LIS SCF

The Global Hydrology Resource Center (GHRC) DAAC has published the annual update to the suite of LIS/OTD Gridded Lightning Climatology data sets. The annual update includes an additional year of data added to all of the data sets and a new version number (V2.3.2014) in all of the file names. These ten data sets offer full, annual, monthly and diurnal climatologies of lightning observed from space from May 1995 through December 2013, including both Optical Transient Detector and TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor, at 0.5 and 2.5 degree resolutions. Both the LIS and the OTD instruments were developed by MSFC. The publication describing these products and the method used to generate them was published in the journal Atmospheric Research. It is available (open access) at doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2012.06.028. For more information regarding these datasets and how to access them please visit https://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/lightning/data/data_lis_otd-climatology.html The GHRC DAAC would like to thank you for using our data. As always, the GHRC appreciates any comments or suggestions: support-ghrc@earthdata.nasa.gov

On 8 April 2015 at 14:09:36Z, the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the TRMM satellite was powered off for the last time. The TRMM LIS mission has been recording both cloud-to-ground and intracloud lightning flashes from space since November 1997. However, preparations continue for the deployment of a second LIS instrument to the International Space Station in February 2016. LIS Level-2 lightning flash and background image datasets, as well as Level-3 climatologies, are available from GHRC.

Preparations continue for the deployment of a second LIS instrument to the International Space Station in February 2016. GHRC personnel are working with the LIS Science Team on an algorithm and test process.

GHRC provided information on LIS data processing and long term archive, presented by Jeanne Behnke at the TRMM Decommissioning Review on March 17, and at the TRMM Phase F Review on March 24.

LIS/OTD lightning climatology is featured on the NASA Earth Observatory Image Of The Day for March 31! You can view it at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov. In case you miss it, you will be able to view it after March 31 at http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=85600&eocn=home&eoci=i... LIS/OTD Climatology data sets are hosted at the GHRC and consist of gridded climatologies of total lightning flash rates seen by the spaceborne Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS).

GHRC has deployed a new OPeNDAP / THREDDS Data Server as part of the Big Earth Data Initiative (BEDI). Initially, 44 datasets from the TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) mission and DISCOVER MEaSUREs project are available via this service. Acronyms: • OPeNDAP – Open-source Project for a Network Data Access Protocol • THREDDS – Thematic Real-Time Environmental Distributed Data Services • DISCOVER – Distributed Information Services for Climate and Ocean Products and Visualizations for Earth Research • MEaSUREs – Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments