Video: Fireball witnessed by weather satellite

Whereas a meteor lit up the skies over Spain and Portugal not too long ago, it was additionally captured by the Meteosat Third Technology Imager climate satellite hovering 36,000 km away in geostationary orbit.

On 18 Might, the meteor burned up within the evening sky over Spain and Portugal—not solely impressing these fortunate sufficient to see it with their very own eyes, nevertheless it was additionally caught by the fireball digicam in Cáceres, Spain, operated by ESA’s Planetary Protection Workplace.

And zooming throughout the skies at over 160,000 km an hour, it was additionally captured by the Lightning Imager on the Meteosat Third Technology Imager satellite far-off in geostationary orbit, providing one other perspective on this outstanding occasion.

As its title implies, the Lightning Imager shall be used to detect lightning, as soon as it has been absolutely commissioned following the satellite’s launch on the finish of 2022.

The Meteosat Third Technology Imager satellite is the primary geostationary climate satellite that has the aptitude to detect lightning throughout Europe, Africa and the encompassing waters. It constantly displays greater than 80% of the Earth disk for lightning discharges, going down both between clouds or between clouds and the bottom.

The instrument has 4 cameras protecting Europe, Africa, the Center East and components of South America. Every digicam can seize as much as 1000 pictures per second and can constantly observe lightning exercise from space.

Knowledge from the Lightning Imager will give climate forecasters larger confidence of their predictions of extreme storms, notably in distant areas and on the oceans the place lightning detection capabilities are restricted.

Though designed to watch lightning, it additionally captured the flashes of sunshine from the meteor burning up over Spain and Portugal.

Utilizing preliminary information from the Lightning Imager, the animation above reveals gentle flashes gathered over six seconds because the meteor strikes throughout the instrument’s subject of view.

The Meteosat Third Technology mission is a cooperation between Eumetsat and ESA. ESA is chargeable for growing and procuring six satellites. Eumetsat defines the system necessities, develops the bottom techniques, procures the launch providers, operates the satellites, and makes the information out there to customers.

The Meteosat Third Technology satellites are constructed by a big consortium of European industries, led by Thales Alenia House in cooperation with OHB. The progressive Lightning Imager is developed by Leonardo in Italy.