[aeroman]

The new imager (FCI) will be fantastic for studying the atmosphere, particularly clouds and aerosols (like desert dust).

The older imager (SEVIRI) didn't have a blue channel, so all the true-colour images have to be synthesised from data at other wavelengths, giving some of the clouds a characteristic light blue shine. FCI doesn't have that issue, meaning that it can create better 'true-colour images'. It actually has a real green channel too (unlike the GOES ABI instrument), although the iamges from both look brilliant.

This blue channel doesn't just help make images look nice, it is also important for measuring aerosols like dust. At blue wavelengths, the surface tends to be much darker, meaning that you can measure aerosols over even relatively bright surfaces (like deserts). With the Sahara looming pretty large in the image, you can see why that might be important! [1]

FCI also has some high resolution near-IR channels (including the 2.3 one at 500m resolution). This is fantastic for studying clouds, as the reflectivity of clouds at this wavelength allows you to measure droplet size (which is important for understanding cloud processes) [2]. Very few other instruments have this capability, and none of the existing geostationary satellites do (obviously other than MTG).

[1] - https://earth.gsfc.nasa.gov/climate/data/deep-blue/science

[2] - https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/14/2479/2014/

[akiselev]

In case anyone is wondering, studying these aerosols is very important to our understanding of global ecology because the desert dust coming off the Sahara [1] supplies critical nutrients like phosphorus from the Bodélé Depression [2] in Chad to the Amazon rainforest on the other side of the planet [3]!

This satellite will improve our ability to study this planetary transfer of nutrients and see if we can discover any other such connections.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saharan_dust

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bod%C3%A9l%C3%A9_Depression

[3] https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-...

[anigbrowl]

A great explanation that takes in exactly what I was wondering about when doing the image comparisons.