Stunning first videos from a brand new space-borne instrument designed to enhance the monitoring of thunderstorms show the crackle of lightning over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.
The photographs were taken by the Meteosat-12 satellite operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) from geostationary orbit, some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth. This altitude is incredibly vital for weather forecasters, because the speed of satellites circling the planet on this region matches Earth’s rotation. In consequence, the satellites on this orbit have a relentless view of an element of the globe, allowing meteorologists to watch how weather phenomena evolve in real time.
Satellites of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have used lightning imagers before, but Meteosat-12 is the primary to offer this kind of information to European weather forecasters.
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The satellite, the primary in the brand new Meteosat Third Generation family of Europe’s weather observers, launched in December 2022 and can help the continent’s meteorologists improve their forecasts of utmost weather events.
“Severe storms are sometimes preceded by abrupt changes in lightning activity,” Eumetsat Director General Phil Evans said in an announcement. “By observing these changes in activity, Lightning Imager data will give weather forecasters additional confidence of their forecasts of severe storms.”
As climate change progresses and Earth’s climate warms, severe thunderstorms, accompanied by torrential rains, hail and powerful winds, are set to turn into more common in Europe and world wide. By with the ability to higher forecast these events, meteorologists hope to guard vulnerable populations in affected areas by disseminating earlier and more accurate warnings.
“Lightning is a powerful indication that severe weather is going on,” Evans added in a briefing. “Where there may be essentially the most severe rainfall, there is commonly lightning.”
Eumetsat-12’s’ Lightning Imager instrument consists of 4 cameras, which may detect the atmospheric flashes throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of South America. The info can be available to weather forecasters in Africa, in addition to airliners on trans-Atlantic flights to enhance safety.
“The Lightning Imager has 4 cameras, and each can capture 1,000 images per second, day and night, detecting even a single lightning bolt faster than the blink of an eye fixed,” Guia Pastorini, a project engineering manager at aerospace company Leonardo, which built the instrument, said in the identical statement. “Because of specific algorithms, data is processed on board to send only useful information to Earth, supporting the event of more accurate weather forecasts, in addition to contributing to the study of weather phenomena and air transport safety.”
For Europe, which is warming twice as fast as other continents, in accordance with the European environment-monitoring agency Copernicus, having timely and accurate details about approaching disasters will save lives and reduce destruction.
For instance, in the summertime of 2021, floods triggered by heavy rainfall killed nearly 200 people in Germany in what was described because the nation’s worst natural disaster in 60 years.
“In a world where climate change is increasing the intensity of severe weather events, instruments like [Lightning Imager] will turn into increasingly more vital,” Evans added within the briefing.
Eumetsat-12 is the primary in a family of six recent weather satellites that can bolster Europe’s defenses against climate change-induced weather disasters. The second satellite within the constellation will follow its sibling into orbit next 12 months on Europe’s recent Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket, which is predicted to make its debut flight later this 12 months.