By Galya Dimitrova

Copyright bbc

Leonardo said the increasingly common reports of extreme weather had “heightened the sense of urgency to make weather observations more accurate”.

Matthew Hicks, space capability manager at Leonardo, said: “Severe weather events have provided incredible motivation to our scientists to improve our technology to safeguard people’s lives.

“There is an understandable increase in concern about weather events, which is heightening the demand for ‘nowcasting’.

“Nowcasting is essentially the requirement to know what has happened in the recent past, what is happening now and what is likely to happen in the near future.

“The new sensor will allow us to address those concerns by providing an improved granularity of data and information.”