Europe acquires high-performance meteorological satellites

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In Europe, the weather forecast will take a leap forward. Some even speak of revolution. Ariane 5 successfully launched, on Tuesday December 13, 2022, a brand new European weather satellite, MTG-I1, the first of the third generation. These satellites will make it possible to considerably improve weather forecasts and above all to rapidly detect violent phenomena.

From our special correspondent in Kourou, Guyana

5:30 p.m. Kourou time, 9:30 p.m. Paris time. Ariane 5 takes off for his 115th mission and one of his last. Two more and it will be retirement. For now, the European launcher is rising in the blue sky, accompanied by a plume of white smoke, a thud, then crackling. Thirty-four minutes later, MTG-I1 separates from the top floor and begins its autonomous life in space. The satellite will reach its orbit, 36,000 km from the earth, in about ten days.

The first images are expected at the end of March normally. But MTG-I1 will not be fully operational until the end of next year. Forecasters, who have been working for twenty years with data collected by second-generation satellites, which are therefore less efficient, are eager to use these faster, more numerous images (50 times more than today) and above all better quality. Today, 90% of the data used by meteorologists to establish their forecasts comes from space.

A constellation of three satellites

These third-generation satellites have little to do with their predecessors. First novelty: they are stabilized on three axes. They will therefore constantly observe the hemisphere of the Earth in front of them (essentially Europe and Africa) while the second generation satellites turn on themselves like tops with, consequently, a limited observation time, of the order of 5%.

Another difference: these satellites will be three in geostationary orbit in the long term, against two for the second generation. There will first be two imaging satellites: MTG-I1, launched on Tuesday, and its twin which will normally join it in 2026. On board are state-of-the-art instruments. Firstly, the FCI (“Flexible Combined Imager”) will send images of the entire hemisphere every 10 minutes, against 15 currently, and even every 2 minutes 30 in fast mode over Europe.

Ariane 5 en route to its launch area, the day before take-off. © Marine de La Moissonière/RFI

A lightning detector and a sounder

Clouds, rains, forest fires but also sudden phenomena, such as hurricanes and storms, which are expected to increase due to climate change, will be analyzed much more finely. Especially since the other instrument on board MTG-I1 is a lightning sensor (“Lightning Imager”) between clouds or touching the ground. This detector will predict what will happen over the next half hour explains Alexander Schmid, MTG program manager at Eumetsat, the organization that manages Europe’s weather satellites. ” Meteorologists will use this data to alert populations in the event of severe thunderstorms. From now on, we will be able to issue very short-term and very localized alerts. This will be very useful too, for example, for the trajectory of planes. »

These two satellites will be supplemented by a sounder, MTG-S, which should be launched at the end of 2024. It will capture the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere, thus making it possible to obtain “ three-dimensional profiles of the latter, explains Pierre Armand, director of the MTG program for Thales Alenia Space, the manufacturer of the satellites.

This is the first time that we will have such an instrument in orbit, 36,000 km from the Earth. ” It’s if we launched thousands of sounding balloons to different places, on land or at sea. This will provide us with very important information to improve short and long term weather forecasts. »

Hope to save lives

More reliable forecasts, earlier or more precise warnings… With these new European satellites, a small revolution is being prepared, especially with regard to extreme weather events. ” Being able to make short-term forecasts is particularly important when it comes to very violent and often very localized weather phenomena such as, for example, last year’s floods in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. These kinds of phenomena are really very difficult to predict in advance, and therefore it is really essential to have new information quickly in order to launch more effective alerts. », Analyzes Phil Evans, CEO of Eumetsat. ” So, yes, for sure, we are going to help weather services save lives. »

These third-generation European satellites also generate economic hopes. While the MTG program represents an investment of 4.3 billion euros for Eumetsat (2.9 billion) and the ESA, the European Space Agency (1.4 billion), reliable weather forecasts would save 60 billion euros. euros per year, just in European countries, says Simonetta Cheli, director of Earth Observation programs at ESA. ” These are the benefits that come from better managing maritime traffic, for example. You can also evacuate a town or keep planes grounded if you know there’s a hurricane coming. The goal is quite simply to avoid disasters. »

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The plume of smoke left by Ariane 5 just after takeoff on December 13, 2022.
The plume of smoke left by Ariane 5 just after takeoff on December 13, 2022. © Marine de La Moissonière/RFI

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