Phil Evans, Director General at Eumetsat, added, “This remarkable image gives us great confidence in our expectation that the MTG system will herald a new era in the forecasting of severe weather events.

“It might sound odd to be so excited about a cloudy day in most of Europe. But the level of detail seen for the clouds in this image is extraordinarily important to weather forecasters. That additional detail from the higher resolution imagery, coupled with the fact that images will be produced more frequently, means forecasters will be able to more accurately and rapidly detect and predict severe weather events.”

“The high-resolution and frequent repeat cycle of the Flexible Combined Imager will greatly help the World Meteorological Organization community to improve forecasts of severe weather, long-term climate monitoring, marine applications, agricultural meteorology, and will make an important contribution to the Early Warnings For All Initiative, in particular on the African continent,” added Natalia Donoho, Head of the World Meteorological Organization Space Systems and Utilization Division, WMO.

MTG-I1 is currently undergoing a 12-month commissioning phase, in which its instruments, the Flexible Combined Imager and the Lightning Imager, are switched on and the data they produce are calibrated. Data from the satellite will then be disseminated to meteorological services in Europe and beyond at the end of 2023, for operational use in weather forecasts.

The ground segment infrastructure required to routinely process images was used to produce this first image, as a preview of things to come this year. Images of the full Earth disc will be produced every 10 minutes when the system is fully operational.

The MTG satellites are built by a large consortium of European industries, led by Thales Alenia Space in cooperation with OHB. The innovative Lightning Imager was developed by Leonardo in Italy, while Telespazio provides Eumetsat with launch and in-orbit services.