Image of the week: Lightning from space

Watching our Earth

This week’s image shows storms and lightning over eastern Europe, as seen from the Meteosat-12 satellite 36,000km above the Earth.

Last Updated

22 May 2025

Published on

30 April 2025

The Meteosat weather satellites provide imagery for the early detection of fast-developing severe weather, weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

The two main instruments on board Meteosat-12, the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and the Lightning Imager (LI), play a crucial role in enabling weather services to help protect lives and livelihoods by providing high-resolution, accurate data for predicting severe weather events.

MTG-S1 launching

This year Meteosat-12 will be joined by the new Meteosat Third Generation sounding satellite (MTG-S1), the first ever European sounding satellite in geostationary orbit.

MTG-S1 will carry two missions: the Infra-Red Sounder (IRS) and the Copernicus Sentinel-4 Ultraviolet-Visible-Near-Infrared light imaging spectrometer (UVN).

In combination with data from Meteosat-12, MTG-S1 will enable weather and climate scientists to get a 4D vision of the dynamics and composition of the atmosphere.

Follow the journey to the launch of the satellite on our launch hub