World’s most powerful lightning-chasing satellite joins China-Nepal flood relief efforts

The Fengyun-4C’s storm-tracking abilities could provide vital early warnings about extreme weather events during the rescue operation China is using the world’s most powerful geostationary weather satellite to track severe thunderstorms over Nepal and deliver real-time intelligence as the two countries continue search and rescue operations following last month’s devastating glacier collapse. The Fengyun‑4C satellite – launched last December and now positioned 36,000km (22,000 miles) above the equator – carries a Lightning Mapping Imager (LMI) that captures 500 frames per second, sifting through 30 gigabits of data every second to pinpoint individual lightning strokes. That processing power, engineers say, is equivalent to playing 30 high-definition films a second and spotting every traffic light in each one. In the hours after the glacier disaster struck on August 26, Beijing set up a cross-border emergency monitoring observation mechanism, according to state news agency Xinhua. At the core of that response is the LMI’s continuous animation, which gives meteorologists a sharp, frame‑by‑frame view of lightning activity inside severe storms.

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