Seeing convection with the new eyes - An overview of the first EUMETSAT MTG-I RGB products

With Meteosat Third Generation geostationary satellite being in orbit, users will receive the data that will highly upgrade the abilities of monitoring convective clouds over Europe.

Two main sensors on MTG-I1, FCI – Flexible Combined Imager and LI - Lightning imager, provide imagery from geostationary orbit with unprecedented spatial resolution and improved spectral resolution with 16 spectral channels, half of them being in solar part of spectrum. Spatial resolution of 500m with VIS0.6 channel doubles the SEVIRI’s High resolution visible channel resolution and reveals even smaller details on top of convective clouds. New channel VIS2.25 offers new capabilities for analysing cloud microphysics and cloud phase. VIS0.9 μm channel is a great benefit to convection nowcasting providing insight into low-level humidity content.

The new channels enable production of RGBs and derived products for different application areas. This information is amended by the data from Lightning Imager, indicating the lightning activity in the storms.

Depending on the availability, the examples of the new images, RGB combinations and products will be shown, with a special focus to storm nowcasting applications. Different stages of convection as well as features occurring during storm development will be presented through the MTG FCI and LI data, emphasizing the benefits of the newest European geostationary satellite.