Summary
The Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager (LI) on the MTG-I1 satellite moved from pre-operational status to full operational data release on 31 October 2024, marking the first time real-time lightning data have been continuously available from geostationary orbit. The LI’s four high-speed cameras cover roughly 84% of the Earth’s disc—Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America—capturing intra-cloud, inter-cloud, and cloud-to-ground flashes with millisecond precision. GTD played a pivotal role in developing, implementing, and validating the core algorithms that process these lightning detections into Level 2 products, empowering forecasters with unprecedented real-time insights into storm activity.
The MTG-I1 Lightning Imager is the first satellite-borne instrument dedicated to continuous lightning detection, now operational after the successful dissemination of Level 2 data via EUMETCast and the EUMETSAT Data Store. By unifying data capture, decommutation, and geolocation into a single system, the LI provides end-to-end lightning tracking across a vast geographical footprint. GTD’s contribution in algorithm development and numerical validation ensured that data latency and accuracy met strict operational requirements. This transition cements MTG-I1’s status as Europe’s most advanced meteorological satellite, significantly boosting the WMO community’s forecasting capabilities.
The MTG Lightning Imager
- Continuous Global Coverage: The LI instrument consists of four optical cameras operating at 1 kHz acquisition rate, sensitive to a 2 nm bandwidth centered on the 777.4 nm oxygen line, enabling millisecond-scale detection of lightning events.
- Wide Field of View: Covering approximately 84% of the visible Earth disc, the LI delivers uninterrupted lightning observations over Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America.
- Operational Rediness: Following the release of pre-operational data in July 2024, the LI data were declared fully operational on 31 October 2024, making them available to all users on EUMETCast and the Data Store.
GTD's Role
GTD led the end-to-end scientific workflow for the LI’s Level 2 product generation, including algorithm design, code optimization for timeliness, and rigorous numerical validation against ground-based lightning networks. Our teams collaborated closely with Thales Services Numeriques to integrate these algorithms into the mission’s CI/CD pipeline, ensuring reliable, automated processing and quality assurance.
Benefits and Impact
- Enhanced Storm Monitoring: Real-time lightning data revolutionize convective storm detection and severity assessment, extending early warning lead times for severe weather across Europe and Africa.
- Sectoral Applications: Aviation, agriculture, and disaster management operations leverage precise lightning tracking to reduce risks, optimize routing decisions, and safeguard communities.
- Global Accessibility: Continuous dissemination of LI data to meteorological agencies enhances situational awareness during peak storm seasons, enabling faster, data-driven decision-making.
- Forecasting Revolution: Preliminary results from MTG-I1 have been hailed for their potential to transform nowcasting of extreme events, delivering “breathtaking” accuracy improvements to numerical weather prediction models.
Technical Excellence
The LI’s Level 2 products include timestamped geolocations and intensity metrics for each flash, processed and delivered within seconds. GTD’s algorithmic enhancements reduced end-to-end latency by over 30 %, while advanced statistical filtering and adaptive thresholding minimized false detections—ensuring forecasters receive clean, actionable data streams.
Collaborative Innovation
Developed under a consortium led by Thales Alenia Space with Leonardo as the prime contractor, the MTG Lightning Imager project involvedThales Servicies Numeriques for calibration and validation campaigns for EUMETSAT. GTD’s integration of algorithm modules and data dissemination workflows into existing meteorological infrastructures ensures seamless adoption by end users.
