Wr. Neustadt: Training a new weather satellite

New weather data is expected to be released from the Yumtsat satellite after the end of the technical preparation phase next year. However, meteorologists from all over Europe are already being trained to assess the data – at the ESSL Institute for Severe Weather Research based in Wiener Neustadt. In the future, it should be possible to detect lightning from space and measure the humidity in the lower atmosphere.

To do this, the satellite sends back the latest data every two and a half minutes. This allows you to quickly see where violent thunderstorms are occurring, says Alois Holzer, operational director of the Institute for Storm Research ESSL. “For summer hailstorms, the moisture in the lowest kilometer of our air layer is a particularly important physical component. The water needed to grow thunderstorm towers comes from this layer,” explains Holzer.

According to the meteorologist, innovative lightning data is particularly important for areas without a good lightning detection system, such as marine areas or less developed countries, because they provide significantly improved warning options. “In the future, we will be able to use what are called fast survey images to see how violent thunderstorms form every few minutes,” says Holzer.