Storm Goretti over Western Europe | Europe's Meteosat-12 Weather Satellite

Storm Goretti over Western Europe | Europe's Meteosat-12 Weather Satellite

This image shows Storm Goretti, a deep low-pressure system that is expected to bring very strong winds, rain, and snow to parts of Ireland, the UK, and France. Coastal areas, particularly in northern France, are also facing flood warnings.

The Meteosat weather satellites provide imagery for the early detection of fast-developing severe weather, weather forecasting and climate monitoring.

The image was captured by the  Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) instrument onboard Meteosat-12 on January 8, 2026. Meteosat-12 is in a geostationary orbit at an altitude of around 36,000 kilometers.

Launched on December 13, 2022, Meteosat-12 scans the full Earth disc every 10 minutes, delivering data more frequently and in sharper detail than its predecessor. It carries two main instruments: the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) and Lightning Imager (LI). The FCI delivers imaging data in twice as many spectral channels than its predecessor and with an improved spatial resolution, providing more detailed views of fast-changing weather such as storms, fog, and rapidly forming clouds. The satellite also carries the LI, Europe’s first space-based instrument to detect lightning across Europe and Africa, day and night, helping forecasters assess storm development, intensity, and risk.

EUMETSAT has established cooperation with Earth observation satellite operators in Europe, China, India, Japan, South Korea and the United States.

Learn more:
https://www.eumetsat.int/who-we-are

United Nations: What is Climate Change?
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change

Image Credit: European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)
Release Date: Jan. 8, 2026

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