Stunning first videos from a new space-borne instrument designed to improve the monitoring of thunderstorms show the crackle of lightning over Europe, Africa and the Atlantic Ocean.
The images were taken by the Meteosat-12 satellite operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) from geostationary orbit, some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth. This altitude is extremely important for weather forecasters, as the speed of satellites circling the planet in this region matches Earth's rotation. As a result, the satellites in this orbit have a constant view of a part of the globe, allowing meteorologists to observe how weather phenomena evolve in real time.
