What will Meteosat Third Generation Bring to the Table for Severe Storm Analysis?

The first satellite in the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) series was launched on 13 December 2022. It carries the state-of-the-art Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Lightning Imager (LI) which will provide significant improvements to geostationary observations over Europe, Africa, and surrounding regions. The FCI has 16 spectral channels, collects full disk images every 10 minutes, and provides up to 500 m spatial resolution, all notable upgrades over the imager aboard the previous Meteosat Second Generation series. And the LI will provide the first continuous optical lightning detection capability from geostationary orbit over Europe. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has been operating its Advanced Baseline Imager and Geostationary Lightning Mapper as part of the GOES-R satellites series over the western hemisphere since 2016. These instruments have many similarities to MTG’s and provide ideal proxy data for understanding how the new satellite observations will benefit severe storm analysis and short-term forecasting in Europe and Africa.

This presentation will highlight the various ways that NOAA’s GOES-R satellites have improved severe storm analysis over the U.S. These include better detection of boundaries prior to convective initiation (CI), improved monitoring of cumulus fields and low-level moisture in anticipation of CI, the ability to track lightning activity, improved depiction of severe storm top features such as above anvil cirrus plumes and overshooting tops, and the ability to occasionally detect storm-scale rotation from space. In The potential of all of these will be discussed in the context of severe storm nowcasting over MTG’s domain.