MTG to monitor lightning

Lightning is an electrical discharge caused by imbalances between storm clouds and the ground, or within the clouds themselves. Most lightning occurs within the clouds. Lightning is one of nature's most common spectacles. Around the world, there are over three million flashes every day, and kills around 2000 people a year. Carried on the Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellites, the Lightning Imager supports a new capability for European meteorological satellites. It provides a continuous monitoring of more than 80% of the Earth disc for lightning discharges taking place either between clouds or from cloud and ground. The detection chain monitors these events, in a narrow spectral band centred on 777 nm, with a detector readout rate of 1 kHz and a spatial resolution around 10 km.