The hydrometeorological designation system Meteor-3M was developed in 2009, when the first satellite of this type, Meteor-M №1, was launched. It performed tasks in the interests of operational meteorology, hydrology, agrometeorology, climate and environmental monitoring. On July 8, 2014, the spacecraft Meteor-M №2 was launched. Both satellites were equipped with a multi-channel satellite imaging system (MCSIS) consisting of 3 cameras. On November 28, 2017, it was planned to put the Meteor-M №2-1 satellite into orbit, but this was not possible, the satellite did not come in contact and is considered lost.

The satellite has hydrometeorological equipment and operational monitoring equipment onboard. Thus, a multichannel scanning device of low resolution (MSD-LR) was installed onboard the spacecraft, almost the complete analogue of the AVHRR instrument working on NOAA and MetOp satellites, which allows increasing the repeatability of surveying the same territory with similar instruments up to 10-15 images per da. In order for users to access MSD-LR data continuously and freely transmitted from the satellite in an open broadcast DB mode, only an L-band receiving station is needed.

Also, the spacecraft "Meteor-M" №2 has the necessary equipment designed to receive:

• multispectral images of the Earth's surface;
• quantitative measurement of radiation leaving the Earth in various spectral ranges;
• heliophysical information about processes on the Sun and in near-Earth space;
• data from automatic measurement platforms of various types (ground and drifting);
• located in any (including polar) areas of the Earth.