Europe’s new weather satellite has returned a sequence showing fog, growing clouds and wildfire smoke. The images introduce a rapid-scan service designed to take new pictures at 2.5-minute intervals across Europe and North Africa. Calibration continues after the satellite’s August launch, with service expected in 2027, during its second quarter.
A new European weather satellite has begun showing how quickly the atmosphere changes over the continent. The European Space Agency (ESA) released the first images from the second Meteosat Third Generation Imager, MTG-I2, on 6 November. The sequence follows 45 hours from 3 November, including fog over central Europe, clouds building above the Mediterranean and wildfire smoke in central Portugal.[1]
The rapid-scan service is planned to take pictures at 2.5-minute intervals across Europe and North Africa. Its Meteosat Flexible Combined Imager, which creates the satellite’s weather images, complements the first satellite’s full-hemisphere pictures every 10 minutes. Both spacecraft keep watch from geostationary orbit, about 36,000 km above Earth, staying over the same region while the planet turns. The animation also shows Atlantic clouds at different heights travelling in opposite directions.[1]
Calibration and validation are continuing following the launch on 27 August. Operational service is expected during the second quarter of 2027. The satellite completes the first three-spacecraft Meteosat Third Generation family. Its observations are intended to help meteorologists follow developing weather systems and support climate, agricultural and environmental monitoring.[1]
