04/05/2023 (Agence Europe) – Europe’s latest weather satellite, the Meteosat Third Generation Imager, has delivered its first image of the Earth, the European Space Agency announced on Thursday 4 May. The image, captured by the satellite’s flexible combination imager on 18 March, shows much of northern and western Europe and Scandinavia covered in clouds, with relatively clear skies over Italy and the western Balkans. Launched on an Ariane 5 rocket on 13 December 2022, Meteosat Third Generation Imager-1 (MTG-I1) is the first of a new generation of six satellites whose on-board instruments produce images with a much higher resolution and frequency than those on board the second generation Meteosat satellites. After a 12-month commissioning phase, the satellite data will be made available to meteorological services at the end of 2023. (CG)