MTG-I1 began releasing pre-operational data
The Meteosat Third Generation MTG-I1 geostationary weather satellite was launched on December 13, 2022. Operational dissemination of its data was initially scheduled for the end of 2023, but has still not been achieved by the summer of 2024.
As for the Imaging Radiometer (FCI), this delay, initially partly attributable to the fine-tuning of ground processing, is mainly due to a malfunction in its internal calibration and shutter system. It is for the infrared channels that this malfunction is most penalizing, as the initially planned use of an on-board blackbody is no longer possible. The solution put forward by Eumetsat consists in replacing this on-board calibration by a ground calibration using as a reference the data from the IASI hyperspectral infrared sounder on-board the European Metop low-earth orbit satellites. Initial results appear to be satisfactory. Work is continuing on this subject, and no date has yet been set for the operational release of the data.
As for the second instrument on board MTG-I1, the Lightning Imager (LI), the associated production, although still in pre-operational status, is stable and of good quality.
Since this summer, SATMOS (Météo-France) has been receiving pre-operational feeds from both instruments and carrying out quality checks. Once the data have been declared operational, they will be made available to the scientific community via the ICARE platform.
