Yesterday, at 10:24 CEST, the Sun reached its most northerly point in the sky, marking the longest day of the year and the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, when Earth’s North Pole is tilted towards the Sun.

This image of Earth, with the day-night terminator line clearly visible, was captured by the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) mission. The MTG-Imager satellite (MTG-I1) passed overhead at 10:30 CEST and was able to make the acquisition just six minutes after the June solstice. The image shows the African continent and Europe bathed in sunlight, while lights are visible off the eastern coast of South America, which is still in night-time.

A third satellite for the MTG constellation – MTG-I2 – will launch this summer on Ariane 6 to join the two MTG satellites already in orbit. The mission is designed to produce images in unprecedented detail. It provides completely new data products and capabilities for European weather forecasting, especially suited to nowcasting of severe weather events.

The MTG-Imager satellites carry two instruments: a Lightning Imager and a Flexible Combined Imager. The MTG satellites are developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) for Eumetsat.