MTG-I2 completes Europe's latest weather trio

The second Meteosat Third Generation Imager satellite (MTG-I2) has been launched on board Ariane 6, flight VA270, from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana, according to the European Space Agency's statement.

It will complete the first family of MTG satellites, delivering data for weather forecasting over Europe and northern Africa with unprecedented quality, quantity and frequency.

Launch took place on Thursday, 27 August, at 05:11 pm local time (GMT-3).

The MTG mission brings numerous benefits and improvements to weather forecasting and monitoring the atmosphere and climate over Europe and Africa.

It will track developing weather fronts as they happen and provide high-resolution images of the atmosphere over Europe and northern Africa every 2.5 minutes.

This data will support the reliability of early warnings as well as the tracking of wildfires and atmospheric pollution. It will substantially improve weather forecasting for all European countries.