Incredible details: New ESA weather satellite sends first images

In December 2022, a good six months ago, ESA launched its new weather monitoring satellite. Now MTG-I1 is ready to send its first images back to Earth – and they have an incredible level of detail.

This emerges from the report of the European Space Agency ESA. At the end of last year, ESA had brought the Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1, MTG-I1 for short, into a so-called geostationary orbit at an altitude of 35,000 kilometers above the equator with the Ariane 5 rocket. The satellite will be used there to monitor weather conditions over Europe and Africa.
ESA has released a GIF of the first images from the new satellite

Now MTG-I1 has returned its first image of Earth. This picture was already taken on March 18, 2023. It shows large parts of northern and western Europe and Scandinavia shrouded in cloud, while the sky over the western Balkans and Italy is relatively clear.

The image shows a higher level of detail in cloud structures at high latitudes in the Nordic region. You can now also see more details such as the snow cover in the Alps, sediments in the water along the coast of Italy and cloud swirls over the Canary Islands. Such detailed images have never existed before.
MTG-I1 is to collect weather data for Europe and Africa

Recording details previously unattainable

The level of detail in the first image was “unprecedented from geostationary orbit over Europe and Africa,” according to ESA, and “will give us a better understanding of our planet and the weather systems that shape it,” said Simonetta Cheli, Director of Earth Observation Programs at ESA ESA. The team is delighted that the images are so detailed and everything works as hoped. The instruments on board the new satellite can produce images with a much higher resolution and frequency than the second generation Meteosat satellites. The flexible combined imager used can scan the entire earth disk within ten minutes and deliver images of Europe in just two and a half minutes. According to ESA, MTG-I1 now builds on the legacy of European weather satellites, which began in 1977 with the launch of Meteosat-1.

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Outer space, astronautics, space, satellite, data transmission, earth, telecommunications, satellites, stars, space, geodata, satellite internet, satellite navigation