The Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites, operated by EUMETSAT (The European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), provide almost continuous imagery to meteorologists and researchers in Europe and around the world. These include visible, infra-red, water vapour, High Resolution Visible (HRV) images and derived cloud top height, cloud top temperature, fog, snow detection and volcanic ash products. These images are available for a range of geographical areas. This dataset contains volcanic ash product images from MSG satellites over Lesser Antilles and the Caribbean. Imagery available from March 2005 onwards at a frequency of 15 minutes (some are hourly) and are at least 24 hours old. The geographic extent for images within this datasets is available via the linked documentation 'MSG satellite imagery product geographic area details'. Each MSG imagery product area can be referenced from the third and fourth character of the image product name giving in the filename. E.g. for EEAO11 the corresponding geographic details can be found under the entry for area code 'AO' (i.e West Africa).

This dataset presents the suitable area(s) for very high-resolution optical satellite imagery to monitor live and stranded cetaceans around the UK and UK Overseas Territories, based on five-year monthly median 'Total Cloud Cover' and '10m Wind Speed' ERA5 global reanalysis data. Monitoring live and stranded cetaceans can be expensive and logistically challenging resulting in knowledge gaps. Very high-resolution (VHR) optical satellites are considered a potential solution to addressing some of these gaps. Despite success at detecting live and stranded cetaceans, satellites have only been trialled on restricted spatial and temporal scales. We established a framework for assessing the feasibility of using VHR optical satellite-based monitoring of cetaceans at high temporal frequency and local to global scales, focusing on the UK and UK Overseas Territories as a case study. We assessed the primary environmental conditions necessary for successful application of this technology: cloud cover and wind speed. Here we present the spatial feasibility of satellite monitoring around the UK, and the Caribbean and the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), based on five-year (2018-2022) monthly median 'Total Cloud Cover' and '10m Wind Speed' ERA5 global reanalysis data. The data are .tif format depicting the five-year (2018-2022) monthly median of the respective environmental variable, which is subject to a user defined threshold to generate vector (polygon shapefile) format feasibility maps, depicting the 'suitable area(s)' mapped to the study area. For live cetacean monitoring, 'suitable area(s)' delineate where both five year monthly average environmental variables met the predefined threshold over open water, and for stranded cetaceans 'Total Cloud Cover' only along the coastline (2km either side of the coastline). The suitable areas are merged (and dissolved) for projects interested in monitoring both live and stranded cetaceans, which can be extended to include monitoring of floating dead cetaceans. This research has been supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) through a SENSE CDT studentship (grant no. NE/T00939X/1) and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.