Column description for the FEGS Flash Level Data Version 1
2018/08/02
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
List of Column Parameters

1. Flash ID
2. GPS second for the start of the flash
3. Subsecond for the start of the flash
4. GPS second for the end of the flash
5. Subsecond for the end of the flash
6. Latitude of the ER2
7. Longitude of the ER2
8. Altitude of the ER2
9. Roll angle of the ER2
10. Peak Radiance of the flash [W/m2 Sr]
11. Integrated Radiant Energy of the Flash [J/m2 Sr]
12. Mean Background Radiance during the Flash [W/m2 Sr]
13. Maximum Pixel Number illuminated during the Flash
14. FOV Latitude 1
15. FOV Longitude 1
16. FOV Latitude 2
17. FOV Longitude 2
18. FOV Latitude 3
19. FOV Longitude 3
20. FOV Latitude 4
21. FOV Longitude 4

———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Description

FEGS Flash Level Data is derived from the FEGS Pulse Level Data.  Flashes are clustered using a 330 ms time window mimicking the GLM clustering criterion.

Column 1 indicates the Flash ID tag.  FlashID =1 is the first flash detected during the flight.

Columns 2-5 list the GPS time stamp for the beginning and end of the flash.

Columns 6-9 list the 3D location and roll angle of the ER2 at the time of the flash. Roll angles greater than about 5 degrees indicate that the ER2 was in a turn, and the foot print of the FEGS FOV at cloud top will be highly skewed.  Flashes observed during a turn should be analyzed with caution.

Peak Radiance is the peak radiance of the most luminous optical pulse in the flash.  Radiance is calculated by summing the signal from the 25 radiometers in the main FEGS array and dividing by 25 to get the average radiance.

Integrated Energy is the sum of radiant energy of all pulses in the flash.

Mean Background Radiance is the estimated background radiance (non-lightning radiance) averaged over the 25 radiometers in the main FEGS array.

Columns 14-21 list GPS coordinates of a 4 point polygon that roughly outlines the FEGS FOV at the time of the flash.  This spatial footprint assumes a cloud top height of 13 km which was typical for storms observed during the GOES-R Validation ER2 flight campaign.