What lightning on Earth looks like from space

An animation shows lightning spreading across Earth collected by the Lightning Imager on board Europe's meteorological satellite during June 2023.

The Lightning Imager has four cameras covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South America.

The purpose of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) instrument is to deliver the data to weather services, where ground-based observations are limited.

Animations consist of images created by collecting "one minute's worth of lightning measurements, overlaid on a single image of the Earth from the Lightning Imager. ", EUMETSAT explains in the press release.

(Production: Maria Paula Laguna, Pola Grzanka)