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The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
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Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
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Science & Exploration
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
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Making space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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West camera – full field of view
The Lightning Imager’s west camera has a field of view covering the Atlantic Ocean, a small part of Africa and part of South America. This animation shows the Intertropical Convergence Zone, where clusters of tropical thunderstorms are slowly moving from the east (bottom right corner of the video) to the west (top right corner of the video).
If the waters are warm enough from June to November, some of the larger storm clusters can develop into hurricanes affecting the Caribbean and the east coast of the United States. It is also clear from the animation that most of the lightning occurs over land and during the local afternoon and evening hours.
Sun glint – reflection of the Sun from the ocean and smaller bodies of water on the land – can be seen crossing the upper part of the field of view during the afternoon. The animation was made using five days’ worth of data from the Meteosat Third GenerationLightning Imager’s west camera, from 00:00 UTC 2 June to 23:59 UTC 6 June 2023. It was made from raw preliminary data and is not for operational use.
