ESSA 2 was a sun-synchronous operational meteorological satellite designed to provide real-time earth cloudcover TV pictures to properly equipped ground receiving stations for use in weather analysis and forecasting.
The satellite carried the APT (Automatic Picture Transmission) system with two redundant APT cameras with 2.54 cm diameter vidicons and 108° wide angle 1/1.8 objective lense with a focal length of 5.7 mm. The imaging system was programmed to take four or eight APT pictures per orbit

Over 4 yr of useful cloudcover pictures were obtained before the camera systems were placed in a standby mode on March 20, 1970, owing to a telemetry conflict with ITOS 1. ESSA 2 was deactivated on October 16, 1970.