Meteosat-12 at DWD: first experiences with novel FCI and LI products

Since November 2024, forecasters at Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD) have started evaluation novel products from the Meteosat-12 Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Lightning Imager (LI) instruments. The strongly improved spatial and temporal resolution and the new spectral abilities present a major improvement for forecasters. During winter 2024/2025, evaluation focussed on the novel FCI RGBs Day Cloud Phase and Day Cloud Type, on a Total Moisture Imagery visualisation based on the ratio between the 0.91 µm and 0.86 µm channels, and on Geo Colour imagery, a combination of True Colour during the day and a night-time visualisation originally developed by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA). Since May 2025, evaluation has focussed on the Day Cloud Phase RGB, the infrared Sandwich visualisation, the Fire Temperature RGB, and the experimental Flash Geometry product from the Lightning Imager. Forecasters report that in the Day Cloud Phase RGB and IR Sandwich can increase the storm forecasting lead time by up to ten minutes. Although there are still problems with the Flash Geometry product, it may detect lightning before the ground-based LINET system does. The presentation ends with an outlook to further products from LI as well as the Infrared Sounder (IRS) on MTG-S1 and rapid scanning opportunities with MTG-I2.