At the beginning of 2017, Airbus Defence and Space had chosen the Liege-based company, Amos, to deliver the scan mirror of the METimage Earth Observation optical instrument. The two companies were pleased with this collaboration and thus decided to work together again for designing and manufacturing the optics of the telescope and derotator, which are critical elements for the second generation of the EUMETSAT Polar System. The launch into a sun-synchronous orbit is planned for 2021.

“We are very proud of the trust that Airbus Defence and Space once again places in Amos by signing these two major contracts “, declared Philippe Gilson, CEO of Amos. “Few companies in Europe can build such instrument. Furthermore, it is very gratifying to contribute to a mission which will help improve weather forecasts and our understanding of the dynamics of our climate.”

Indeed, METimage is a visible and infrared imaging spectro-radiometer which will be embarked on the series “A” of the METOP Second Generation weather satellites. These three polar-orbiting spacecraft will provide detailed information on clouds, cloud cover, land surface properties, as well as oceans, ice, and land surface temperatures, contributing to future improvements to meteorological and climate forecasting.

Amos will manufacture optical elements for two projects that require ultimate precision. The telescope is composed of zerodur mirrors and of a set of flat mirrors that are assembled on the derotator’s rotating structure. The purpose of this complex opto-mechanical sub-system is to ensure a regular imaging geometry on the detectors over the full angular range realized by the scan mirror. Simply speaking, Amos will manufacture optical elements which “bumps” and “digs” on the surface shall be smaller than the diameter of 2 atoms on average.

Picture: artist view of the system MetOp - CREDIT ESA