LIS SCF

The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) Science Team announces the release of version 2.3.2011 of the LIS/OTD Climatology data sets. The LIS/OTD Climatology data sets consist of gridded climatologies of total lightning flash rates seen by the spaceborne Optical Transient Detector (OTD) and Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). These data sets can be ordered from the GHRC DAAC using HyDRO or the Thunder website. More information on the LIS/OTD Climatology data sets can be found at https://ghrc.nsstc.nasa.gov/lightning/data/data_lis_otd-climatology.html.

The GHRC developed and hosted a meeting web site for the Annual Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) Science Team meeting at the National Space Science and Technology Center in Huntsville, AL, September 24-26, 2013. The GLM instrument, being developed for the GOES-R satellite, is a follow on to the TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS). LIS data are processed and archived at GHRC.

The LIS/OTD Climatology collection of ten datasets have been updated to contains data through end of year 2012.  This set of data includes the High Resolution Annual Climatology (HRAC), Full Climatology (HRFC), Monthly Climatology (HRMC); and Low Resolution Diurnal Climatology (LRDC), Annual Climatology (LRAC), Annual Diurnal Climatology(LRADC), Full Climatology (LRFC), and Low Resolution Time Series (LRTS), Low Resolution Annual Time Series, and Low Resolution Monthly (LRMTS) Time Series.

GHRC Engineer Kathryn Regner and software developer Dr. Amy Lin, both of UAH, attended the Critical Design Review for the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) instrument on International Space Station (ISS) on April 15, 2014. Ms. Regner presented charts showing the planned hardware architecture and data flow. NASA and UAH developed the space-based lightning observatory as a remote sensing tool under the Earth Observing System (EOS) program for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). LIS on the ISS will extend TRMM time series observations, expand latitudinal coverage, and provide real time observations in support of important and pressing science and applications objectives. The flight qualified spare will be flown as a hosted payload on the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program (STP) H5 mission and launched on the SpaceX Dragon in February 2016 for a planned two-year mission.

GHRC has published the annual update to the suite of LIS/OTD Lightning Climatology datasets. These ten datasets offer full, annual, monthly and diurnal climatologies of lightning observed from space from May 1995 through December 2014, including both Optical Transient Detector and TRMM Lightning Imaging Sensor, at 0.5 and 0.25 degree resolutions.