First year of Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager observations

The Meteosat Third Generation Lightning Imager (MTG-LI) is the first European space-based geostationary mission devoted to the monitoring and characterization of lightning activity over hemispheric scales. The present paper provides the first comprehensive summary of MTG-LI data during its first year of continuous observations. From July 2024 to June 2025, the instrument detected a total of 595 × 10 ⁶  flashes within its field-of-view, encompassing Europe, Africa, and part of the Atlantic Ocean, South America, middle East and Indian Ocean. The highest observed lightning flash density of 189 flashes km ⁻²  yr ⁻¹ was found in the east of The Democratic Republic of the Congo. The MTG-LI is capable of capturing both global and local lightning features. In addition, the instrument's high sensitivity to intra-cloud lightning activity translates into flash density values notably higher than ground-based lightning statistics. These results demonstrate that the MTG-LI is an excellent instrument for the continuous monitoring of total lightning activity across its entire field of view on both operational and climatological scales.