Europe already has its most spectacular climate satellite in operation, the Third Generation Meteosat, and it is a revolution.
On December 13, the Ariane 5 rocket launched into orbit the Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1) satellite of the European Space Agency. a real James Webb of meteorology, since it will show weather images in more detail than everof the entire Earth at once.
Most weather satellites orbit close to Earth and only record the weather for one area. It is the case of First and Second Generation Meteosatwhich focused on Europe.
He Meteosat 3 or of Third generation has moved away 36,000 Kilometers from Earthwhich allows record the climate of the entire planet Earth at the same time, and more often than ever: every 10 minutes.
Third Generation Meteosat: a revolution
In its first months of mission, it has been positioning itself in its orbit, and calibrating the instruments. Last March 18th sent to earth his first high definition photography, which you can see in the opening photo of the news. Here you can download it in high definition (69 MB).
It is an image that has brought tears to meteorologists, because shows details that could not be seen with the Second Generation Meteosatsor were blurry.
As the press release explains, the image shows details such as cloud vortices over the Canary Islandsthe snow cover in the Alps and the sediments in the water along the coast of Italy.
It also reveals a higher level of detail of cloud structures at high latitudes. This will allow meteorologists to more accurately follow the evolution of rapidly developing severe weather events in that region.
Ultimately, it will allow faster and more accurate weather forecasts than with the previous generation of Meteosat.
MTG-I1 is the first of six satellites that make up the complete MTG system, which will provide critical data for early and near-term detection of potential extreme weather events for the next 20 years. Fully operational, the mission will consist of two MTG-I satellites (image) and one MTG sounding satellite (MTG-S) They will work in tandem.
The MTG-S sounding satellites will carry an infrared probe and an ultraviolet-visible-near-infrared spectrometer. They will allow capturing atmospheric instability in three dimensions through the clouds, which will be a great step forward for early warning of severe storms.
In this video you can see some of these moving images:
It is expected to provide unique information from geostationary orbit on the composition of ozone, carbon monoxide, and volcanic ash in the atmosphere.
He Third Generation Meteosat is already up and running, and has shipped his first image of the weather across planet Earth at the same time. A revolution for European meteorologists, who will be able to predict the weather more accurately and quickly.