The Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite being prepared for thermal vacuum tests at Thales Alenia Space’s facilities in Cannes, France, in October 2021. These tests simulate the thermal conditions that the satellite will experience in orbit above Earth and demonstrate that the satellite will function correctly in the harsh environment of space.

Building on the long-standing partnership between ESA and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (Eumetsat), and the success of both the first generation of Meteosat missions and the subsequent Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) series, which are operational today, Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) will take over the reins of providing data for weather forecasting from geostationary orbit.

The MTG mission comprises two types of satellite: the Imaging satellite (MTG-I) and the Sounding satellite (MTG-S). Both use a common three-axis stabilised platform, but carry very different instruments. The MTG-I satellite accommodates the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) instrument and Lightning Imager (LI), and the MTG-S accommodates the Infrared Sounder (IRS) instrument and Copernicus Sentinel-4 unit.

To meet more than the 20-year operational life of the mission, the full MTG system comprises six satellites, four MTG-I and two MTG-S.

The first MTG-I is scheduled to launch at the end of 2022.