Maximising the Impact of New EuRopean Satellites

The next generation EUMETSAT missions, Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) and Metop Second Generation (Metop-SG) will host sensors with major innovations for the detection of clouds and precipitation. Lightning observations from the LI onboard MTG will provide frequent measurements, with information content on solid precipitation (snowfall and graupel) whereas the microwave observations from ICI, MWI, and MWS onboard Metop-SG will also have a sensitivity to these hydrometeors in addition to information on liquid precipitation, water vapour, and temperature. These four instruments together will provide an unprecedented constraint on condensed water mass for initializing NWP models in cloudy and precipitating conditions. As an ideal complement, the InfraRed Sounder IRS onboard MTG will provide frequent profiling of the environment (temperature and water vapour), before the initiation of severe weather events and along their life cycle. Similarly, FCI on MTG adds high-temporal resolution information on clouds, humidity, and associated dynamics. It is foreseen that this exceptional suite of complementary instruments will significantly improve weather forecasts both at the global and regional levels. Nonetheless, these novel instruments raise several challenges. Observation uncertainties must be characterized, and adequate treatment of these uncertainties will have to be developed. These observations have biases that must be accurately and computationally efficiently considered before their use in NWP.  In this project, the exploitation of these new instruments is planned using state-of-the-art NWP and nowcasting systems with innovative solutions and applications.