Overview of the GeoXO Lightning Mapper (LMX)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) Geostationary eXtended Observations (GeoXO) series satellites are planned to follow the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES)-R series satellites in 2032 and beyond. GeoXO will provide the nation continuity of environmental imagery over the western hemisphere, with observational improvements where feasible. The GeoXO Lightning Mapper (LMX) will observe from the GeoXO imaging platforms (GeoI) operating in the east (~75° W) and west (~137° W) operational slots. From these locations, LMX will detect optical transients at 777 nm generated by lightning over a minimum coverage of 84% of the full disk visible from geostationary orbit. Within the minimum coverage area, the LMX system performance is required to have a minimum detection efficiency of 70% and a false alarm probability of 5% over any 24-hour period. We will review the radiometric concepts of the instrument, the initial detection processing, and the ground processing algorithm used to separate true and false lightning events. The radiometrically calibrated and navigated lightning events are the LMX level-1b (L1b) products, and we will highlight the benefits of these products to the forecasting and nowcasting of severe weather.

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This material is based upon work supported by the Dept of Commerce under Air Force Contract No. FA8702-15-D-0001. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Dept of Commerce