German multispectral camera for weather forecasting
The number of extreme weather events is increasing significantly. To take protective measures in good time, we rely on precise weather information. Issuing warnings of extreme weather events to the public as early as possible is vital for the safety of people and infrastructure. Satellite data is one of the most important cornerstones of weather forecasting, providing precise, comprehensive observations from regions of Earth that are inadequately or not at all covered by other instruments.
The German multispectral camera METimage is aboard the Metop-SGA1 satellite operated by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). The mission launched in August 2025. Thanks to its high spatial resolution and exceptional precision, METimage will help to significantly improve the quality of forecasts across Europe and worldwide, enabling warnings of extreme weather events to be issued as early as possible.
Forecasts for the upcoming two to six hours – known as nowcasts – are crucial for warning of extreme weather events whose scale and impact often cannot be predicted by longer-term models. METimage will make an important contribution to nowcasting from polar orbit. The data will also help to improve our understanding of climate change.
The development and construction of METimage was coordinated by the German Space Agency at DLR and funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV) and EUMETSAT. The German Weather Service (Deutscher Wetterdienst; DWD) provided advisory support throughout the mission. METimage was developed and built by Airbus Defence and Space Germany.
Link:
German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR)
German Space Agency at DLR
E-Mail contact-dlr@DLR.de
