ESA astronomers posted satellite video of thunderstorms raging over the Earth

The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the Lightning Imager, a «lightning thermal imager». It is installed on board Meteosat weather satellites to detect lightning and thunderstorm activity throughout Europe and Africa. The first videos he made show spectacular storms over the Atlantic and Africa.

Information on the Lightning Imager is transmitted by four cameras covering Europe, Africa, the Middle East and some areas of South America, Science Alert reports. The device generates images of lightning at an altitude of 36,000 km from the Earth, capturing data at a speed of 1,000 frames per second, regardless of whether it is day or night.

The videos released by ESA are an animation that shows thunderstorm activity in these regions in a compressed form. The most fascinating video was shot over Central Africa, which is considered one of the richest lightning locations on Earth. Two minutes of video compressed data for five days.

Another video shows what is happening in the so-called intertropical convergence zone, which is located near the equator over the Atlantic Ocean, Africa and South America. The trade winds of the hemispheres meet here, which creates ideal conditions for storms, and they rage there almost constantly. Under favorable conditions, these storms turn into tropical hurricanes.

You can watch the video on the ESA web.