(Paris) The first European lightning imager satellite, launched in December 2022 to detect and warn of severe thunderstorms over Europe and Africa, has sent its first animations, the European agency announced on Monday. Eumetsat weather satellites.
These animations “provide confirmation that this instrument will revolutionize the process of detecting and forecasting violent storms”, welcomes in a press release the European Space Agency (ESA), which broadcast the images.
These are sequences of images captured over periods of one minute by the onboard lightning imager of the MTG-I1 satellite, which operates in geostationary orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers, specifies Eumetsat.
Launched on December 13, 2022 by an Ariane 5 rocket, this third-generation weather satellite carries a lightning detection imager equipped with four cameras covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and part of South America. , and are able to continuously observe lightning activity from space.
Each camera can “capture 1000 images per second, day and night, which allow it to detect the slightest flash with lightning speed”, explains Guia Pastorini, technical manager of the imager, in the press release.
All types of lightning—inter-cloud, intra-cloud, and cloud-to-ground—are within its field of view.
Its images reflect “the abrupt changes in electrical activity that often precede severe thunderstorms”, allowing weather forecasters to “predict severe thunderstorm events with greater certainty”, adds Phil Evans, CEO of Eumetsat.
Thanks to a second Earth observation imager on board the satellite, forecasters will be able to follow the evolution of these storms and “save time to alert the authorities”, according to him.
The data, processed directly on board the satellite, will be provided to the meteorological services of Eumetsat’s 30 member states as well as to its partners in Africa and other regions of the world “with limited ground-based lightning observation capabilities”. , depending on the organization.