Global Lightning Mapping with the New Generation of the Geostationary Satellites

Lightning is a global phenomenon and an underrated natural hazard. Few people realize the most common weather threat to life that people worldwide encounter, often on a daily basis, is lightning (Holle 2014; Holle 2016). In many countries, lightning kills more people per capita annually than many other weather disasters, such as tornados and hurricanes (Cooper and Holle 2019). However, it may be discounted because only a few people are killed by any single lightning incident.

Previous studies have shown that lightning is an early indicator of developing severe weather events such as tornado, hail, and damaging wind (Schultz et al. 2009; 2015; Gatlin and Goodman 2015). Lightning activity is also important for aviation safety management (Deierling et al. 2014; Steiner et al. 2014), and wildfire ignition identification and tracking (Schultz et al. 2024; Rudlosky et al. 2024). In addition, the importance of lightning activity and its effects on climate change has been studied (Price and Rind 1994; Goodman et al. 2000; Williams 2005; Price, 2009; Romps et al., 2014; Williams et al. 2021, Fullekrug et al., 2021; 2022; 2023). As a result, WMO has identified lightning as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) since 2018 (Aich et al. 2018).

In planning mitigation strategies to decrease risk, the current generation of operational geostationary satellite missions added lightning sensors as an important component, aiming to provide continuous lightning observations over much of the Earth, complemented by other ground-based global lightning networks, such as the Global Lightning Dataset 360 network (GLD360), Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN), and the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN). The Geostationary Lightning Mappers (GLMs) on the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) -16, -17, -18, and -19 were launched in 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2024. GLM-16, and soon to follow GLM-19 as the operational GOES-East satellite, and -18, the GOES-West satellite are currently in operational use and they cover a great extent of the North and South Americas and adjacent oceans (Rudlosky et al. 2019; Rudlosky and Virts 2021). In 2016, China launched the Fengyun 4A satellite with the Lightning Mapping Imager (LMI, Yang 2016). The LMI covers some East Asia during March to October, and Western Australia and adjacent oceans for the rest of the year (Cao et al. 2021). Another LMI is planned for a future launch on Fengyun-4C and the data will be used in operational weather offices (Zhang 2024, personal communication). More recently, the Lightning Imager (LI) onboard the MTG-I1 satellite developed by the European Space Agency was launched and has been successfully implemented in the operational forecasting offices in many European countries (Holmlund et al. 2020).

Studies have shown that the GLM data and algorithms have been widely and successfully used in various applications (Rudlosky et al. 2020). Studies on FY-4A LMI (Zhang et al. 2020, Hui et al. 2020, Hui et al. 2023) have shown that its continuous and real-time observations provide an unprecedented platform for monitoring total lightning in landing typhoons and severe convections in China and its surrounding areas, which will promote new research and applications of geostationary satellite lightning data in the future. Implementing these applications and algorithms into other satellite-based lightning sensors will allow us to better facilitate thunderstorm and lightning nowcasting and forecasting, improve warning systems, inform the public of lightning and relevant risks, and educate the general public about behaviors that can be effective in reducing lightning risk to individuals and their families. The LI is particularly important as it covers Africa, an area where most people are vulnerable to lightning hazards and still accounts for the majority of the world lightning fatalities and injuries.

Combining GLM, LI, and LMI data, we have the potential to produce global lightning mapping imagery from the geostationary satellites. It would be of significant benefit to forecasters, researchers, educators, and the general public and mitigating lightning hazards on a global scale.