Replay: MTG-I2 pre-launch media briefing

On Wednesday 19 August, media representatives attended a briefing ahead of the launch of MTG-I2, the next Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite. It is scheduled to launch on an Ariane 6 from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on 27 August. MTG-I2 is the third satellite in the MTG series, completing the constellation, which will together produce unprecedented detail in weather forecasting images for Europe, delivering new data products and capabilities especially suited to nowcasting severe weather events.

The MTG-Imager satellites carry two instruments: a Lightning Imager and a Flexible Combined Imager. The Lightning Imager provides entirely new capabilities for European meteorological satellites by continuously monitoring lightning. The Flexible Combined Imager tracks fast-evolving weather systems and supports timely weather warnings, scanning the full Earth disk from its geostationary position at 36,000 km above the equator in just 10 minutes, and Europe and northern Africa every 2.5 minutes.