Lightning imager Aspot
Lightning imager Aspot Instrument is a first for Europe and could significantly benefit the prediction of severe storms The first ever satellite instrument continuously detecting lightning over Europe and Africa has been switched on and is delivering on its promise of a breakthrough for the detection and prediction of severe storms. Europe's meteorological satellite agency, EUMETSAT, and the European Space Agency (ESA), today released animations from the Lightning Imager on Meteosat Third Generation - Imager 1 (MTG-I1), which was launched on 13 December 2022. The stunning first image from the satellite's other main Earth observation instrument, the Flexible Combined Imager, was released in May. The Lightning Imager, built by Leonardo, continuously detects the light pulses produced by cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud and intracloud lightning flashes. The instrument has four cameras covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of South America. The cameras will continuously observe lightning activity from space and EUMETSAT will disseminate the data to weather services in its member states and beyond. Crucially, EUMETSAT will deliver the data to weather services in Africa and other regions, where lightning detection capability with ground-based observations is limited.
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