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It is not an everyday occurrence to come across animated visuals of lightning bolts captured from the Earth’s atmosphere. Thanks to space research organisations worldwide, such outstanding visuals are now available on the internet. Recently, the European Space Agency (ESA) released stunning animated visuals based on data obtained by its groundbreaking Meteosat Third Generation satellite. These visuals showcase the breathtaking movements of lightning across Europe. This satellite is capable of continuously detecting lightning activity across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America. It achieves this by detecting the light pulses produced by cloud-to-ground, cloud-to-cloud, and intra-cloud lightning flashes.

As mentioned by ESA, the lightning images help in monitoring over 80 percent of Earth’s surface for lightning discharges. This enables the early detection of severe storms and potentially extreme weather events in their early stages. The satellite is the first among a total of six satellites that make up the complete MTG (Meteosat Third Generation-Imager) system.

In the video, one can see a sequence of images of lightning bolts. These were created by collecting one minute’s worth of lightning measurements.

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We cannot hear the thunder from space…

but we DO SEE LIGHTNING BOLTS!

The #MTGI1 Lightning Imager continuously monitors more than 80% of _ disc for lightning discharges __ and will allow severe storms to be detected in their early stages.

__https://t.co/IFzz7CD1Nd pic.twitter.com/662MiABwdU
— ESA Earth Observation (@ESA_EO) July 3, 2023

According to a BBC report, the Lightning Imager can detect lightning flashes in the Earth’s atmosphere from a distance of 36,000 kilometres with its four cameras placed across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America. Each camera can capture up to 1,000 images per second and can also observe continuous lightning activity from space. Besides weather forecasts and predictions of potential storms, the imager may also play a major role in ensuring air traffic safety.

Speaking on the same, Phil Evans, the director-general of Eumetsat went on to describe the captures as “fantastic,” further adding that such instruments have been over the world for several years now.

“The Americans have had an instrument like this over their part of the world for a few years now, but this is the first one for Europe and Africa. Our imager is more sophisticated in terms of resolution and performance, so there’s a lot of excitement about how its imagery can be used,” he said.