On Wednesday 19 August, media representatives were invited to a briefing on the upcoming Meteosat Third Generation Imager (MTG-I2) satellite. The satellite will launch on an Ariane 6 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on 27 August.
The MTG-I2 is the third satellite in the MTG constellation. Together, the satellites will produce imagery for weather forecasting across Europe with unprecedented detail. The mission provides new data products and capabilities for European meteorological services, specifically tailored for the immediate forecasting of severe weather events.
The MTG-Imager satellites carry two instruments: a Lightning Imager and a Flexible Combined Imager. The Lightning Imager offers entirely new capabilities for European weather satellites by continuously monitoring lightning. The Flexible Combined Imager creates imagery of rapidly evolving weather systems and can be used to issue timely weather warnings.
The instrument can scan the entire Earth surface visible from its geostationary position (36,000 km above the equator) in just 10 minutes, and can scan Europe and North Africa every 2.5 minutes.
