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LIGHTNING RESEARCH

Lightning research has come a long way in the past few decades. We now have a better understanding of why lightning occurs and where, what lightning patterns exist over the globe, and what lightning tells us about atmospheric convection. Scientists and engineers continue to study lightning using a variety of instruments, more types than available previously and some can simultaneously measure the same events to better determine instrument measurement characteristics and capabilities.

All GHRC Micro Articles | All GHRC Data Recipes

Lightning Micro Articles


Micro articles are concise and focused selections of information that allow users to quickly assess topics and locate the most useful or relevant associated data, information and tools. The GHRC Library includes six types of micro articles: specific weather events, phenomena, instruments, field campaigns, applications, and summaries of scientific research publications referencing GHRC data. Each micro article includes pointers to related data, user resources and tools available from the GHRC archive.

Instruments


Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS)

Summary of the LIS instrument, providing details of instrument operation, measurements, LIS data application areas and data parameter differences between ISS and TRMM platforms.



Optical Transient Detector (OTD) Optical Transient Detector (OTD)

Summary of the OTD instrument, including operation, measurement details, data application areas, and relationship to the LIS instrument.




Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) Lightning Mapping Array (LMA)

Summary of the LMA instruments, including operation, measurement details, and data application areas.



Lightning Imaging Package (LIP) Lightning Imaging Package (LIP)

Summary of the LIP instrument, including operation, measurement details, and data application areas.



 

Phenomena


LightningLightning

Summary of what lightning is, why lightning occurs, where lightning occurs, how lightning is observed, and research that has been conducted on lightning.



 

Field Campaigns


LightningGOES-R Post Launch Test (PLT)

The GOES-R PLT field campaign was a collaborative mission to validate the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments aboard the GOES-R, now GOES-16, satellite.


 

Research Publications Using GHRC Data


Highlights from Cecil et. al.'s 'Gridded lightning climatology from TRMM-LIS and OTD: Dataset description' publication Highlights from Cecil et. al.'s 'Gridded lightning climatology from TRMM-LIS and OTD: Dataset description' publication

Presentation of the highlights and key findings of Cecil et al.’s publication that utilized LIS/OTD data.


Highlights From Peterson et. al.'s 'The Properties of Optical Lightning Flashes and the Clouds They Illuminate' Publication Highlights From Peterson et. al.'s 'The Properties of Optical Lightning Flashes and the Clouds They Illuminate' Publication

Summary and description of Peterson et al.’s publication utilizing TRMM LIS data available from the GHRC.

 

 


Highlights from Albrecht et. al's 'Where Are the Lightning Hotspots on Earth?’ publication Highlights from Albrecht et. al's 'Where Are the Lightning Hotspots on Earth?’ publication

Summary and description of Albrecht et al.’s publication describing a new technique generating a series of very high resolution lightning climatology datasets from LIS data.

More GHRC Micro Articles

Lightning Data Recipes


Tutorials or step-by-step instructions have been developed by GHRC staff to help you learn to discover, visualize and use new data, information, software and techniques. These recipes cover a variety of datasets and processing languages/software.


ISS LIS Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python and GIS ISS LIS Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python 3.0 and GIS

This data recipe enables the visualization of lightning flash locations across user-selected ISS LIS swath data files. The Python code can plot the data directly, or create a CSV file for use with other software, such as ESRI ArcMap. The process can now be executed using Python 3.0.


Highlights Using ArcGIS to Convert LIS Very High Resolution Gridded Lightning Climatology NetCDF Data to GeoTIFF Using ArcGIS to Convert LIS Very High Resolution Gridded Lightning Climatology NetCDF Data to GeoTIFF

This data recipe provides a tutorial on how to bring gridded netCDF lightning data into ArcMap and create a GeoTIFF file.

 


ISS LIS Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python and GIS ISS LIS Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python 2.7 and GIS

This Python-based data recipe steps the user through code that compiles information from a series of ISS LIS data files in a directory and generates a gridded heat map plot of lightning flash locations and a CSV file containing the location coordinates.


ISS LIS Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python and GIS OTD Lightning Flash Location Quickview using Python 3.0 and GIS

This data recipe guides the user through a Python script that enables visualization of OTD lightning flash locations. It is designed to compile information from a series of user-selected OTD data files and generate a gridded heat map plot of lightning flash locations.

More GHRC Data Recipes

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