EUMETSAT Annual Report 2022

EUMETSAT ANNUAL REPORT 2022
Case study
Meteosat
Third Generation:
cutting-edge weather data
As devastating storms, floods, and other
extreme weather events become more
frequent, it is essential to monitor the
Earth’s complex systems.
Thousands of researchers and data users attended
the European Space Agency’s Living Planet
Symposium in Bonn, Germany, in May, to tackle
that formidable challenge. One of the world’s largest
Earth observation conferences, the symposium
provided experts with an opportunity to exchange
ideas on how satellites can best be used to collect
information about the planet – from monitoring
wetlands, forests, and biodiversity, to tracking
the health of the oceans and keeping tabs on
diminishing Arctic sea ice, to measuring greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere.
A highlight of the event was presentations about
EUMETSAT’s Meteosat Third Generation (MTG)
system. MTG-Imager 1, the first satellite in the
system, was launched on 13 December.
“We are really excited about the new MTG satellites,”
Dr Tony McNally, Head of Earth System Assimilation
at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather
Forecasts (ECMWF), said.
“The observations that we’ll receive from these
satellites will be critical for many applications,
including accurate forecasts of severe weather. The
MTG satellite could capture the genesis or rapid
intensification of a tropical cyclone in the Atlantic –
that’s literally a life or death situation for the people
of the Caribbean.”
Game changers
McNally is looking forward to a few instruments
in particular that will further improve weather
forecasts by providing even better pictures of fastevolving
meteorological systems. These include
the Flexible Combined Imager on MTG-I1 and the
Infrared Sounder on the second satellite, the sounder,
expected to launch in 2024.
“The Flexible Combined Imager will be a really big
step up,” McNally said. “We will get 16 channels,
which enable us to tune in to different features of the
atmosphere, similar to how different radio stations
play different types of music. More channels mean
more information, and from each individual channel
we will get better spatial detail. Importantly, we’ll also
receive more rapid updates.
“Then, the Infrared Sounder on the following
MTG satellite is going to be an absolutely gamechanging
instrument. With more than a thousand
channels, as is the case with this instrument,
we can build up a three-dimensional, timeevolving
picture of the atmospheric state with
unprecedented vertical detail.”
McNally is also eagerly anticipating the data that will
come from a brand new instrument on MTG imaging
satellites, the Lightning Imager. The four cameras
on board will collect continuous, near-real-time
data about intracloud, cloud-to-cloud, and cloud-toground
lightning flashes. This information can be
used to identify highly unstable and dynamic regions
of the atmosphere – again critical for accurate
weather forecasts.
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