A third generation of meteorological satellites capable of providing more accurate and faster data, with the introduction of a unique instrument of its kind: a “lightning hunter” that will try to capture its formation, both towards the ground and in the clouds, to help improve understanding of complex phenomena such as climate change.
It is the MTG series of satellites, the launch of the first example of which is scheduled for December 13th. But if the orbital flight will start from the tropical coasts of French Guinea, from the ESA center in Kourou, the control of the geostationary orbit operations will take place from Italy, in particular from Telespazio’s Fucino Space Centre.
“Compared to the previous generation of satellites, this system has various instruments on board, including the Lighting Imager, which will give us essential information on the evolution of the weather – explained the director of Earth Observation at ESA Simonetta Cheli -. In general, with the MTGs in orbit we will have better eyes in space and the resulting large volumes of data will help us to have more precise and better performing forecasts”.
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