The ceremony to mark the contract for the Meteosat Third Generation liightning instruments was held at the Palazzo Vecchio town hall in Florence on 7 February 2013. It was attended by Prof. Volker Liebig, ESA Director of Earth Observation Programmes, Alain Ratier, Director General of Eumetsat, Fabrizio Giulianini, CEO Selex ES, Col Luigi De Leonibus, Head of Reparto Meteorologia dello Stato Maggiore Aeronautica, and Patrick Mauté, Senior Vice President for Observation and Science Domain for Thales Alenia Space, France.
The challenge of developing the lightning imager instrument falls to Selex ES under contract from the Meteosat Third Generation industrial prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space (France).