Metop-C

LIVE

Link to this page

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

  • Earth-watching satellite
  • NORAD 43689
  • 2018-087A
  • Low Earth orbit

Current orbit

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

Orbit began over Germany

Orbit ends over the Atlantic Ocean

Sunlit since

Enters the Earth’s shadow

Past trackNext orbits

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

817 km817 km818 km818 km819 km
Metop-C, 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-Fregat from Kourou. Source

Summary

Over the Norwegian Sea LIVE

Where is Metop-C?

At 8:06:55 PM UTC Metop-C was over the Norwegian Sea (69.6° N, 4° W), 832 km up, moving at 7.44 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

The payload module of Metop-C, wrapped in gold foil, being lowered into ESA’s Large Space Simulator vacuum chamber in the Netherlands for testing in 2017.
Photograph: ESA / G. Porter (CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
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
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
8:06 PM UTC
Station time (UTC)
8:06 PM UTC
Latitude / longitude
69.6° N, 4° W
Altitude
832 km
Speed
7.44 km/s (26,798 km/h)
Course
north-west
Light
In sunlight until 9:10 PM 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
Sep 18, 2026, 6:15 AM, 13 hours old
Source
Position from Space-Track orbital elements of Sep 18, 2026, 6:15 AM, 13 hours old.

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

In orbit

Close approaches
Close approaches to Metop-C are not available right now. Try again in a few minutes.
Losing to drag
Metop-C has not fallen measurably over 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, 6:15 AM, 13 hours old.

{
  "OBJECT_NAME": "METOP-C",
  "OBJECT_ID": "2018-087A",
  "EPOCH": "2026-09-18T06:15:58.040352",
  "MEAN_MOTION": 14.21473238,
  "ECCENTRICITY": 0.00007162,
  "INCLINATION": 98.7335,
  "RA_OF_ASC_NODE": 319.1824,
  "ARG_OF_PERICENTER": 55.0133,
  "MEAN_ANOMALY": 305.1112,
  "EPHEMERIS_TYPE": 0,
  "CLASSIFICATION_TYPE": "U",
  "NORAD_CAT_ID": 43689,
  "ELEMENT_SET_NO": 999,
  "REV_AT_EPOCH": 40805,
  "BSTAR": 0.000041440313,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DOT": 4.7e-7,
  "MEAN_MOTION_DDOT": 0
}