Grant to benefit lightning research

Three National Weather Center scientists received a three-year grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research totaling $1.44 million to establish the Center for Lightning Advanced Studies and Safety on the University of Oklahoma's Research Campus.

The Oklahoma NASA EPSCoR/Space Grant Program, directed by Victoria DucaSnowden, played a pivotal role in securing the funding for this project.

The proposal — by meteorology professor William Beasley in the School of Meteorology, and federal research scientists Donald MacGorman and Ted Mansell of the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory — was one of 43 proposals submitted to the NASA EPSCoR program in July. Only 23 were funded. Two proposals were allowed per state, and both Oklahoma proposals were funded.

The core mission of the CLASS is to obtain improved ground-based observations of lightning in greater numbers for comparison with NASA satellite observations of lightning.

In the near future, NASA plans to launch geo-stationary satellites, which orbit at the same rate as the Earth. These satellites will monitor one area continuously, providing a greater data sample. CLASS's improvement of ground-based observations will prepare for lightning observations from the new satellites.

To accomplish this, Beasley, MacGorman, Mansell and graduate students will work closely with scientists William Koshak, Richard Blakeslee and Monte Bateman at the NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center.

Satellite and ground-based lightning observations are both scientifically interesting and also important for improvement of numerical models used for weather forecasts.

'The more things you get right with the storm, the more chance you'll have a better model," Beasley said. Better models ultimately produce better forecasts and improved weather safety, he said.

For the first two years, the center will focus on expansion of the Oklahoma Lightning Mapping Array, a system that receives pulses to record frequency of lightning; establishment of a ground-based network of electric-field meters, which measure electricity in the atmosphere; and establishment of a high-speed lightning imaging capability for recording.

Together, the observational systems will provide new data on lightning and the electrical characteristics of the storms that produce lightning.

In addition to laying the groundwork for future space-borne lightning observing systems, the new observations will provide data for development of improved lightning hazard-warning decision-support techniques, which can reduce the number of injuries, deaths and economic losses.