The European Space Agency’s latest weather observation satellite, Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1), has sent home the first image of Earth. The satellite was deployed in stable orbit 36,000 kilometers above the earth’s equator using the Ariane 5 rocket in December 2022.
The satellite is tasked with monitoring weather conditions in regions of Europe and Africa. It captured the first image of Earth on March 18, 2023, using the onboard Flexible Unified Imager. The image shows much of Northern and Western Europe, as well as cloud-covered Scandinavia, while relatively clear skies can be seen in the Western Balkans and Italy.
A higher level of detail is noticeable for cloud structures at high latitudes in the Nordic region. There are also more details, such as snow cover in the Alps, sediment in the water off the coast of Italy, and cloud swirls over the Canary Islands.
According to ESA Director Simonetta Cheli, the level of detail the image reveals will allow us to better understand our planet and the weather systems that shape it.
The agency says the instruments on the satellite are capable of producing images with much higher resolution and more frequentity than second-generation Meteosat satellites. The Flexible Combined Imager can scan the entire Earth disk in 10 minutes and send images to Earth in just 2.5 minutes.
The MTG-I1 follows the legacy of European weather satellites that began with the launch of Meteosat-1 in 1977. It is known as the first of six third-generation Meteosat imagers that ESA plans to launch and use to collect critical weather data for the next 20 years. Natural disasters such as floods, heat waves and storms have caused close to 145,000 deaths across Europe over the past 40 years, resulting in economic losses of around 500 million Euros.
ESA says the MTG satellite is currently going through the commissioning phase where its data is being collected and calibrated. The data will be distributed to meteorological services in Europe and elsewhere by the end of this year and will soon make its way into weather applications.
You can download the original quality, 68.91 MB version of the aforementioned picture here.
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