My first post, although I have been lurking for a while! For anyone who is interested, the first launch of a MetOp satellite is scheduled for Monday 17 July at 16:29 UTC (17:29 BST) from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. I have been involved in the design, implementation, and test of the on-board software of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) which is one of the instruments onboard MetOp and NOAA meteorological satellites. MHS acquires measurements at various altitudes of atmospheric humidity, including rain, snow, hail and sleet, and temperature by measuring microwave radiation emitted from the surface of the Earth. The first MHS instrument was launched last year, and is operating successfully onboard the NOAA satellite NOAA-18. The MetOp satellites will be operated in parntership with NOAA. More deatils of MetOp can be found here