CPI Awarded Contract To Support New Generation Of Meteorological Satellites

The Communications & Medical Products Division of Communications & Power Industries (CPI) has been awarded an €8.7 million, or approximately $9.5 million, contract by Airbus Defence and Space to support a new generation of satellites that is expected to provide global advanced meteorological data from 2021 until after 2040.  The Meteorological Operational Satellite – Second Generation (MetOp-SG) program is a collaboration between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and consists of two series of satellites carrying complementary instruments.

Under the contract, CPI will develop several engineering and flight models of 5.355 gigahertz Extended Interaction Klystrons (EIKs).  CPI's EIKs are vital to the Scatterometer (SCA) radar instrument, creating the high-power microwaves required for the instrument to measure surface winds over the ocean.  This information is expected to play an important role in numerical weather prediction, climate monitoring and the tracking of extreme weather events.  In addition, the Scatterometer will provide data on soil moisture, snow cover, sea ice and other valuable environmental measures.

Work on this program will take place at CPI's facilities in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada.  CPI will deliver flight models beginning in 2019.

CPI's EIKs are the technology of choice for meteorological satellite missions.  CPI's EIKs have previously been chosen to support space-based radar systems on the Surface Water & Ocean Topography joint mission between NASA and the French Space Agency (CNES); the EarthCARE joint mission between European and Japanese space agencies; and NASA's CloudSat Earth Observation satellite, which recently celebrated its tenth year of operation, far exceeding its mission goals.  CPI received funding from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) for its work on the SWOT and CloudSat programs.