Global Lightning Accumulation

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Global Lightning Accumulation (WMS)

Lightning is a brief but intense electrical discharge between positive and negative regions of a thunderstorm. The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was designed to study the distribution and variability of total lightning on a global basis. The Optical Transient Detector (OTD) was an earlier lightning detector flying aboard the Microlab-1 spacecraft. The data shown here are compiled from LIS (1998-2002) and OTD (1995-1999) observations. Because each satellite saw only a part of the Earth at any one time, these data use complex algorithms to estimate total flash rate based on the flashes observed and the amount of time the satellite views each area. NOTE: This animation is primarily designed to be used through the Web Mapping Services (WMS) protocol. Each frame in the animation actually represents an accumulation of a number of years of data up through a particular day of the year. Because of a limitation in the WMS protocol, each frame is marked only with a single date representing the last date for which the data was accumulated.

This animation shows an accumulation of daily lightning climatology values for a typical year. That is, the first frame shows the number of flashes per square kilometer that occurred on a typical January 1 during the multi-year data collection period, the second frame shows the total of Jan 1 and Jan 2 flashes, the third frame shows Jan 1 through Jan 3, and so on until the last frame (#365) which shows the total accumulation for a typical year. As the year progresses, more and more of the Earth experiences lightning, and hard-hit areas experience more strikes. The most intense activity is in central Africa. Areas where no lightning was measured are transparent, letting the background image show through. The data pixels are 2.5deg on a side (144x72 pixels globally), and each frame has been magnified to 720x360 pixels for greater clarity.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    TRMM/LIS

  • Animation ID

    3143

  • Start Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • End Timecode

    00:00:00:00

  • Animator

    Jeff DeLaBeaujardiere

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2005/04/08

  • Scientist

    Jeff Halverson (UMBC/GSFC)

  • Datasets

    Lightning

  • Keywords

    GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Atmosphere--Atmospheric Electricity--Lightning, GCMD--EARTH SCIENCE--Atmosphere--Atmospheric Phenomena--Lightning, GCMD--Platform--TRMM--Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, GCMD--Platform--MICROLAB-1--OSC Microlab-1 Satellite, GCMD--Instrument--LIS--Lightning Imaging Sensor, GCMD--Instrument--OTD--Optical Transient Detector, GCMD--Location--Global

  • DLESE Subject

    Atmospheric science

  • Georeference Data

    CRS=CRS:84&BBOX=-180,-90,180,90

  • Data Date

    1995/04 through 2002/12

  • Story URL

    http://thunder.nsstc.nasa.gov/primer/

  • Animation Type

    Regular