The competition to build Europe's next generation of polar-orbiting weather satellites has been won by Airbus.
A contract valued in the hundreds of millions of euros will be signed by Esa and Airbus in due course.
The existing Metop series, as it is known, has a profound impact on the quality of weather forecasting.
The satellites' sensors gather profiles of atmospheric conditions, layer by layer.
Studies comparing all the different types of meteorological observations (including surface weather stations, balloons and aeroplanes, etc) have found Metop data to have the biggest single contribution to the accuracy of the 24-hour look ahead, at around 25%.
The improved forecasts of storms and other extreme events are estimated to be worth billions of euros annually in terms of lives saved and property damage avoided.
Read more: BBC News - Airbus to build critical European weather satellites
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