"Stunning Lightning Display Captured by Weather Satellite"

The European weather agency Eumetsat has released stunning movies of lightning spreading across the Earth, captured by a new instrument placed 36,000km above equatorial Africa. The imager, part of the recently launched Meteosat-12 platform, will provide forecasters with valuable data to track the emergence of violent storms. The lightning detector on Meteosat-12 has four telescopic cameras focused on Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America, continuously monitoring cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud, and intra-cloud lightning flashes. The data collected will enhance nowcasting capabilities and improve statistics on lightning frequency over time, benefiting climate researchers, atmospheric chemists, and aiding in the prediction of forest fires caused by lightning strikes.