Data · dataset · 2026
The evolution and structure of extreme optical lightning flashes
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
This study documents the composition, morphology, and motion of extreme optical lightning flashes observed by the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS).
Description
The furthest separation of LIS events (groups) in any flash is 135 km (89 km), the flash with the largest footprint had an illuminated area of 10,604 km(2), and the most dendritic flash has 234 visible branches. The longest-duration convective LIS flash lasted 28s and is overgrouped and not physical.
The longest-duration convective-to-stratiform propagating flash lasted 7.4s, while the longest-duration entirely stratiform flash lasted 4.3s. The longest series of nearly consecutive groups in time lasted 242 ms. The most radiant recorded LIS group (i.e., superbolt) is 735 times more radiant than the average group.
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Factors that impact these optical measures of flash morphology and evolution are discussed. While it is apparent that LIS can record the horizontal development of the lightning channel in some cases, radiative transfer within the cloud limits the flash extent and level of detail measured from orbit. These analyses nonetheless suggest that lightning imagers such as LIS and Geostationary Lightning Mapper can complement ground-based lightning locating systems for studying physical lightning phenomena across large geospatial domains.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7v69n6x ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/the-evolution-and-structure-of-extreme-optical-lightni… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=1882d0b9-8e0c-4fd0-990a-3631f29c1… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Imaging 75%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 1882d0b9-8e0c-4fd0-990a-3631f29c125b | 10 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[modality].local:modality:imaging | enrichment · data ucar edu | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (75%) |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |