12–14 Dec 2022
ESOC
Europe/Berlin timezone

Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager for the continuous monitoring of fireballs

13 Dec 2022, 14:05
20m
Room H.I (ESOC)

Room H.I

ESOC

Robert-Bosch-Str. 5 64293 Darmstadt Germany

Speakers

B. Viticchie (EUMETSAT) S.E. Enno (EUMETSAT) J. Grandell (EUMETSAT)

Description

The Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager (MTG LI) will perform the geostationary detection of lightning optical emissions from space. Such radiation is produced by electric discharges within or below a cloud and reaches the cloud top after multiple scattering. The LI is designed to sense this cloud-top emission within a 1.9 nm wide band centred on 777.4 nm, with a 4.5 km resolution at sub-satellite point (located at [lat, lon] = [0, 0] deg) and 1 kHz acquisition frequency. LI will enable the continuous monitoring of lightning activity within a field-of-view which covers about 84% of the Earth disk observable from geostationary orbit.
Geostationary lightning imagers, as the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) aboard GOES satellites, have demonstrated the capability of detecting optical emissions (fireballs) from meteors/bolides entering the Earth atmosphere. In fact, Level 2 data from three different instruments, i.e., GLM-16, 17, 18, are being analysed to individuate, characterize, and interpret “light curves” of fireballs. MTG LI is expected to have lightning detection performances in line with GLMs. For this reason, it is reasonable to expect LI data to contain such “light curves”.
I this contribution, we aim at presenting:
• the MTG Programme,
• the LI instrument key design features,
• the LI lightning detection technique,
• the LI data processing, and
• strengths of LI Level 1b products for the systematic investigation of fireball events.

Presentation materials