European Space Agency releases first images from 'lightning hunter' satellite instrument

When lightning strikes across continents such as Europe and Africa, a new satellite instrument will be there to capture it all.

The European Space Agency and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites have released the first photos captured by the Lightning Imager, a recently launched satellite instrument that can take up to 1,000 pictures of lightning per second. Nicknamed “the lightning hunter,” this instrument has managed to capture the natural phenomenon in new animations released on Monday. According to the ESA, the animation depicts a sequence of images captured in the span of one minute by the instrument’s four cameras.

The Lightning Imager has the ability to detect quick flashes of light in the Earth’s atmosphere during the day or night from a distance of 36,000 kilometres. Since the instrument was successfully launched onboard the Meteosat Third Generation satellite on Dec. 13, 2022, ESA engineers say it will “revolutionize the detection and prediction of severe storms.”

The device is capable of capturing a lightning strike faster than the blink of an eye, said Leonardo project engineering manager Guia Pastorini in a“Thanks to specific algorithms, data is processed on board to send only useful information to Earth, supporting the development of more accurate weather forecasts, as well as contributing to the study of weather phenomena and air transport safety,” she said.

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