOTION": 14.21482647,
"ECCENTRICITY": 0.0001365,
"INCLINATION": 98.7264,
"RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 3.8664,
"ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 132.6693,
"MEAN_ANOMALY": 227.4599,
"EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
"CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
"NORAD_CAT_ID": 43689,
"ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
"REV_AT_EPOCH": 41447,
"BSTAR": 0.000038273,
"MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 4e-7,
"MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}