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Title: Research Applications for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Operational Lightning Flash Data Product

Abstract

The Lightning Cluster Filter Algorithm in the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) ground system identifies lightning flashes from the stream of event detections. It excels at clustering simple flashes but experiences anomalies with complex flashes that last longer than 3 s or contain more than 100 groups, leading to flashes being artificially split. In this work, we develop a technique that corrects these anomalies and apply it to the 2018 GLM data to document all lightning across the Americas. We produce statistics describing the characteristics and frequencies of reclustered GLM flashes and thunderstorm area features. The average GLM Americas flash rate in 2018 was 11.7 flashes per second with the greatest flash rate densities occurring over Lake Maracaibo (157 flashes per km2/year). Lloró, Chocó, Colombia had the most thunderstorm activity with 256 thunder days. The longest GLM flash spanned 673 km, the largest flash covered 114,997 km2, and the longest-lasting flash had a 13.496-s duration. The first case occurred over Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, while the other two cases occurred in the central United States. All three extreme flashes are located in the stratiform regions of Mesoscale Convective Systems. The highest flash rate for a thunderstorm area feature wasmore » 17.6 flashes per second, while the largest thunderstorm was 216,865 km2 in size. Both storms occurred in South America. In conclusion, these initial results demonstrate the value that the development of a reprocessed GLM science product would offer and how such a product might be created at a reduced computational cost.« less

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]
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  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1570649
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-24642
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
Grant/Contract Number:  
89233218CNA000001
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 124; Journal Issue: 17-18; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
58 GEOSCIENCES; meteorology; lightning; thunderstorms; noaa; goes; glm; remote sensing

Citation Formats

Peterson, Michael Jay. Research Applications for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Operational Lightning Flash Data Product. United States: N. p., 2019. Web. doi:10.1029/2019JD031054.
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Peterson, Michael Jay. Research Applications for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Operational Lightning Flash Data Product. United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031054
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Peterson, Michael Jay. Sat . "Research Applications for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Operational Lightning Flash Data Product". United States. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031054. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1570649.
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@article{osti_1570649,
title = {Research Applications for the Geostationary Lightning Mapper Operational Lightning Flash Data Product},
author = {Peterson, Michael Jay},
abstractNote = {The Lightning Cluster Filter Algorithm in the Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) ground system identifies lightning flashes from the stream of event detections. It excels at clustering simple flashes but experiences anomalies with complex flashes that last longer than 3 s or contain more than 100 groups, leading to flashes being artificially split. In this work, we develop a technique that corrects these anomalies and apply it to the 2018 GLM data to document all lightning across the Americas. We produce statistics describing the characteristics and frequencies of reclustered GLM flashes and thunderstorm area features. The average GLM Americas flash rate in 2018 was 11.7 flashes per second with the greatest flash rate densities occurring over Lake Maracaibo (157 flashes per km2/year). Lloró, Chocó, Colombia had the most thunderstorm activity with 256 thunder days. The longest GLM flash spanned 673 km, the largest flash covered 114,997 km2, and the longest-lasting flash had a 13.496-s duration. The first case occurred over Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, while the other two cases occurred in the central United States. All three extreme flashes are located in the stratiform regions of Mesoscale Convective Systems. The highest flash rate for a thunderstorm area feature was 17.6 flashes per second, while the largest thunderstorm was 216,865 km2 in size. Both storms occurred in South America. In conclusion, these initial results demonstrate the value that the development of a reprocessed GLM science product would offer and how such a product might be created at a reduced computational cost.},
doi = {10.1029/2019JD031054},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 17-18,
volume = 124,
place = {United States},
year = {Sat Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019},
month = {Sat Aug 10 00:00:00 EDT 2019}
}
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Journal Article:
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Publisher's Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031054
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Cited by: 44 works
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Figures / Tables:

Table 1 Table 1: Summary of GLM lightning cluster feature definitions
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    Figures / Tables found in this record:

    Table 1 (p. 58)table
    Figure 1 (p. 59)figure
    Table 2 (p. 60)table
    Table 3 (p. 61)table
    Figure 2 (p. 62)figure
    Figure 3 (p. 63)figure
    Table 4 (p. 64)table
    Figure 4 (p. 65)figure
    Figure 5 (p. 67)figure
    Table 5 (p. 69)table
    Table 5 (Continued) (p. 70)table
    Table 6 (p. 71)table
    Figure 6 (p. 72)figure
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    Figure 8 (p. 74)figure
    Table 7 (p. 75)table
    Figure 9 (p. 76)figure
    Figure 10 (p. 77)figure
    Figure 11 (p. 78)figure
    Table 8 (p. 80)table
    Table 9 (p. 82)table
    Table 9 (Continued) (p. 83)table
    Figure 12 (p. 84)figure
    Table 10 (p. 85)table
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