OK the improvements of images from #Meteosat #MTG sensor (#FCI) over the previous generation #MSG‌ (#SEVIRI) is impressive. Can't wait to start working with the new data:

https://www.eumetsat.int/features/discover-first-images-mtg-i1

If you wonder why the process takes a long time: there's a lot of data even in a single scan. #SEVIRI samples are 10 bits per channel, and in the “native” #SEVIRI format data is stored in packed format, so that each channel scanline is 4640 bytes long (3712*10/8). The first step is to unpack the firs three channels, and since apparently ImageMagick doesn't support RGBx data formats (3 10-bit channels packed into 32 bits per pixel), all data has to be promoted to 16-bit.

The Twitter API collapse is reigniting my desire to set up a bot to “compete” with @jen's @GIFEarth, based on #EUMETSAT's MSG #SEVIRI imagery.

Problem is: if I were to do full-resolution, complete, full disk GIFs, one per day, we'd be taking about sequences of 96 (1 every 15 minutes) 3712×3712 32-bit RGBx (10 bits per channel) images. I doubt most instances would appreciate something like that, even if I were to support them with donations.