Forecasting the weather from geostationary orbit

Hovering in a fixed position 36,000 km above the equator, the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) mission is designed to deliver a rapid stream of data for enhanced weather forecasting.

The animation features an MTG-Imager satellite. The MTG system will span more than 20 years and hence comprises six satellites, four MTG-I and two sounding satellites, MTG-S. In full operations, the mission will comprise two MTG-I satellites and one MTG-S satellites working in tandem. The remaining satellites will eventually replace those in the first set.

The MTG-I satellites carry two completely new instruments, a Flexible Combined Imager and Europe’s first Lightning Imager, to deliver high-quality data for better weather forecasting.

The Flexible Combined Imager has more spectral channels and is capable of imaging in higher resolution compared to current Meteosat Second Generation’s Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared instrument.

The Lightning Imager offers a completely new capability for European meteorological satellites. It will continuously monitor more than 80% of the Earth disc for lightning discharges, taking place either between clouds or between clouds and the ground.

The MTG-I satellites also carry two smaller payloads for data collection from remote science beacons and for search and rescue by detecting emergency beacons.